Drugs in Japan

[KungMartin]

I remember long ago I started a discussion on Cannabis and this guy told me "they have very strict laws against drugs in Japan". And I was thinking what fucking country DOESN'T have strict laws against it (except Holland and Mexico etc)??

Actually, the stricter the laws against a drug is, the more it'll be smuggled in and distributed. Considering Cannabis is the most widely used drug in the world next to Alcohol and Tobacco, I'd say a lot of poeple in Japan distribute it and use it. No doubt whatsoever.

EVERYONE smokes weed. The person you least expect is the person who's smoking it. I bet a lot of famous people in Japan use it too, including j-rock/pop artists etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if say... Miyavi (big fan of him) smokes or smoked weed at some point. And I bet it does him good too with that fucking ADHD spasm shit that he has hahah.

Besides cannabis I would say all other drugs like ecstasy, antidepressants like benzo, morphine drugs like tramadol etc are also used. Even though it's not necessarily distributed IN japan, I bet there are still a lot of users. Same with psychedelic mushrooms and LSD and all that stuff.

[MMM]

Japan has probably some of the strictest drug laws in the world. I understand what you are saying about smuggling, but what Japan doesn't have is the underground drug culture that exists in many parts of the world.

Yes, athletes and rock stars do get caught with drugs, and it is often a career-ending scandal.

Your statement "EVERYONE smokes weed" is simply not the case in Japan. Marijuana is considered a hard drug, and culturally it is very taboo. It is considered dangerous and risky behavior.

My point is, if you go to Japan looking for an underground marijuana culture you will likely be disappointed. Most Japanese looking for the desire to smoke weed do so overseas. You can find weed in Japan, but don't expect reasonable prices or the quality, quantity or variety you can find in many other parts of the world.

[sarasi]

Originally Posted by KungMartin

EVERYONE smokes weed. The person you least expect is the person who's smoking it. I bet a lot of famous people in Japan use it too, including j-rock/pop artists etc.

Maybe everyone you know. Rightly or wrongly, marijuana is seen as on a par with heroin in Japan- here, a drug is a drug. I know a few very alternative Japanese people who occasionally smoke marijuana, but they are very much in a tiny minority and they are taking quite a risk.

Have a look on the internet to see what happened to the Russian sumo wrestlers who when given blood tests were found to have used marijuana, and also the huge media uproar when a celebrity called Noriko Sakai was found to have used illegal stimulants last year. You'll see that some countries do indeed have stricter laws than others, and also very different social norms.

In China and Singapore for example, being caught smuggling drugs means execution- are they that strict in Sweden? I doubt it. Just because drugs are viewed a certain way where you come from doesn't mean you can assume it is the same everywhere else, including in other social groups in your own country, I think you'll find.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by MMM

Your statement "EVERYONE smokes weed" is simply not the case in Japan. Marijuana is considered a hard drug, and culturally it is very taboo. It is considered dangerous and risky behavior.

Seconding this. A lot of people there don't even know much about it. There's a lot of general ignorance about drugs in Japan, compared to England where mostly everyone knows about them regardless as to whether they have ever taken anything or not; indeed we are openly taught about drugs in school.

Case in Point:
I owned a hemp handbag for several years and took it to japan with me. The key-ring on it had an image of a marijuana leaf sewn onto it, which I was so accustomed to (and hemp is quite common material in my town, so it's not even that closely associated with drugs in my mind, i more commonly see it on clothing labels) I didn't even think to take it off. In Japan, if and when it was noticed by curious friends, it was frequently confused for a green maple leaf. Even more oddly, more than one person responded to it with a smile and 'hey, did you get this from America?', thinking it was some lesser known national symbol of the USA. To be honest I was pretty surprised by this as a lot of the Japanese students I knew were quite culture savvy.

When I did (inevitably) have to explain why the leaf symbol was on my bag and what it generally meant, the general reaction was shock and/or recoil. Actual physical recoil, I mean. This was information that made my Japanese friends sit back and re-evaluate their whole opinion of me; that's how socially strong this kind of issue is.

And remember, this is just a harmless hemp handbag. I'd already categorically stated that I don't and have never used marijuana or any other drug and it was just a symbol of the material; not even the same plant. It still really pulled the carpet out from most peoples feet. The fact that a) I knew about drug culture and b) I knew people from school who had at some time taken drugs, all singled me out. And emphatically NOT in a positive light.

Lucky for me I find the idea of drugs revolting, or else I think I could have swiftly ended up something of a social pariah. Certainly if you do take or have taken drugs, even just marijuana, I'd keep that very quiet.

[edelweiss]

Where I live it is not uncommon to see people walking down the street smoking pot even though it is not legal. Most locals consider it to be a soft drug like having a beer so if someone is smoking pot outside of a bar nobody seems to care. Cops don't harass anyone about as long as it's not being smoked right in front of them and you're otherwise obeying the law. The police certainly get called if anyone is seen trying to take any other drugs on the street though!

I do recall that the first time I went to Japan in 2002 there were Rastafarian themed shops that had neon psychedelic mushroom signs in their windows. I was told that psilocybin mushrooms were completely legal at the time but that the law was changing.

I have wondered when seeing Japanese Rastafarians in Tokyo if they are able to live the full lifestyle or if it's just about the fashion? With the harsh penalties for drug offenders and the difficulty in concealing the smell of marijuana in such close quarters I would think it would not be much of an option even though it is a part of their religion.

What I have seen in Tokyo are people who use methamphetamines. If you know what to look for, you notice there are quite a few of them and it's not pretty.

[bELyVIS]

Try to smoke weed in Japan without anyone smelling it. Too many people there.

[Tyrien]

Originally Posted by MMM

Japan has probably some of the strictest drug laws in the world. I understand what you are saying about smuggling, but what Japan doesn't have is the underground drug culture that exists in many parts of the world.

Yes, athletes and rock stars do get caught with drugs, and it is often a career-ending scandal.

Your statement "EVERYONE smokes weed" is simply not the case in Japan. Marijuana is considered a hard drug, and culturally it is very taboo. It is considered dangerous and risky behavior.

My point is, if you go to Japan looking for an underground marijuana culture you will likely be disappointed. Most Japanese looking for the desire to smoke weed do so overseas. You can find weed in Japan, but don't expect reasonable prices or the quality, quantity or variety you can find in many other parts of the world.

To be honest I simply don't believe that. I feel that it's just not talked about.

I'm not claiming to have any first hand experience, I'm just going off intuition. Japan, like many countries, has it's traditions and cultures, but with the internet there's hardly any way I can believe the majority of Japanese citizens consider majiruana to be a "dangerous and risky behavior'. There's just far too much information on the web to counter that idea.

Granted, like any recreational drug (I'm including caffeine, Cigarettes, and Alcohol.) it's not healthy. But it's definitely not a hard drug by any classification.

Originally Posted by bELyVIS

Try to smoke weed in Japan without anyone smelling it. Too many people there.

There's plenty of ways to mask the smell.

The simples has only 3 components commonly found around any modern household.

and contrary to popular belief the smell doesn't really sink in and linger that much.

[Nyororin]

The way of thinking really is different in Japan when it comes to drugs. Everyone doesn`t smoke weed in Japan. Really. Choose to believe what you want, but there is truly a world of difference in the way people think about drugs in general.

There really IS no drug culture. You don`t get people going around offering their opinions about it, you don`t get sites all over dedicated to the positive benefits of some drugs, etc. There may be a few, but you`d really have to go out looking for them. And as there isn`t really much exposure - people do not. The drugs you are more likely to encounter are heroin and meth - and I say "more likely" in just that direct meaning. More likely than 0, not likely to encounter.

Somewhere drugs are prevalent, and there are tons of pot users, and people sort of come to doubt all the anti-drug stuff... Which sends it in a sort of spiral. But in Japan, drugs are very hard to come by in the first place, so there is no real prevalence. What people do see as examples of drug use are huffers, whacked out meth users, and the occasional heroin user who has destroyed their life. There is no mainstream use of anything, so most people never think beyond this and never doubt anti-drug literature... So pot DOES fall into the same category as the most heaviest drug in the public mind.

I'm not claiming to have any first hand experience, I'm just going off intuition. Japan, like many countries, has it's traditions and cultures, but with the internet there's hardly any way I can believe the majority of Japanese citizens consider majiruana to be a "dangerous and risky behavior'. There's just far too much information on the web to counter that idea.

In English, usually coming out of America, which is looked on as a den of drug use and crime to begin with. Try to find the similar in Japanese and all you`ll come up with in most cases are weird anonymous sites that teeter on the edge of being conspiracy sites. In other words, not at all mainstream.

Most people really DO view it as dangerous and risky behavior. It doesn`t matter if they could find information countering this - if they have no particular interest and no one around them uses... why would they seek it out?

It seems to be very hard for people who live in countries and communities where drugs are a normal thing to imagine, but Japan really really doesn`t have the same way of thinking about it - and the penalties and such really are much much larger than I can imagine elsewhere.

For an example - A former student of my husband`s university was caught in Tokyo trying to buy a small amount of marijuana in Roppongi. Not only did he get arrested, lose his job, and had his university degree removed... the information was sent out in the alumni news, and contributions he had made to various projects during the past were considered to be of no value and removed. Chances are, customers also stopped business with his company.

He`ll probably never find work again. His family will probably not want him around and chances are he has been "disowned". My husband came under observation at his own company simply for being within 2 years of graduation of this guy. The university head and two former teachers of this guy went and personally apologized to the police and at least one of them went and apologized to the guy`s family for not having instilled better values in him during their time as his mentor. I have also heard that his high school became involved, but I don`t know to what extent because we only have contacts at the university...

Oh, and of course, the prison sentence. 5 years, I think?

It`s SERIOUS. You don`t get a slap on the wrist.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Tyrien

To be honest I simply don't believe that. I feel that it's just not talked about.

I'm not claiming to have any first hand experience, I'm just going off intuition. Japan, like many countries, has it's traditions and cultures, but with the internet there's hardly any way I can believe the majority of Japanese citizens consider majiruana to be a "dangerous and risky behavior'. There's just far too much information on the web to counter that idea.

Granted, like any recreational drug (I'm including caffeine, Cigarettes, and Alcohol.) it's not healthy. But it's definitely not a hard drug by any classification.

I won't repeat what Nyororin said, and take her first hand experience as up-to-date and correct.

There are 10's of thousands of websites espousing the wonderful benefits of Christianity in Japanese. A google seach of キリスト教 elicits more than 3,000,000 hits. However less than 1% of the population of Japan is Christian.

There is more information in Japanese about how wonderful Christianity is than there is about how wonderful marijuana is, but still nothing close to a majority...a very very tiny minority...pick up on it and respond.

Just as it is hard for some Christians to imagine a First World and modern nation that isn't Christian, it also appears it is hard for modern marijuana users to imagine a First World and modern nation where marijuana use is not prevalent.

So please accept the fact that the majority of Japanese treat marijuana as a hard and illegal drug. Nyororin would know better than I, but in my experience it is treated the same as cocaine, heroin, or what most people in the West consider "hard drugs".

It really doesn't matter that this information is countered on the Web, just as it doesn't matter that the web is full of pro-Christian, Muslim, Hindu, information. The web is flooded with information about how amazing Justin Bieber is...that doesn't mean the majority of Japanese know who he is or believe it.

The web if flooded with information on everything.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by MMM

However less than 1% of the population of Japan is Japanese.

Or to translate from typo: Less than 1% of the population of Japan is Christian.

I agree with MMM and Nyororin though. If the information is there it is NOT well advertised and people generally don't seem to go looking at it. At most universities in the UK there are posters about drinking, STDs, unplanned pregnancy, violence and drugs, and it's easy to find numbers to helplines and so forth. There were none at the university I was at in Japan. I don't know if drug awareness is taught in schools, but I don't think it is, or at least not to the extent I am used to because a lot of girls I met there weren't aware of drink spiking or that they should be cautious of it.