Sellers argue that the substances are therefore legal, but authorities say it is a ploy to circumvent the law. Sellers also say that the products are not intended for ingestion, but for use as incense. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, November 23, 2011] Despite its progressiveness and progress in other areas of culture and life, Japan has quite archaic drug laws. These draconian preventive measures are the country`s response to the waves of amphetamine addiction it has struggled with since the end of World War II. First-time offenders, regardless of the illegal drug they are caught with, face hefty fines, years in prison, and almost guaranteed avoidance by friends, family, and employers upon release. What Japan is doing, however, is a minimum tolerance for possession of drugs at low concentrations. For example, while many Western countries have now legalized or decriminalized marijuana, possession of even a small amount of cannabis in Japan can result in up to five years in prison. The use or possession of methamphetamine or heroin is punishable by 10 years in prison, while MDMA, cocaine or magic mushrooms are punishable by seven years in prison.
In fact, stimulants are so deeply Japanese that methamphetamine was invented in Tokyo. The chemist Nagayoshi Nagai first synthesized it from ephedrine in 1893. Stimulants seem to meet the demands of Japanese culture, and they are almost certainly more popular than official statistics suggest. Official figures claim that 1.5 percent of Japanese have used illicit drugs, compared to 42 percent in the United States. [9] But as an expert who asked not to be named explained to me, these figures are compiled in a way that makes them quite unreliable. Each year, the government collects these statistics by approaching 6,000 households and asking them to complete a questionnaire. They do not need to write their name on it, but they must hand them over to a government official. In a country where, as I will explain later, even doctors call the police to inform them if their patients are suspected of using drugs, it is very likely that this method will lead to figures that greatly underestimate the proportion of Japanese who use drugs.
Another anonymous Glass patient, looking for the purported therapeutic benefits of brewing, told me that the experience helped her fight depression caused by problems she had with her parents. „You can`t legally say it a medical remedy unless the government agrees,“ she said. „But in my personal opinion, it cured me of those feelings.“ There are other fundamental flaws in the Japanese drug debate that I have seen time and time again. For example, when six students were found in possession of cannabis at an elite private college in Tokyo called Waseda University,[14] university administrators emailed all students saying that anyone „stupid enough“ to try cannabis „will too often be ruined physically and mentally and may live a criminal life. There is no „innocent“ or „harmless“ way to take illegal drugs. [15] [5] japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japans-draconian-marijuana-laws-against-ongoing-trends?comment-order=latest hightimes.com/news/cannabis-activism-in-japan-yes-that`s-a-thing/ When it comes to the ingredients in the blend, Glass offers complete transparency, both for me and for the world. He posted the prescription along with those of other facsimiles of illegal drugs on Cookpad, a Japanese prescription sharing website. The main ingredients in Glass` blend are „acacia root, a leaf from another acacia breed, and mountain lespedeza (which adds tryptophan),“ which he brews into a tea.
Then he shreds the Aurorix antidepressants, which he must procure and bring with him from the client because of their controlled status in order to keep everything legal. For example, a 58-year-old terminal liver cancer patient named Masamitsu Yamamoto was brought before Japanese courts in 2016. He was suffering from exceptional physical pain and had appealed to medical authorities to allow him to use cannabis to control his pain, as many other patients in other countries do legally with their doctors` prescriptions. They refused. So he started growing some himself just for his personal use. When he used it, he felt great relief. But he was arrested. „I`ve tried everything modern medicine offers,“ he told the court. After his arrest, his health deteriorated and he died before the end of his trial. He asked the court that, since he was growing the drug only for himself, who was this legal process supposed to protect? [5] [7] www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2014/08/30/lifestyle/dealing-addiction-japans-drinking-problem/ Japan`s strict laws have restricted, but far from being eradicated, recreational drug use in Japan.
