Pubdate: Mon, 17 Nov 2008
Source: Mainichi Daily News (Japan)
Copyright: 2008 The Mainichi Newspapers Co.
Contact: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/info/etc/contact.html
Website: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3807
Authors: Ryo Takeuchi, Taichi Yamamoto, Naozumi Takahashi, and Taizo Yamada
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

LOOPHOLE IN CANNABIS CONTROL LAW FUELS GROWING MARIJUANA PROBLEM

Marijuana usage is a growing problem in Japanese society, particularly
among young people. Students from Keio University, Doshisha University
and other prestigious universities as well as entertainers, sumo
wrestlers, a professional tennis player, and a dentist have been
arrested for violating the Cannabis Control Law. The lack of
regulations prohibiting the possession of marijuana seeds, and the
lowering of the psychological hurdle to inhaling marijuana, as
compared to other illegal drugs, have all contributed to the problem.

Investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department barged into an
apartment on the 7th floor of a building in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, acting
on information that the occupant possessed marijuana. Opening a
closet, they found a small marijuana patch -- 25 marijuana plants
growing to a height of 40 centimeters under lighting equipment.

"In the past, I acquired the seeds abroad, and then cultivated them
for personal use," said actor Taishu Kase (real name Nobuhiro
Kawamoto), 38, after his arrest for violating the Cannabis Control
Law.

Recently, there has been a surge in cases involving people who have
cultivated marijuana from seeds. According to the National Police
Agency, 73 people involved in 91 cases were brought up on charges of
cultivating marijuana in the first half of fiscal 2008. The number of
cases had increased by 18, and the number of individuals implicated
had risen by 23 over the same period of the previous fiscal year. The
rise in the number of arrests can be blamed in part on the limits of
the law, which prohibits cultivation of marijuana, but does not
establish punitive restrictions on the possession of the seeds, which
are sold for use as feed, and for other purposes. The Compliance and
Narcotics Division of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare
explains that marijuana seeds are not prohibited because they "do not
contain any harmful ingredients."

At a store near JR Shibuya Station that sells imported sundry goods,
books on marijuana and smoking paraphernalia are for sale. "Seeds? We
no longer carry them," said a clerk, but he did admit that the store
had stocked them until about a year ago. According to a man with
intimate knowledge of the marijuana seed business, there were about
100 stores nationwide that sold marijuana seeds when sales reached
their peak, but the stores have disappeared after authorities cracked
down on seed importers in Tokyo and Osaka.

The main channel for acquiring seeds has now become the Internet. Two
members of the Kanto Gakuin University rugby team told law enforcement
authorities that they had cultivated marijuana from seeds they had
ordered from the Web site of an Osaka sundry goods store, and 12 other
team members have admitted to smoking marijuana. The Kanagawa
Prefectural Police arrested the 34-year-old president of the company
and two others in May on suspicion of abetting the cultivation of
marijuana. The store has admitted to selling seeds to about 180 people
in 42 prefectures during the months of November and December 2007 alone.

But the channels for acquiring marijuana have diversified. In addition
to cultivating marijuana from seeds, marijuana in leaf form has been
acquired in busy shopping districts as well as on the campus of Keio
University. "While in college I smoked it. As for marijuana sales on
campus, they probably occur quite frequently," said a male company
employee, 24, who graduated from Keio University this spring.

On Nov. 13, a Doshisha University senior, Chino Nishida, 22, was
handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, by the
Kobe District Court. The student admitted that she had acquired
marijuana from a former Kwansei Gakuin University student as well as
from another acquaintance, a Brazilian man who was also a dealer.

This fall, a 28-year-old woman from Kanagawa Prefecture was admitted
to the Akagi-Kohgen Hospital in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture. The
facility is currently treating about 100 patients for drug addiction.

Five years ago, the woman had smoked marijuana at the urging of an
acquaintance. "My mind and body became as light as a feather, and my
stress and fatigue blew away," she said. She smoked marijuana with the
acquaintance about once a week and did not experience hallucinations
or other side effects associated with narcotics.

However, due to troubles with her friends, and job-related stress, she
began to smoke marijuana more frequently. Several months later, she
jumped from her fourth-floor condominium apartment immediately after
smoking marijuana. She suffered complex fractures in six places, but
somehow survived. After being discharged from hospital she stopped
smoking marijuana but began taking massive quantities of sleeping
pills and tranquilizers, and became addicted to them.

"If I hadn't used marijuana, this would not have happened. My mind and
body are in tatters," she said.

According to the hospital director, Michio Takemura, nearly 50 percent
of his recently hospitalized patients have used marijuana. "In the
past, there were many cases in which thinner use led to narcotic
addiction, but more of my recent patients started with marijuana,
particularly those ranging in age from their teens to their 30s," said
Takemura.

"I believe that those who use marijuana tend to be younger and more
affluent. Young people who are indifferent to society and other people
who have not been able to find a goal in life might be turning to
marijuana to feel more alive and for emotional thrills," says Masaaki
Noda, a professor of psychopathology at Kwansei Gakuin University and
an expert on the psychology of young people.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin