Marijuana Activism in Japan?
 

I'm a frequent marijuana smoker and I know Japan is very strict on their drug laws, but how is the marijuana legalization movement in Japan (if it even exists)?

I really want to spend a few years at least in Japan during or after university but giving up smoking for that amount of years is not something I really wish to do... is there any chance it will become more tolerable in the coming years?

I doubt it. There was a recent case about university students found with marajuana. If anything, the laws may get stricter (if possible).

That is really unfortunate. Alcohol doesn't really agree with me and I much prefer marijuana as my mind-opening vice of choice... perhaps one day.

A mind which needs external chemical stimulation "to open" is not the kind of mind a thinking person needs.

You will not live to be old enough to see marijuana tolerated in Japan. Japan does not want the kind of drug problems which America and other countries have, so drug laws are very strict, and they are mercilessly enforced. People who are arrested with even a tiny amount of marijuana will find their names in the nationwide papers, and may get to see themselves on the tv news as well.

5 foreigners were arrested for, or admitted to possession of marijuana over the last several months. 2 were Russian Sumo wrestlers, one was a businessman, the others were university teachers. All got to see their names and pictures in the news before they were ceremoniously deported and banned from ever returning to Japan. What's more, their actions hurt the reputations of their employers and sponsors, who had to apologize publicly, as well as pay restitution to apartment owners and other creditors when their employees were deported.

The bad thing about being arrested in Japan is that you simply disappear. You can be held for 2 weeks without charge, and they are not required to to let you contact anyone, even a lawyer. You will be deported without getting a chance to make any arrangements, more than likely in the clothes you were wearing when you were arrested. You won't be given a chance to go to your apartment and pack, or go to the bank and withdraw your money.

If you think Japan's laws are tough, you should try Singapore or Thailand, where you'll be beaten publicly and forced to serve jail time before being deported. In China drug users are treated harshly, while dealers are given noisy public "trials" where they are quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. There are no appeals, when you leave the courtroom you are taken directly to the execution grounds.

Think very carefully about how using any kind of drugs when you are traveling or working overseas, for every horror story you have heard there are many more that you haven't. You don't want to end up having one of your own to tell.

I am going to go ahead and agree 100% with Sangetsu on this one.

Planning on going to Japan? Regular pot-smokers need not apply. I have literally seen pot possessors disappear off the face of the Japanese earth. Banned permanently from re-entry. If you need to smoke pot that bad, don't come to Japan.

If you are caught with it and are lucky you'll get the 22 days held without charge and then deported. You'll sign anything after 8 days of sleep deprivation. If you're a real winner, you'll be jailed for 2 years, then deported.

I was the head of the THC ministry in Japan (yes, I am a minister. Rev. Dr. is my legal title). Cannabis has been used in EVERY major religion and was used (and in Buddhism still used in some places outside of Japan) in Japan by Shinto and Buddhist practitioners. This was changed after WWII when the Americans occupied Japan. We want to change laws by using freedom of religion (Japan's is almost the same as America's, but you see how well that is working in America) to worship using Cannabis. Japan has bought into America's lies about it and most Japanese believe that it is as bad as heroin. I met many people who smoked in Japan and wanted to join, but fear of prosecution made them decline. Many smoker live on farms in the hills and grow it themselves, but city people take more of a risk.
I never smoked while I was there. As a foreigner you have no rights and the police would love to put you on the news as the "Drug Crazed Gaijin" to make foreigners look worse than they already have.
DON'T DO IT! It is not worth the risk.
THC ministry no longer has a branch in Japan after I left. Japan may change their thinking after the US legalizes it. That may be sooner than you think.:vsign:

Sangetsu, I am completely aware of the harsh drug laws and would not bother trying to obtain marijuana if I was in Japan. There are no physically addictive properties to marijuana, so quitting for any period of time won't be a problem (it hasn't been in the past).

Marijuana is illegal in most countries on this planet and being a frequent smoker those are risks that must be accepted. Fortunately I live in Canada so these aren't real issues for me, there is no charge against possession of small amounts. But should I take a trip to Japan, as I said above, I would definitely not be involved with something so illegal.

Anyways, thank you everybody for the replies. This hasn't changed whether I'm going to Japan or not, it's merely influenced what i'll be doing in my free time.

P.S.
Also... it's a plant, it grows, you cut it, you smoke it. That is all. No laboratories or extensive chemistry knowledge required, plus it's safer (health-wise) than cigarettes and alcohol, that's also probably why it's been used in nearly every religion and culture for thousands of years.

I just plan on quitting when I go, I don't have a dependence on it, or need it for any medical reasons.

Well, i will keep this short and sweet, while i dont like Japans draconian Marijuana laws(i work for a medical Cannabis Dispensary in San francisco ca) Its their country and their laws. if you are going to Japan Dont smoke Marijuana, simple really

[quote=Sangetsu;733204]A mind which needs external chemical stimulation "to open" is not the kind of mind a thinking person needs.

I have to admit, i am a little insulted by that comment, Not all cannabis smokers are lazy, or trying to open their mind, most just like to smoke a joint or so after a long day of work, instead of a beer or glass of wine. Cannabis is a safe plant and should be treated as such, with responsibility and sensibility by Adults along the same guidelines as tobacco and alcohol.

[quote=ecwsickboy;733299]I was a little offended by that comment as well, mainly because I said it was mind-opening and it was instantly assumed I rely on it 100% for expanding my mind and that without marijuana I'd be lost.

But I just want to say I don't rely on marijuana for opening my mind, the world is an amazing place and you can see all of it's beauty and appreciate it and all of the people and societies who inhabit it without drugs. But sometimes, viewing something through a different lens can change your thoughts on the matter and allow you to come to new realizations. I like to think that I'm an open person and I view ideas and problems in my own unique way, but I do think marijuana has had a positive effect on my view of the world and outlook on life.

Do you think that marijuana is a drug? Some people say it's just a plant and it isn't a controlled substance. But it really is.

[quote=Sean420;733308]i agree, woring at a cannabisdispensary, i see all sides of the spectrum when it comes to cannabis use. I see the "stoners" who dont have motivation(i find them annoying)I also se the businessmen and women who just want to relax from a hard days work without worrying about a hangover in the morning. And probably the saddest is the aids/cancer/schlerosis patient who smokes to cunteract muscle spasms or chronic pain, or just to boost their apetite so they can put on weight.(especially with aids patients) the fact that in most states theses men and women would be fined, Jailed, and probably have their house/car/personal belongings confiscated is insane and doesnt work. Why in america does a murderer or rapist on average get out of jail MUCH earlier than a Marijuana grower/dealer?Thankfully the laws are changing here, and maybe one day in Japan, but i wont hold my breath for that

I do beleive cannabis is a drug, my job at the Cannabis dispensary is to provide safe access to MEDICAL Cannabis. While i believe it is ok for recreational use among responsible adults, I am more for medical reform than recreational reform

you know when they introduced a cannabis pill a lot of people claiming it as medical use refused to take it because "it didn't work as well" some people have legitimate use for it. i believe it is often abused though.

This thread is supposed to be about marijuana in Japan - NOT a place to debate about the substance. Please do not veer off topic enough to warrant a thread closing. Everyone is welcome to have their opinion about these things, but it is edging into rule violation territory at this rate.

3.12 JF does not advocate illegal activities and threads or posts discussing or promoting illegal acts may closed at the administration's discretion and sanctions may be given.

I don`t believe that there is anything wrong with the original topic, but do not like where this seems to be headed.

Btw, Tobacco and alcohol are also drugs too, and they are socially acceptable. How many people die from drunk driving/alcohol poisoning a year in USA? tens of thousands a year. How many die from Marijuan overdose? 0 a year

I agree with that, and i'm sorry if i went on a tangent but it is a subject that i have a strong passion for. i will stay on topic from here on in.

In my opinion every external chemicals that you take (by this I mean, alcohol, tobacco paracetamol, every stuff like that) are drugs
And I think it is silly to take them
Ok I have to take drugs such as pain killers, anti-stressants, but I try to avoid it...
And marijuana doesnt get me calm or anything, so why am I gonna take something that doesnt make me calm? Instead of that makes me go into another world...
I think it is silly, but I also agree that, if people say "oh drugs, so bad for you" then why do they keep making it?

Let's keep the conversation to the original topic or the thread will have to be closed.

As far as a hemp 'movement', I've seen several videos of marijuana marches in Tokyo.

But the question is: Is this just a fad, or is it a legitimate concern towards prohibition?


Bottom line... Smoking cannabis is one of the most victimless crimes around, and is surely no more harmful than a beer.

And without the cannabis plant itself, it would be unlikely that modern Japan would be the way it is... Most rope/cloth/food for the past two thousand years has been made of durable cannabis fibers/seeds... Not to mention it was the first, second, and third most prescribed drug in the world up until its prohibition. (Which was caused by DuPont and the lumber industry.)

Though void of intoxicating THC, hemp still grows wild in Hokkaido.

Drugs in Asia is a no-no. In China, if you are caugth smugling, death penalty. In Japan, 6 years of prison for a japanese for something as harmless as weed (or so i've heard) or in the case of a forigner, deportation followed by a ban. I guess Korea is just as strict as Japan and China, maybe even stricter.

The secret to live a drug life in japan is probably to keep a low profile, which is not doable for a non japanese.

You best bet is to take trips home now and then, hang out with the gang (or alone if predered) and blaze.

These two statements seem contradictory. I don't know if they really are, though.

Perhaps they blur the lines of contradiction if you don't apply logic. I was merely saying I love my herb and I'd rather not quit, but I'm quite willing to stop if I go to Japan.

Operating a vehicle under influence of marijuana also kills many people each year. The term "Under The Influence" is not restricted solely to alcohol use. 3 wrongs do not make a right, using the problems we already face with alcohol and tobacco as an excuse to justify legalizing marijuana is not logically arguable.

As for how many people die from marijuana use lately, take a look at the border towns in Mexico, close to two thousand a year are dying in just Juarez alone. The drug traffickers (who smuggle mainly marijuana) are killing anyone and everyone who stands in their way; police, judges, soldiers, as well as the family members of these people. And they don't simply just kill them, they tear them apart, beheading, mutilating, or burning the bodies to "send messages" to their competition. Mexican police shot by drug traffickers are being taken to hospitals in America because the drug traffickers are breaking into the Mexican hospitals to finish them off.

Japan is justified in not wanting the drug problem that many western nations face. Marijuana is a gateway drug (arguing otherwise is pointless), the main door to the "drug culture" which is so pervasive in other countries. It makes sense to keep the main door shut. If anything, you can probably expect drug laws to get tougher in Japan, rather than being relaxed.

As for "medical" marijuana, you can get the same effect from prescription Marinol (made from THC contained in marijuana plants), which can be taken without having to smoke anything.

You are talking about drug trafficking. Legalize it and there would be no more violence involved (did you see any Al Capone shootouts after Prohibition was revoked?) . As for a gateway drug, alcohol is the biggest. Almost all illegal drug users drank before using. A cop told me that all heroin and meth users all smoked tobacco and almost none used Marijuana after getting hooked.
The point is that drug abuse is lessened after it is legalized and treated as a health problem instead of a crime. Japan and all the countries need to learn this and figure out that making something illegal will never stop it. Japan will follow America's lead and legalize it after America does, this is close to happening here in the US.

The reason the use of marijuana is ended after they start using meth or heroin is because it is stronger so their tolerance levels have raised and it takes more marijuana to get the same high. So this makes it a gate way drug.

Also i do not see the legalization of marijuana in america coming because groups such as norml are pretty much seen as a joke to everyone except people who use marijuana.

It seems to be this way in Japan.

I also see alcohol and tabacco as a controlled substance but they don't seem to alter your mind or activities as easily.

It's funny that something not taxed by the Federal Government is considered a 'gateway drug' -- but something that the Government profits from, and is clearly more dangerous, doesn't have this title.

Caffeine, Tobacco, Alcohol, prescription medication-- they surely aren't the gateway drug. :rolleyes:


Personally, the Japanese government (and all governments, for that matter) could benefit greatly from Marijuana legalization (Considering California raked in 14 billion in revenue).

Since Japan has little renewable exports, the hemp industry is the perfect outlet... Paper, seed, clothing, rope, medicine-- all could be made in Japan!

Recently the Japanese government has labeled hemp, "okay as rope, not as dope." - which is a step in the right direction.

But the idea isn't widespread because of harsh titles and misinformation.




---
In 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse commissioned a major study on medical marijuana conducted by the venerable Institute of Medicine, which included an examination of marijuana's potential to lead to other drug use. In simple terms, the researchers explained why the gateway theory was unfounded:

Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana -- usually before they are of legal age.
…
There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.

In another thread on this topic, I cited government and medical studies linking the use of marijuana to schizophrenia and psychosis. Once again, marijuana is not harmless.

As for what the "cop" told you, I was a cop myself, and I know otherwise. Japan will not follow "America's lead" and legalize marijuana should America ever legalize it. You are right that making something illegal doesn't stop people from doing it; rape and murder are quite illegal, but they happen every day.

Believe it or not, people do stupid things, and society has put in place rules to limit what things people can and cannot do for the greater good of the people. A drugged society is not a free society, it is chemically enslaved. Those who enjoy marijuana so much that they risk arrest and imprisonment for it's possession are either stupid, or are chemically enslaved to it. They would argue otherwise, saying "I can quit anytime", but I've heard alcoholics say the same words countless times.

It would be fair to point out that the garden variety hemp used to make ropes and such contains so little THC that smoking a bushel of it would not get you high. Hemp plants come in 2 sexes, male and female, male plants contain only scant traces of THC, and even female hemp plants contain a negligible amount. The marijuana plants grown for drug use are hybrid female plants which have been highly cultivated.

As for "conclusive" studies, the IPCC reports on climate change says there is not "conclusive" evidence that Global Warming is caused by man, and there are many who say there is no "conclusive" evidence that the Holocaust occurred. The problem with the word "conclusive" is that it is anything but; the definition is relative to the opinions of those who use it.

And as for "profiting" from taxes on alcohol or tobacco, the health costs outweigh the tax revenues, which results in a net loss to the economy. At the moment the government is trying to tax tobacco out of existence, and guess what? Cigarette smuggling is becoming popular.

As far as I know, meth is the main drug that the Japanese government is mostly concerned about.

This is like my first post on here.. but I just had to reply because this comment is so completely wrong and uninformed it hurts. Marijuana is not similar to meth or heroin in any way. The high is not similar and there is no cross tolerance between them. Doing meth or heroin will not make your tolerance to weed stronger, and vice versa. The only reason weed is considered a gateway drug is because it is illegal. Someone who sells weed often sells other drugs that are harmful.

Alcohol and tobacco are both physically addictive. Tobacco causes over 435,000 deaths a year, the number one cause of death in America. Alcohol comes in third (after poor diet and physical inactivity) with 85,000 deaths a year.
There are no deaths attributed to Marijuana use.

You're telling us that alcohol doesn't alter your mind easily? Have you ever smoked marijuana or drank? You are completely uninformed and you are doing exactly what the Government wants you to do: follow the herd.

Smoking marijuana is the most victimless crime around. The jail systems are infested with people who aren't criminals because of our obsession with "reefer madness"


Hemp and smokeable cannabis have been in Japanese and Chinese culture since the beginning of time, and there are obvious efforts around the world to end prohibition.


"Yet now Japanese cannabis culture is making a comeback. Many Japanese youths have learned to enjoy marijuana while travelling overseas, while farmers and universities are researching and experimenting with industrial hemp. Activists and scholars are educating the Japanese people about cannabis' history and beneficial uses, and more Japanese are seeing the prohibition of cannabis as part of unwelcome American influence.

Cannabis has grown in Japan since the Neolithic Jomon period (10,000 to 300 BC). The term "Jomon" itself means "pattern of ropes", which were certainly made of cannabis hemp. These ancient people lived a civilized, comfortable existence, and used cannabis for weaving clothing and basket making, as well as using the seeds as a food source. What isn't clear however, is when and how the seeds arrived in Japan.

Some scholars insist that cannabis was abundant in Japan before contact with China or Korea. However, impartial analysis suggests that, like much of its culture, cannabis was almost certainly imported and adapted from China."


They still grow hemp in several parts of Japan:

If god meant for us to get high, he would have created plants that produced psychoactive effects when eaten or smoked! Err, wait...

:vsign:


God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.…To you it will be for meat." … And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:29-31)

And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. -- Ezekiel 34:29

I think that that changes from a naturally occuring plant or substance when people cross plants and harvest engineer stronger pot so they can get high.

I will say that i do not agree with smoking or drinking. Marijuana is just as much of a drug as any other and if i could have it my way people wouldn't drink or smoke cigarettes.
Would you consider it safe to drive while drunk? So how about driving while high? Or do people that are high on marijuana not drive? They just sit at home and wait to come down right. No they show up at my work place trying to order tacos.

You have no idea what you're talking about... You think all drugs have the same effects, addictiveness, etc.?

Chamomile has a sedative effect -- is it as evil as heroin? What about caffeine?

You need to research what you don't agree with.

Caffeine kills more people annually than Marijuana.

People have been concentrating the THC in Marijuana into "hashish"... This has been going on for hundreds of years, and it's much more potent than modern day Cannabis.