21 ms·

The drug debate in Japan (2018)

134 points by lermontov 8y ago

api 8y ago
Why exactly did the US go so crazy against drugs? Seems like after WWII this war on drugs mentality took root and probably peaked in the 1980s or so with the peak of the WWII generation's power.
- tossawayonphine 8y ago
  money
  - sheepdestroyer 8y ago
    and racism.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- apsec112 8y ago
  A lot of it was because of one man, Harry Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
  - intertextuality 8y ago
    It's hard to believe that one single ideologue had so much influence, and directly caused so much suffering to so many people. > Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. > Anslinger collected dubious anecdotes of marijuana causing crime and violence, and ignored contrary evidence such as doctor Walter Bromberg, who pointed out that substance abuse and crime are heavily confounded and that none of a group of 2,216 criminal convictions he examined were clearly done under marijuana's influence,[9] or a discussion forwarded to him by the American Medical Association in which 29 of 30 pharmacists and drug industry representatives objected to his proposals to ban marijuana. One such statement claimed that the proposal was "Absolute rot. It is not necessary. I have never known of its misuse.", although only the single dissenter (who noted he had once encountered a doctor who had been addicted to marijuana) was preserved in Bureau files.
    - Asooka 8y ago
      Well, we already have the examples of Mao, Stalin and perennial favourite for worst person to have ever lived (even though he doesn't measure to the previous two in terms of atrocities committed) Hitler. Anslinger might be even worse though, because while we recognise the other three as clearly evil (or at least their acts as atrocious), his views are still held as good moral standards by societies around the globe.
- anitil 8y ago
  I've heard versions of the war on drugs as a veiled racial policy [0]. But, I'm not from the US, and that idea seems too ... convenient (?) so I wouldn't take it at face value. [0] See https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman for the direct quote
  - alexanderdmitri 8y ago
    > The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did [0]. For context, that's a direct quote from John Ehrlichman who "was counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs" under Nixon when Nixon declared the war on drugs. Everything kind of snow-balled from there. According to the chronology provided by PBS [1], perhaps the first groundwork was put in place by LBJ founding the "Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs" in 1968 (campaign year that Nixon won), the timing of which correlates with Nixon's successful campaigning on a "theme to restore 'law and order'"[2]. [0] https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman [1] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_United_States_presidential_election#Campaign_themes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_United_States_presidentia...
- petre 8y ago
  I guess it had to do with hippies protesting aganst the Vietnam war, DuPont's money, Mexican farmers getting a buck, Eastern Block countries being hemp fibre exporters. The US esentially destroyed this industry in other countries, except for China and India who pretty much control this market now.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  My guess is that, at least when it comes to Marijuana, conservatives are so deeply offended by drugs because they're anti-productivity. Pot slows you down, relaxes you, lowers drive (even just temporarily). For those on the right wing, this translates to, "it makes you lazy, a burden on society, it undermines the American spirit of hard work and self-started progress". They rationalize it any number of ways, but I think that aspect is what makes it personal.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    I mean, alcohol impairs you quite a bit as well. And doing amphetamines can arguably improve your productivity.
    - _bxg1 8y ago
      True, but we tried prohibiting alcohol and that didn't work out. And when the War On Drugs rolled around, Marijuana being grown by hippies was its poster-child, not the cocaine being peddled by gangsters. That was illegal too, but that's not where the emotional heart of the crusade was. Cocaine was used by businessmen on the weekends; marijuana would corrupt little Jimmy and ruin his future as a productive member of society.
      - _Schizotypy 8y ago
        We tried banning everything else and that still isn't working out lol The black market of current day mirror that of alcohol prohibition. No controls on products and rampant violence
  - petre 8y ago
    It depends, there are accounts of high drug (cocaine, meth) use in Nazi Germany. In the US people abuse prescription drugs. In highly competitive societies you will see drug use specifically to enhance productivity at least on the short term, with unfortunate consequences.
- rangibaby 8y ago
  Hemp competed with cotton and doesn't require chemical spraying (it's a weed!). How are you going to convince John Q. Public to ban hemp? Give it a Mexican-sounding name... The Nixon-era War on Drugs: “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” [0] https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
intertextuality 8y ago
Living in Korea, it's just baffling to see these ridiculous, archaic attitudes toward marijuana in Korea and Japan. It's like stepping into a time machine. The internet and its resources are available, yet no amount of reasoning or information gets through to a lot of people. Marijuana is just "evil" or only "people who commit/will commit crimes" use it. I don't necessarily think the attitude here should be just like in the US, but at least let people use it medically, and get rid of the disproportionate stigma. As @laureig mentioned, one can’t even admit trying marijuana in polite/semi-polite company (of other Koreans). With foreigners it’s a little different. Generally it only gets discussed if you’re closer with them. --- At the same time, alcohol [and alcoholism] is not only totally fine, it's encouraged! Sometimes it's even mandatory to go drinking with your coworkers after work, due to social pressure from peers and bosses. I have spoken with a few people like this. But going to clubs in 홍대 Hongdae/강남 Gangnam and drinking until 9am or drinking at a dozen bars in Golden Gai until 6am is totally fine. Drinking until you puke on the street is totally fine. (Admittedly I did do this once in 세종시 Sejong-City, Korea)
- bamboozled 8y ago
  What's more baffling is that it's totally acceptable to be an alcoholic and in a lot of workplaces it can be seen as negative to not participate in heavy drinking events.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    You dont have to drink alcohol when you go out drinking in Japan. you always have the option to go for soft drinks.
    - fzeroracer 8y ago
      You still have to go out drinking with coworkers because it's one of those things viewed as a social responsibility. And said coworkers will pressure you to drink because you're expected to get drunk among them as well. There is a lot of combined pressure to get people to drink.
etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
Does the US really have harsh drug laws compared to other countries? Doesn't seem like it to me. I also don't believe that other countries are harsh on drugs just because the US or UN is. Doesn't seem to be a primary driver. I think it's much simpler. Most societies are very anti drug.
- hardwaresofton 8y ago
  Could you name a few countries you're thinking of? Also, there is a huge amount of nuance lost in the term "drug". Alcohol is a drug, Tobacco is a drug, Marijuana is a drug, Oxycodone is a drug. I think what most people mean when they mention drug laws being harsh in the US is the combination of very high penalties for drugs that have been proven to have minimal negative repercussions, and the CIA's sordid history in the US and abroad. You don't have to take my word for it, since wikipedia exists[0] (there's lots more but it's a good starter). Most societies may say they are anti drug, but how harsh is the sentencing, and how much of it is actually prosecuted? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
  - adventured 8y ago
    Outside of obvious examples in Asia, Brazil's drug laws have created a disaster there for one very large example: "In 2005, 9 percent of those in prison were detained on drug charges -- now it’s 28 percent, and among women, 64 percent. The law, 11344/2006, has contributed to the last decade’s explosive rise of Brazil’s prison population. More than 620,000 inmates swelter in facilities built, in aggregate, for about 370,000." "Under the 2006 law many users have simply been prosecuted as traffickers, made easier by the fact that the law does not set a minimum quantity of drugs to differentiate between users and traffickers." https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/28/ten-years-drug-policy-failure-brazil https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/28/ten-years-drug-policy-fa...
    - hardwaresofton 8y ago
      Brazil also has a pretty big reputation for police corruption, and much more concentrated/blatant issues with organized crime which can skew those numbers, which is less of a problem in the US. Abuse of a bad law is one thing, but in the cases where some drug use was confirmed (even if arguably without intent to redistribute), I think the US has the heavier hand. Even if I'm 100% wrong about Brazil, compare their 28% to the US's 45%[0]. [0]: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...
hardwaresofton 8y ago
Japan's culture is a double edged sword. The very same phenomenon that allows you to have politeness-by-default and lots of dedication to professionalism is the same mechanism by which you get glacial paces of change when the culture settled into the wrong ideology. There are lots of more downsides (lots of flipped-coin situations), but this is just one of them. Japan is much less likely to change rapidly on this front than any other society, in my opinion changing attitudes everywhere else is what will convince Japan. One thing I could see is them legalizing marijuana but taxing is incredibly (as a way to offset some long-term economics issues), but I don't know of a single politician willing to be that progressive (and not lose backing)... That's not what "progressive" looks like here really.
- selestify 8y ago
  That's really interesting. What other flipped-coin situations do you notice?
  - hardwaresofton 8y ago
    Take this with a grain of salt -- I think I understand Japan after living here for a while, but my "while" is <10 years and in the end it's hard to understand Japan as well as a native Japanese person might. Anyway here are a few: - Excessive Politeness <-> Passive Aggression (once you over-step or under-step) - Dedication to Professionalism <-> Overworking & <x>-theatre (the appearance of working hard becomes paramount) - Pressure to behave "properly" <-> [Ex|Im]plosion of "improper" behavior - Prioritizing the group <-> Normalization of oppression (ex. someone putting up with something that isn't right to avoid perturbing the group dynamic) - Propensity to save money <-> Less economic liquidity (whether this is good or bad for an economy is very much up for debate) - Emphasis on success/reputation <-> Very risk averse behavior Weirdly enough, in my opinion all of these things are what make japan what it is, and partially what makes it interesting. I haven't checked but surely Japan is the most homogeneous large successful nation out there, with a very distinct culture. I feel like I understand it because once you see the other side of some of these behaviors, it just clicks -- some of it is just historical and requires much more research (could japan have been a matriarchal society? maybe?), but a lot of it just kind of obvious based on the values held by a populace that is so largely homogeneous in culture. Again, I'm not an expert in Japanese culture, that takes decades of work and research -- but I've found a lot of these fairly obvious to see over the years.
_bxg1 8y ago
It's amazing to me how Japan can be so Puritan about some things, and so... not Puritan about other things. Though I guess an outsider could say the same thing about the U.S.
- kranner 8y ago
  I would be more surprised to find any longstanding human culture that didn't have any glaring inconsistencies in the things it encourages vs the things it discourages. We are all hypocrites.
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    True, but some cultures take it to a greater extreme than others. Usually it's the ones most focused on self-purification that have the most hidden vices. America and (apparently) Japan seem to be towards the top as far as first-world countries go.
    - bsder 8y ago
      I would argue that the American people are far less hypocritical than the government. Most Americans who do marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, etc. will fairly readily admit to it if you are in their circle of friends. Heroin, crack, and crystal meth have a bit of stigma associated with them and so will get relatively less admissions unless you are a bit higher on the friend scale. Most marijuana users I know will tend to offer you some fairly unprompted.
- tayo42 8y ago
  Its funny that weed so bad but mushrooms were legal there until 2002
- opportune 8y ago
  I think a lot of these things boil down to demographics. What societies make the most dynamic changes in the shortest times? My theory is that it's ones with large-base demographic pyramids. Once you become vertical or inverted (like Japan a couple decades ago, the US and most of europe, China soon) you start to become more conservative as a society. Things change more slowly, maybe not directly in terms of politics (meaning things may not swing far right) but in terms of the actual look and feel of society.
laurieg 8y ago
In my experience more people than you might expect have experience with cannabis in Japan. I was at a small party and the topic of cannabis came up. I asked the group if anyone had smoked it before. Everyone gave a resounding "No, of course not". When the party was winding down, two separate people said "Actually, I've tried it. I just didn't want to say anything in front of other people." I find it strange how in the next few weeks up and down the country Japanese people will go out and many will get very drunk from morning to night while sitting under the blooming sakura trees but any other drug is so taboo you can barely mention it in polite company.
- intertextuality 8y ago
  Yeah, I totally forgot about the polite company thing. It’s exactly the same with Koreans. The ones who were forward about it were people who had lived in America or abroad for some period of time, typically. In the same way you shouldn’t ask a group of Koreans “do you understand?” when teaching, because they might answer “yes” to save face. It’s definitely an interesting culture, compared to mine (American).
- mises 8y ago
  Not sure what exactly you're referring to; most people don't refer to illegal drug abuse openly in polite company here in America either. Of course, it's also impolite to ask.
  - Frondo 8y ago
    Maybe it's a generational thing, but in my circles (40 and under), no one conflates cannabis use with illegal drug abuse -- the latter implies something like heroin addiction. Maybe it's also a generational thing, but at parties I attend, it's not uncommon for someone to mention having spent their last birthday having used blow, or mention back to some time they dropped acid, or whatever. Drug talk seems much less taboo than sex talk; the people who talk openly about sex are either sex workers or poly (and those people proselytize more than vegans ;-) ). Maybe a generational thing, though.
    - 8y ago
Camillo 8y ago
> I was told by Jake Adelstein, one of the leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, and the author of the book Tokyo Vice. He must be _really_ good to rank above all the experts who are from Japan. OTOH, while Japan may have failed to produce leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, they seem to be doing pretty decently in terms of actual drug and crime issues. If you were Japanese, would you want to follow American advice on drug and crime policy? There are many good things about America, but would you say its drug and crime situations are the highlights worth imitating?
- GuiA 8y ago
  Well, the thing is that most of Japan’s Japanese experts on drugs and crime don’t spend a significant amount of their time interacting with the English speaking world, and there aren’t many people interested in merely translating their work without adding their own take on it. Jake Adelstein however has become very good at being a point of contact for English speaking non Japanese speaking people who wish to report on Japanese crime, independently of how qualified you might think he is or isn’t.
- viraptor 8y ago
  > (from wiki) In 1993, Adelstein became the first non-Japanese staff writer at the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper, where he worked for 12 years. I'm fine with that. Also "one of the leading experts", not "above all".
- scottishcow 8y ago
  It amuses me how Western media outlets continue to quote Adelstein, his entire shtick consists of spouting made up stuff about Japan to Western reporters with no means of fact-checking. I guess it goes both ways though, the self-proclaimed "America-tsuu (US experts)" here aren't any better.
  - nugga 8y ago
    Is there some legit criticism on him and provable dishonesty? I don't know much but I seem to recall him publishing stories uncovering and/or reporting on what could be viewed as problematic or even embarrassing things about japanese culture.
mnm1 8y ago
No matter how much or what kind of drugs are being used, it's not logical to ever wage a drug war. This is probably the sickest, most disgusting American cultural export in a sea of sick, disgusting cultural exports. It's one thing to succumb to this type of sick, vile thinking when a country is under occupation but a whole other thing to keep at it once you are no longer occupied. In no way am I singling out Japan here. Most countries succumbed to US pressure on this issue and even made it their own issue, persecuting and killing their own people. The people who perpetrated these acts, acts akin to war crimes themselves should be ashamed and hunted down but that won't happen because justice doesn't exist. It is not too late to reverse such policies and to shirk off this horrific cultural export as even the US is starting to do. Unfortunately, many of these people ardently believe the lies they learned and want to continue killing, jailing, torturing, and persecuting others who are sick and would be better off served with compassion and medical care. Hopefully, the world will wise up and get rid of this drug war, this American mind poison, and reclaim their cultures and dignity for their countries.
alexmat 8y ago
Recent interviews with Japanese activists on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrDAXjcUXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrDAXjcUXY
vhb 8y ago
Going to go with the unpopular opinion here, but I don't understand the comments saying "Japan/Korea is so backwards/archaic, cannabis tobacco and alcohol are all drugs, if you allow one, you should allow them all". In the US/Europe, I totally agree with you. The benefits of making it legal far exceed the cost and the associated risks, so if I was asked to vote, I would vote for legalizing cannabis. But this is not a vote to cannabis, it's a vote against the criminal networks that are profiting from cannabis. Now, what you are saying, is that a country that does not have a cannabis problem should still legalize it. Call me old fashioned, but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not. Saying "yes, but alcohol/tobacco is worst" does not make is good. Your point basically is: "these countries should allow weed because in the West, we do have an issue with the criminality associated with it". I believe on the contrary that Japan, Korea (and a few others, such as Singapore) should be very proud of not having a drug problem, keep one working towards not creating one, while at the same time focusing on solving their tobacco / alcohol one.
- intertextuality 8y ago
  1) Drug problems still exist in those countries. Albeit it’s different than say, the US, pretending that it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. 2) I’m not saying the attitude toward weed in japan should be the same as in the US, but having this amount of social stigma is ridiculous. It’s absurd when you consider just how much Koreans and Japanese people drink. It’s way more than Americans, and at least in Korea it’s mandatory after work for a lot of people. 3) Legalizing marijuana (even just for medical use) will not create or worsen any existing drug issues.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - vhb 8y ago
    1) That's true. Let's that it's barely a problem. 2) According to the WHO, Korea only drinks marginally more that the US, and Japan less: https://www.who.int/gho/alcohol/en/ https://www.who.int/gho/alcohol/en/. TBH, this is a bit of a stereotype. I'm confused by how to interpret 3. Are you saying: - "If it's only for medical use, then it will not worsen the situation". I would overall agree with you on this. - "Even if it's freely available it will not worsen the situation". I don't believe this. I don't see how going from a situation where smoking is 1: illegal, 2: actually complex (unlike in Europe/North America), 3: extremely risky on the legal side, 4: socially taboo, to a situation where you can have shops on the street would not worsen drug issues. I can't find any studies has been conducted in any comparable societies, so we are both speculating, but I just find your point absolutely unbelievable.
honestoHeminway 8y ago
I wonder wether the whole legal system should be restructured, with one section entitled "Human Hacking", where we could cram in all exploits of flaws by section. Drug addiction, cognitive bias con games, abusing of cognitive bias to steer politics etc. Might as well put meme, cult and bias propagation as offense in the very same section.
jfptech 8y ago
According to the CDC- Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999 On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html Government spends billions waging war on marijuana while Purdue Pharma, Pill Mills, and The FDA kill the rest of us with Oxycontin
- _Schizotypy 8y ago
  Those numbers don't include alcohol or tobacco deaths, which are staggering in comparison
- bregma 8y ago
  The LD50 for cannabinoids is approximately your own weight. At least in the monkeys and rats studied, because there has never been a documented human overdose and proper studies are both unethical and (in the US) illegal.
  - failrate 8y ago
    Basically, a marijuana dry flower overdose would come after A) your lungs were ruined by the enormous quantities of smoke inhaled after a short period or B) you were crushed or smothered under the plant material.
jac_no_k 8y ago
Japan has other surprise drug policies. For example, the prescription drug Adderall is banned because it contains amphetamine. https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/importing-medication/ https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/import... This article is enlightening in Japan's attitude towards these stimulants. But I could go any convenience store and pick up bottles of "genki" (energy) drinks. There doesn't seem to be much regulations and only the occasional news story of people overdosing.
- ejolto 8y ago
  What stimulants do the energy drinks contain? Caffeine and nicotine? Hardly comparable to amphetamines..
- _Schizotypy 8y ago
  Small correction here, Adderall does't "contain" amphetamine, it IS amphetamine
- refurb 8y ago
  Japan had a big problem with amphetamine use post-WW2. It was freely available and heavily abused. That crack down is still evident today.
- dvcrn 8y ago
  To be fair, adderrall (And other Amphetamine based drugs) are illegal in a lot of countries that are not the US. The stimulants Ritalin and Modafinil are available here, and Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) is in clinical trials
Pamar 8y ago
Question: what is the stance about nootropics in Japan?
- _Schizotypy 8y ago
  I've heard there are "smart drug" vendors on the street in some places in asia
twic 8y ago
It's worth noting that this article is by Johann Hari, who has a long history of telling compelling but untrue stories. Most recently about depression: https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/08/is-everything-johann-hari-knows-about-depression-wrong-lost-connections https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/... EDIT and the backstory: http://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2014/9/7/kdgwxcbsned1rknh0h3zdvqrebxa3x http://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2014/9/7/kdgwxcbsned1rknh0h3... He mentions Rat Park, which isn't as clear-cut as he makes out: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/25/against-rat-park/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/25/against-rat-park/ I think it's wise to treat this story as a useful pointer towards an interesting topic, but not as a reliable treatment of that topic.
aerovistae 8y ago
I have an interesting personal anecdote on this. I'm a 27-year-old Caucasian American (relevant) who doesn't speak any Japanese and who recently spent 3 months in Japan with my girlfriend. Her aunt by adoption is an ethnically Japanese native of Tokyo who of course speaks fluent Japanese, and we spent a month living with her there. At one point, we went over her aunt's friend's family's house for dinner. The friend's family does not speak any English. All night we managed to have a really interesting and fun time by using Google translate to translate what I wanted to say (my gf mostly just spectated), and Google translate would horribly mistranslate it to humorous and confusing effect, and then Yuka (the aunt) would explain to the family what I actually meant with a proper translation. Now in the middle of dinner, after a good hour of this and now at a stage where we had mostly set google translate aside, it came up that I don't drink alcohol, and the father commented how much money I must save this way. And I, fool that I am, joked "oh no I blow all the savings on cocaine." And I looked at Yuka, who chuckled and said "no, no, I'm not going to translate that." But she didn't add any cultural warning, so I thought she was just being a little formal. So I said, "fine I'll translate it with google translate!" Now sure, you might say it was a bad joke, but in the US depending who you're eating with it would still elicit chuckles or smiles, even if it was just polite. Not in Japan. When I held up the phone with the translation for them to see, the reaction was shocked silence. It was as though I had held up an image of hardcore pornography at the table. Even the two high school age boys were horrified, not so much as a smile. After a moment the father muttered in halting English "bad joke." And that is how I learned just how taboo drugs are in Japan. In retrospect Yuka found it hilarious. "I told you not to say it!" "No you didn't, you just said you wouldn't translate it, that's not the same thing!" "Ha ha well..."
charliebrownau 8y ago
Push to put DRUGS into JAPAN Push to allow ISLAM into JAPAN Push to allow Black South Africans into JAPAN While still doubling down and REFUSING to admit the Family court and marriage laws need changing to remove the unfair bias towards WOMEN
eternalban 8y ago
"advanced democracy". Oh the lies we tell one another.

134 points by lermontov 8y ago

api 8y ago

Why exactly did the US go so crazy against drugs? Seems like after WWII this war on drugs mentality took root and probably peaked in the 1980s or so with the peak of the WWII generation's power.

tossawayonphine 8y ago
money
- sheepdestroyer 8y ago
  and racism.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
apsec112 8y ago
A lot of it was because of one man, Harry Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
- intertextuality 8y ago
  It's hard to believe that one single ideologue had so much influence, and directly caused so much suffering to so many people. > Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. > Anslinger collected dubious anecdotes of marijuana causing crime and violence, and ignored contrary evidence such as doctor Walter Bromberg, who pointed out that substance abuse and crime are heavily confounded and that none of a group of 2,216 criminal convictions he examined were clearly done under marijuana's influence,[9] or a discussion forwarded to him by the American Medical Association in which 29 of 30 pharmacists and drug industry representatives objected to his proposals to ban marijuana. One such statement claimed that the proposal was "Absolute rot. It is not necessary. I have never known of its misuse.", although only the single dissenter (who noted he had once encountered a doctor who had been addicted to marijuana) was preserved in Bureau files.
  - Asooka 8y ago
    Well, we already have the examples of Mao, Stalin and perennial favourite for worst person to have ever lived (even though he doesn't measure to the previous two in terms of atrocities committed) Hitler. Anslinger might be even worse though, because while we recognise the other three as clearly evil (or at least their acts as atrocious), his views are still held as good moral standards by societies around the globe.
anitil 8y ago
I've heard versions of the war on drugs as a veiled racial policy [0]. But, I'm not from the US, and that idea seems too ... convenient (?) so I wouldn't take it at face value. [0] See https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman for the direct quote
- alexanderdmitri 8y ago
  > The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did [0]. For context, that's a direct quote from John Ehrlichman who "was counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs" under Nixon when Nixon declared the war on drugs. Everything kind of snow-balled from there. According to the chronology provided by PBS [1], perhaps the first groundwork was put in place by LBJ founding the "Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs" in 1968 (campaign year that Nixon won), the timing of which correlates with Nixon's successful campaigning on a "theme to restore 'law and order'"[2]. [0] https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman [1] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/cron/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_United_States_presidential_election#Campaign_themes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_United_States_presidentia...
petre 8y ago
I guess it had to do with hippies protesting aganst the Vietnam war, DuPont's money, Mexican farmers getting a buck, Eastern Block countries being hemp fibre exporters. The US esentially destroyed this industry in other countries, except for China and India who pretty much control this market now.
_bxg1 8y ago
My guess is that, at least when it comes to Marijuana, conservatives are so deeply offended by drugs because they're anti-productivity. Pot slows you down, relaxes you, lowers drive (even just temporarily). For those on the right wing, this translates to, "it makes you lazy, a burden on society, it undermines the American spirit of hard work and self-started progress". They rationalize it any number of ways, but I think that aspect is what makes it personal.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  I mean, alcohol impairs you quite a bit as well. And doing amphetamines can arguably improve your productivity.
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    True, but we tried prohibiting alcohol and that didn't work out. And when the War On Drugs rolled around, Marijuana being grown by hippies was its poster-child, not the cocaine being peddled by gangsters. That was illegal too, but that's not where the emotional heart of the crusade was. Cocaine was used by businessmen on the weekends; marijuana would corrupt little Jimmy and ruin his future as a productive member of society.
    - _Schizotypy 8y ago
      We tried banning everything else and that still isn't working out lol The black market of current day mirror that of alcohol prohibition. No controls on products and rampant violence
- petre 8y ago
  It depends, there are accounts of high drug (cocaine, meth) use in Nazi Germany. In the US people abuse prescription drugs. In highly competitive societies you will see drug use specifically to enhance productivity at least on the short term, with unfortunate consequences.
rangibaby 8y ago
Hemp competed with cotton and doesn't require chemical spraying (it's a weed!). How are you going to convince John Q. Public to ban hemp? Give it a Mexican-sounding name... The Nixon-era War on Drugs: “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” [0] https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/

intertextuality 8y ago

Living in Korea, it's just baffling to see these ridiculous, archaic attitudes toward marijuana in Korea and Japan. It's like stepping into a time machine. The internet and its resources are available, yet no amount of reasoning or information gets through to a lot of people. Marijuana is just "evil" or only "people who commit/will commit crimes" use it. I don't necessarily think the attitude here should be just like in the US, but at least let people use it medically, and get rid of the disproportionate stigma. As @laureig mentioned, one can’t even admit trying marijuana in polite/semi-polite company (of other Koreans). With foreigners it’s a little different. Generally it only gets discussed if you’re closer with them. --- At the same time, alcohol [and alcoholism] is not only totally fine, it's encouraged! Sometimes it's even mandatory to go drinking with your coworkers after work, due to social pressure from peers and bosses. I have spoken with a few people like this. But going to clubs in 홍대 Hongdae/강남 Gangnam and drinking until 9am or drinking at a dozen bars in Golden Gai until 6am is totally fine. Drinking until you puke on the street is totally fine. (Admittedly I did do this once in 세종시 Sejong-City, Korea)

bamboozled 8y ago
What's more baffling is that it's totally acceptable to be an alcoholic and in a lot of workplaces it can be seen as negative to not participate in heavy drinking events.
- ekianjo 8y ago
  You dont have to drink alcohol when you go out drinking in Japan. you always have the option to go for soft drinks.
  - fzeroracer 8y ago
    You still have to go out drinking with coworkers because it's one of those things viewed as a social responsibility. And said coworkers will pressure you to drink because you're expected to get drunk among them as well. There is a lot of combined pressure to get people to drink.

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago

Does the US really have harsh drug laws compared to other countries? Doesn't seem like it to me. I also don't believe that other countries are harsh on drugs just because the US or UN is. Doesn't seem to be a primary driver. I think it's much simpler. Most societies are very anti drug.

hardwaresofton 8y ago
Could you name a few countries you're thinking of? Also, there is a huge amount of nuance lost in the term "drug". Alcohol is a drug, Tobacco is a drug, Marijuana is a drug, Oxycodone is a drug. I think what most people mean when they mention drug laws being harsh in the US is the combination of very high penalties for drugs that have been proven to have minimal negative repercussions, and the CIA's sordid history in the US and abroad. You don't have to take my word for it, since wikipedia exists[0] (there's lots more but it's a good starter). Most societies may say they are anti drug, but how harsh is the sentencing, and how much of it is actually prosecuted? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
- adventured 8y ago
  Outside of obvious examples in Asia, Brazil's drug laws have created a disaster there for one very large example: "In 2005, 9 percent of those in prison were detained on drug charges -- now it’s 28 percent, and among women, 64 percent. The law, 11344/2006, has contributed to the last decade’s explosive rise of Brazil’s prison population. More than 620,000 inmates swelter in facilities built, in aggregate, for about 370,000." "Under the 2006 law many users have simply been prosecuted as traffickers, made easier by the fact that the law does not set a minimum quantity of drugs to differentiate between users and traffickers." https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/28/ten-years-drug-policy-failure-brazil https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/08/28/ten-years-drug-policy-fa...
  - hardwaresofton 8y ago
    Brazil also has a pretty big reputation for police corruption, and much more concentrated/blatant issues with organized crime which can skew those numbers, which is less of a problem in the US. Abuse of a bad law is one thing, but in the cases where some drug use was confirmed (even if arguably without intent to redistribute), I think the US has the heavier hand. Even if I'm 100% wrong about Brazil, compare their 28% to the US's 45%[0]. [0]: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...

hardwaresofton 8y ago

Japan's culture is a double edged sword. The very same phenomenon that allows you to have politeness-by-default and lots of dedication to professionalism is the same mechanism by which you get glacial paces of change when the culture settled into the wrong ideology. There are lots of more downsides (lots of flipped-coin situations), but this is just one of them. Japan is much less likely to change rapidly on this front than any other society, in my opinion changing attitudes everywhere else is what will convince Japan. One thing I could see is them legalizing marijuana but taxing is incredibly (as a way to offset some long-term economics issues), but I don't know of a single politician willing to be that progressive (and not lose backing)... That's not what "progressive" looks like here really.

selestify 8y ago
That's really interesting. What other flipped-coin situations do you notice?
- hardwaresofton 8y ago
  Take this with a grain of salt -- I think I understand Japan after living here for a while, but my "while" is <10 years and in the end it's hard to understand Japan as well as a native Japanese person might. Anyway here are a few: - Excessive Politeness <-> Passive Aggression (once you over-step or under-step) - Dedication to Professionalism <-> Overworking & <x>-theatre (the appearance of working hard becomes paramount) - Pressure to behave "properly" <-> [Ex|Im]plosion of "improper" behavior - Prioritizing the group <-> Normalization of oppression (ex. someone putting up with something that isn't right to avoid perturbing the group dynamic) - Propensity to save money <-> Less economic liquidity (whether this is good or bad for an economy is very much up for debate) - Emphasis on success/reputation <-> Very risk averse behavior Weirdly enough, in my opinion all of these things are what make japan what it is, and partially what makes it interesting. I haven't checked but surely Japan is the most homogeneous large successful nation out there, with a very distinct culture. I feel like I understand it because once you see the other side of some of these behaviors, it just clicks -- some of it is just historical and requires much more research (could japan have been a matriarchal society? maybe?), but a lot of it just kind of obvious based on the values held by a populace that is so largely homogeneous in culture. Again, I'm not an expert in Japanese culture, that takes decades of work and research -- but I've found a lot of these fairly obvious to see over the years.

_bxg1 8y ago

It's amazing to me how Japan can be so Puritan about some things, and so... not Puritan about other things. Though I guess an outsider could say the same thing about the U.S.

kranner 8y ago
I would be more surprised to find any longstanding human culture that didn't have any glaring inconsistencies in the things it encourages vs the things it discourages. We are all hypocrites.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  True, but some cultures take it to a greater extreme than others. Usually it's the ones most focused on self-purification that have the most hidden vices. America and (apparently) Japan seem to be towards the top as far as first-world countries go.
  - bsder 8y ago
    I would argue that the American people are far less hypocritical than the government. Most Americans who do marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, etc. will fairly readily admit to it if you are in their circle of friends. Heroin, crack, and crystal meth have a bit of stigma associated with them and so will get relatively less admissions unless you are a bit higher on the friend scale. Most marijuana users I know will tend to offer you some fairly unprompted.
tayo42 8y ago
Its funny that weed so bad but mushrooms were legal there until 2002
opportune 8y ago
I think a lot of these things boil down to demographics. What societies make the most dynamic changes in the shortest times? My theory is that it's ones with large-base demographic pyramids. Once you become vertical or inverted (like Japan a couple decades ago, the US and most of europe, China soon) you start to become more conservative as a society. Things change more slowly, maybe not directly in terms of politics (meaning things may not swing far right) but in terms of the actual look and feel of society.

laurieg 8y ago

In my experience more people than you might expect have experience with cannabis in Japan. I was at a small party and the topic of cannabis came up. I asked the group if anyone had smoked it before. Everyone gave a resounding "No, of course not". When the party was winding down, two separate people said "Actually, I've tried it. I just didn't want to say anything in front of other people." I find it strange how in the next few weeks up and down the country Japanese people will go out and many will get very drunk from morning to night while sitting under the blooming sakura trees but any other drug is so taboo you can barely mention it in polite company.

intertextuality 8y ago
Yeah, I totally forgot about the polite company thing. It’s exactly the same with Koreans. The ones who were forward about it were people who had lived in America or abroad for some period of time, typically. In the same way you shouldn’t ask a group of Koreans “do you understand?” when teaching, because they might answer “yes” to save face. It’s definitely an interesting culture, compared to mine (American).
mises 8y ago
Not sure what exactly you're referring to; most people don't refer to illegal drug abuse openly in polite company here in America either. Of course, it's also impolite to ask.
- Frondo 8y ago
  Maybe it's a generational thing, but in my circles (40 and under), no one conflates cannabis use with illegal drug abuse -- the latter implies something like heroin addiction. Maybe it's also a generational thing, but at parties I attend, it's not uncommon for someone to mention having spent their last birthday having used blow, or mention back to some time they dropped acid, or whatever. Drug talk seems much less taboo than sex talk; the people who talk openly about sex are either sex workers or poly (and those people proselytize more than vegans ;-) ). Maybe a generational thing, though.
  - 8y ago

Camillo 8y ago

> I was told by Jake Adelstein, one of the leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, and the author of the book Tokyo Vice. He must be _really_ good to rank above all the experts who are from Japan. OTOH, while Japan may have failed to produce leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, they seem to be doing pretty decently in terms of actual drug and crime issues. If you were Japanese, would you want to follow American advice on drug and crime policy? There are many good things about America, but would you say its drug and crime situations are the highlights worth imitating?

GuiA 8y ago
Well, the thing is that most of Japan’s Japanese experts on drugs and crime don’t spend a significant amount of their time interacting with the English speaking world, and there aren’t many people interested in merely translating their work without adding their own take on it. Jake Adelstein however has become very good at being a point of contact for English speaking non Japanese speaking people who wish to report on Japanese crime, independently of how qualified you might think he is or isn’t.
viraptor 8y ago
> (from wiki) In 1993, Adelstein became the first non-Japanese staff writer at the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper, where he worked for 12 years. I'm fine with that. Also "one of the leading experts", not "above all".
scottishcow 8y ago
It amuses me how Western media outlets continue to quote Adelstein, his entire shtick consists of spouting made up stuff about Japan to Western reporters with no means of fact-checking. I guess it goes both ways though, the self-proclaimed "America-tsuu (US experts)" here aren't any better.
- nugga 8y ago
  Is there some legit criticism on him and provable dishonesty? I don't know much but I seem to recall him publishing stories uncovering and/or reporting on what could be viewed as problematic or even embarrassing things about japanese culture.

mnm1 8y ago

No matter how much or what kind of drugs are being used, it's not logical to ever wage a drug war. This is probably the sickest, most disgusting American cultural export in a sea of sick, disgusting cultural exports. It's one thing to succumb to this type of sick, vile thinking when a country is under occupation but a whole other thing to keep at it once you are no longer occupied. In no way am I singling out Japan here. Most countries succumbed to US pressure on this issue and even made it their own issue, persecuting and killing their own people. The people who perpetrated these acts, acts akin to war crimes themselves should be ashamed and hunted down but that won't happen because justice doesn't exist. It is not too late to reverse such policies and to shirk off this horrific cultural export as even the US is starting to do. Unfortunately, many of these people ardently believe the lies they learned and want to continue killing, jailing, torturing, and persecuting others who are sick and would be better off served with compassion and medical care. Hopefully, the world will wise up and get rid of this drug war, this American mind poison, and reclaim their cultures and dignity for their countries.

alexmat 8y ago

Recent interviews with Japanese activists on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrDAXjcUXY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrDAXjcUXY

vhb 8y ago

Going to go with the unpopular opinion here, but I don't understand the comments saying "Japan/Korea is so backwards/archaic, cannabis tobacco and alcohol are all drugs, if you allow one, you should allow them all". In the US/Europe, I totally agree with you. The benefits of making it legal far exceed the cost and the associated risks, so if I was asked to vote, I would vote for legalizing cannabis. But this is not a vote to cannabis, it's a vote against the criminal networks that are profiting from cannabis. Now, what you are saying, is that a country that does not have a cannabis problem should still legalize it. Call me old fashioned, but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not. Saying "yes, but alcohol/tobacco is worst" does not make is good. Your point basically is: "these countries should allow weed because in the West, we do have an issue with the criminality associated with it". I believe on the contrary that Japan, Korea (and a few others, such as Singapore) should be very proud of not having a drug problem, keep one working towards not creating one, while at the same time focusing on solving their tobacco / alcohol one.

intertextuality 8y ago
1) Drug problems still exist in those countries. Albeit it’s different than say, the US, pretending that it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. 2) I’m not saying the attitude toward weed in japan should be the same as in the US, but having this amount of social stigma is ridiculous. It’s absurd when you consider just how much Koreans and Japanese people drink. It’s way more than Americans, and at least in Korea it’s mandatory after work for a lot of people. 3) Legalizing marijuana (even just for medical use) will not create or worsen any existing drug issues.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- vhb 8y ago
  1) That's true. Let's that it's barely a problem. 2) According to the WHO, Korea only drinks marginally more that the US, and Japan less: https://www.who.int/gho/alcohol/en/ https://www.who.int/gho/alcohol/en/. TBH, this is a bit of a stereotype. I'm confused by how to interpret 3. Are you saying: - "If it's only for medical use, then it will not worsen the situation". I would overall agree with you on this. - "Even if it's freely available it will not worsen the situation". I don't believe this. I don't see how going from a situation where smoking is 1: illegal, 2: actually complex (unlike in Europe/North America), 3: extremely risky on the legal side, 4: socially taboo, to a situation where you can have shops on the street would not worsen drug issues. I can't find any studies has been conducted in any comparable societies, so we are both speculating, but I just find your point absolutely unbelievable.

honestoHeminway 8y ago

I wonder wether the whole legal system should be restructured, with one section entitled "Human Hacking", where we could cram in all exploits of flaws by section. Drug addiction, cognitive bias con games, abusing of cognitive bias to steer politics etc. Might as well put meme, cult and bias propagation as offense in the very same section.

jfptech 8y ago

According to the CDC- Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999 On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html Government spends billions waging war on marijuana while Purdue Pharma, Pill Mills, and The FDA kill the rest of us with Oxycontin

_Schizotypy 8y ago
Those numbers don't include alcohol or tobacco deaths, which are staggering in comparison
bregma 8y ago
The LD50 for cannabinoids is approximately your own weight. At least in the monkeys and rats studied, because there has never been a documented human overdose and proper studies are both unethical and (in the US) illegal.
- failrate 8y ago
  Basically, a marijuana dry flower overdose would come after A) your lungs were ruined by the enormous quantities of smoke inhaled after a short period or B) you were crushed or smothered under the plant material.

jac_no_k 8y ago

Japan has other surprise drug policies. For example, the prescription drug Adderall is banned because it contains amphetamine. https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/importing-medication/ https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/doctors/import... This article is enlightening in Japan's attitude towards these stimulants. But I could go any convenience store and pick up bottles of "genki" (energy) drinks. There doesn't seem to be much regulations and only the occasional news story of people overdosing.

ejolto 8y ago
What stimulants do the energy drinks contain? Caffeine and nicotine? Hardly comparable to amphetamines..
_Schizotypy 8y ago
Small correction here, Adderall does't "contain" amphetamine, it IS amphetamine
refurb 8y ago
Japan had a big problem with amphetamine use post-WW2. It was freely available and heavily abused. That crack down is still evident today.
dvcrn 8y ago
To be fair, adderrall (And other Amphetamine based drugs) are illegal in a lot of countries that are not the US. The stimulants Ritalin and Modafinil are available here, and Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) is in clinical trials

Pamar 8y ago

Question: what is the stance about nootropics in Japan?

_Schizotypy 8y ago
I've heard there are "smart drug" vendors on the street in some places in asia

twic 8y ago

It's worth noting that this article is by Johann Hari, who has a long history of telling compelling but untrue stories. Most recently about depression: https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/08/is-everything-johann-hari-knows-about-depression-wrong-lost-connections https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/... EDIT and the backstory: http://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2014/9/7/kdgwxcbsned1rknh0h3zdvqrebxa3x http://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2014/9/7/kdgwxcbsned1rknh0h3... He mentions Rat Park, which isn't as clear-cut as he makes out: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/25/against-rat-park/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/25/against-rat-park/ I think it's wise to treat this story as a useful pointer towards an interesting topic, but not as a reliable treatment of that topic.

aerovistae 8y ago

I have an interesting personal anecdote on this. I'm a 27-year-old Caucasian American (relevant) who doesn't speak any Japanese and who recently spent 3 months in Japan with my girlfriend. Her aunt by adoption is an ethnically Japanese native of Tokyo who of course speaks fluent Japanese, and we spent a month living with her there. At one point, we went over her aunt's friend's family's house for dinner. The friend's family does not speak any English. All night we managed to have a really interesting and fun time by using Google translate to translate what I wanted to say (my gf mostly just spectated), and Google translate would horribly mistranslate it to humorous and confusing effect, and then Yuka (the aunt) would explain to the family what I actually meant with a proper translation. Now in the middle of dinner, after a good hour of this and now at a stage where we had mostly set google translate aside, it came up that I don't drink alcohol, and the father commented how much money I must save this way. And I, fool that I am, joked "oh no I blow all the savings on cocaine." And I looked at Yuka, who chuckled and said "no, no, I'm not going to translate that." But she didn't add any cultural warning, so I thought she was just being a little formal. So I said, "fine I'll translate it with google translate!" Now sure, you might say it was a bad joke, but in the US depending who you're eating with it would still elicit chuckles or smiles, even if it was just polite. Not in Japan. When I held up the phone with the translation for them to see, the reaction was shocked silence. It was as though I had held up an image of hardcore pornography at the table. Even the two high school age boys were horrified, not so much as a smile. After a moment the father muttered in halting English "bad joke." And that is how I learned just how taboo drugs are in Japan. In retrospect Yuka found it hilarious. "I told you not to say it!" "No you didn't, you just said you wouldn't translate it, that's not the same thing!" "Ha ha well..."

charliebrownau 8y ago

Push to put DRUGS into JAPAN Push to allow ISLAM into JAPAN Push to allow Black South Africans into JAPAN While still doubling down and REFUSING to admit the Family court and marriage laws need changing to remove the unfair bias towards WOMEN

eternalban 8y ago

"advanced democracy". Oh the lies we tell one another.