Japan’s Inane Fear of Marijuana
I come from San Francisco and go to school in Portland. My whole life, marijuana has been illegal enough to slightly inconvenience would-be smokers, but barely more. The consensus tends to be that it’s much less harmful than alcohol, an excellent appetite-inducement tool for those going through chemotherapy, and a good alternative to opiate painkillers.
This is not the case in Japan, where four students at my school were just arrested, and will likely be imprisoned and later deported, for marijuana possession. I received an “urgent” email from Waseda in my inbox today, and on clicking it, I was presented with the following on the student web portal:
Warning Against Illegal Drug Usage
As has been widely reported by the mass media, many people have recently been arrested
for involvement with illegal drugs. For the younger generation, especially university
students, there is a great temptation to engage in drug-related activity. This has become
an extremely serious social issue, partly because the smoking of cannabis (or marijuana)
is so easily done, no special devices or equipment being necessary for its recreational
use – it is simply smoked like a cigarette…..…Tempting words are often used to lure people into drugs: “Recover from your
fatigue,” “Refresh your mind,” “Take the easy route to dieting.” Such encouragement is
vicious and despicable, first of all because the information is based on falsehood.
Secondly, and far more importantly, those who are foolish enough to fall for such lures
all too often end up physically and mentally ruined, perhaps leading lives of crime.
There is no “innocent” or “harmless” way to take illegal drugs. In Japan, possession
alone is sufficient to lead to the most dire of social punishments. Engaging in drug-
related activity is utter stupidity.DO NOT BECOME INVOLVED IN ILLEGAL DRUGS!
Does this memo represent a wholly ignorant, paranoid viewpoint on marijuana? Of course. On the other hand, I have little sympathy for the smokers- they knew what they were getting into, and risking imprisonment, a permanent ban from the country, and a crippling impediment to future job searches is pretty stupid, too. For more info: Waseda Weekly article on the incident (were this America, the student paper would be a pro/con piece, if not an outright rebuttal to the administration). Good article at Japan Probe about “Japan’s Growing Marijuana Problem.” Asahi Shinbun article on the arrests. This is a cross-post from Shack in Japan
This post was submitted by dshack
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Not a fan of the stuff, myself. But, that letter is a bit over-the-top.
As you said, D, those students likely knew what the consequences would be if caught, and if their desire to get high overrode their common sense (read: knowing when risks are just not worth taking), then maybe pot has been quite damaging to them after all. They certainly won’t have an easy time in Japan from here on out.
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I agree that its a bit too serious out there on marijuana charges. But that’s the laws out there, accept it. There’s a reason why the country is ran that way. It’s not America.
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…or any of the other countries with very, very lenient Marijuana laws.
The reasoning for the law has to do with ignorance of medical fact, fear of change, and reluctance to introduce unknowns into Japan’s largely xenophobic, highly-regulated society.
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The law is too severe I think, but they might be concerned that once people get comfortable with marijuana use, they’ll upgrade to harder stuff. that’s the belief of many in America. I for one can attest to the fact that I started with weed and worked my way up, but I don’t know if the two were connected. I admit I was more open to trying other drugs though being that I survived weed, my fear of drugs was diminished…
But, japan is clearly a overly cautious country so I’m not surprised at the penalties for not abiding by the law. The person who breaks any law here is clearly unfit for their society. On the other hand, there used to be one punishment for all crimes in Japan, felony or misdemeanor: Death…so you can say they’ve come a lonnnnng way (-:
Loco
http://goinglocoinyokohama.wordpress.com
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A person is taking a serious risk smoking pot in Japan. You have got to be real careful. Although, there are some legal alternatives that get you just as high in Japan.
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I agree with the comments on here. Agree or not with the rules, if you live somewhere then that’s your choice and you need to follow those rules or face the consequences. That’s just the way it is.
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Those are my sentiments too, but I think it’s possible to both disagree with a stupid law, and with the stupid people who broke it, simultaneously.
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>I think it’s possible to both disagree with a stupid law, and with the stupid people who broke it
Well said. Stupid law, but at the same time, the consequences of breaking it are such that you have to question why anyone would choose to do so. Meh. I stick with booze. And lots of it.
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I also agree that the laws are too strong for the affects of the drug (as opposed to alcohol), but still, people know the rules and consequences when they come here, so are stupid to take the risk.
I love how they said in the notice that people believe it to help with dieting! Are people really that uninformed?
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Well, I think that illegal drug use in Japan is a new trend of kind of cultural thing just gets into people’s heads now, and it will be getting hot as most people try to those drug themselves. And, it is kind of culture exchange. Don’t you agree that?
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The problem is the lack of gradation in drug policy / education. We run into the same thing in the states. In elementary school, you’re taught that drugs are across-the-board bad, and a single hit of anything will ruin your life.
However, your first hit of pot tends to be either anticlimatic, or pleasant with few adverse consequences. Moreover, you go on to see people smoke pot on a regular basis while leading very productive lives, see it provide tremendous help to those with chronic illness, etc. For many, the shattering of the lies of your childhood makes you question the rest of what you’ve been told.
Unfortunately, a lot of what you’ve been told has merit- some drugs are really bad news- but with the trust gone, some people go ahead and do them anyway, figuring that if they can’t trust drug education on one subject, they don’t need to listen to any of it.
That’s the real issue here. Kid (japanese or otherwise) smokes pot, realizes it’s not so bad, thinks worse drugs might not be so bad either, and runs into a lot of trouble.
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i was shocked by this too - i heard it on the news - and a Keio dude too - before i got the email from waseda. I knew that usage here was nothing like in UK (which is again far below that of SanFran) but it just hit me like “students take marijuana” - “bears defecate in forested areas” - “pontiff’s are of a Catholic persuasion”
It is yet again this painful fear of anything not japanese which really depresses me sometimes. Especially with emails like that, coming from a supposedly “forward-looking” institution.
Of course nobody really needs to smoke marijuana, but this is so over the top.
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