North Korea Targeting Japan Market, NPA Claims More than 40 percent of the illegal stimulants seized by police across Japan in 1999 either came from North Korea or are linked to the Stalinist state, the National Police Agency said Thursday. The NPA believes the figures prove that North Korea is becoming deeply involved in the lucrative business of selling stimulants in Japan - an issue that could develop into another serious headache for Tokyo-Pyongyang ties. Police confiscated a record 1,970 kg of amphetamines last year, more than in the previous five years combined. [continues 527 words]
The Health and Welfare Ministry on Thursday gave up a plan to set a target of halving the number of Japanese smokers by 2010 because of opposition from the tobacco industry, ministry sources said. The decision was made by a ministry panel, which has studied recommendations on the ministry's new 10-year health promotion program, the sources said. The ministry asked the panel last August to study a plan to halve tobacco consumption and the number of adult smokers in Japan in a decade, as well as to reduce smoking among people under 20. But objections from the tobacco industry prompted the ministry to propose another plan to the panel last week, which despite calling for methods to help people cut down on or quit smoking, does not include the target of halving the number of smokers. [end]
Drug abuse is not a problem that can be solved by just one nation, Shozo Azuma, parliamentary vice minister for foreign affairs, said at the opening ceremony of "Anti-Drug Conference, Tokyo 2000" on Monday. Law enforcement and financial officials as well as researchers from about 20 Asia-Pacific nations gathered in Tokyo to discuss measures to stem the flow of illicit drugs in the region. Azuma emphasized the importance of cooperation among the international community to tackle the problem. He also said: "In Japan, abuse of stimulants is spreading, especially among the young generation, and the amount of such drugs confiscated by authorities is higher than ever." [continues 137 words]
Senior police, customs, maritime safety, foreign and health officials from some 20 countries will assemble in Tokyo in mid-January to discuss ways to stimulate cooperation in an antinarcotics crusade in East Asia, government sources said Tuesday. It will be the first time Japan has hosted such a large-scale conference on drug problems, the sources said. Although Japan hosted the Asia Drug Law Enforcement Conference in February, its participants were basically limited to regional police officials from Japan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. [continues 541 words]
THE HAGUE (AFP-Jiji) Twenty Dutch Municipal councils Saturday called on the government to permit the cultivation of cannabis in order to decriminalize the supply chain to coffee shops. Supplying cannabis to coffee shops is illegal, while the sale of small amounts of the weed has been "tolerated" by law enforcers for years. In a letter addressed to the Cabinet on Saturday and signed by 20 mayors of towns and cities in the Netherlands, the Drugs Policy Association called for an end to this confusing policy and the experimental "toleration" of cannabis cultivation. [continues 177 words]
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The scandal-tainted Kanagawa Prefectural Police department is again under fire as allegations have deepened that its former chief was involved in the coverup of an officer's use of stimulant drugs in 1996. Motoo Watanabe and other former and current senior Kanagawa police officials have already been questioned over suspicions that they concealed the results of several urine tests on the 37-year-old assistant inspector. The officer, whose name has been withheld, tested positive for stimulant drugs in 1996 and was fired that December on grounds that he had had an extramarital affair, police sources said. [continues 144 words]
The Tokyo metropolitan government's Public Health Bureau on Monday ordered retailers in Minato Ward and Chiyoda Ward to halt sales of 10 products -- so-called "legal drugs" -- sold at adult-goods stores and through the Internet, because they contain unlawful components. The products, which range from leather cleaners, air fresheners and video cleaners, have been advertised on the Internet and in magazines as giving pleasurable highs if taken orally or inhaled. Sold at anywhere between Y 1500 to Y 14,000, they are called "legal" because the law does not forbid possession or use of the products. But public health officials tested 35 products on the market as of June and found that 10 contained unlawful substances. [end]
KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo) A total 616 kg of stimulants were confiscated Sunday evening along the Kurose shoreline of Kasasa, Kagoshima Prefecture, in the largest domestic drug bust ever, police in Kagoshima and Fukuoka prefectures said. Police also arrested nine Chinese and Taiwanese men and one Japanese on suspicion of violating the Stimulants Control Law by possessing the drugs for profit. The Japanese was identified as Atsushi Ishii, 33, of Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture. The street value for the haul was estimated to be about Y36.96 billion. Ishii and three other suspects were arrested while unloading the stimulants from a rubber dinghy, police said. [continues 315 words]
A Tokyo restaurant is serving up dishes with hemp. It's not illegal, it won't get you high, but if you go you might learn something about the 25,000 other uses for the weed. Restaurant’s Ingredients In The Pot Hemp Advocates Slowly Sprouting There is an herb that can provide the base material for food, shelter and clothing, replace land-polluting crops and offer relief for the terminally ill. The magical herb is hemp, otherwise known as marijuana in the world of illicit drugs. [continues 1059 words]
Police have confiscated 1,132.8 kg of stimulants in the first six months of 1999, surpassing the 1-ton level for the first time in any year, the National Police Agency said Wednesday. Large-scale busts in the first six months, such as one in Chiba that netted over 200 kg and one in Osaka that yielded a similar amount, helped push the figure past the previous yearly record of 650.8 kg set in 1996. Alarmed at the rise in drug use, especially among the nation's youth, the agency declared in January 1998 that the country had entered a period of rampant stimulant abuse. [continues 432 words]
