News Cannabis gummies distributed at Tokyo festival

The NPA reported last week that six people fell ill after eating gummy candies containing cannabis at a festival in Koganei in western Tokyo. The symptoms included vomiting--five were taken to a hospital but later recovered and were discharged. A man in his 40s offered the candies to the six at the festival on 4 November, believing they would make people "feel good," according to police. Investigators are analyzing the ingredients of the candies and questioning the man on how he obtained them. The festival drew around 4,000 people to Musashino Park. In another case, four people in their 20s were taken to hospital on 3 November after feeling sick at Oshiage Station, a railway station in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.

The gummies the man handed out were a product manufactured by a company based in Osaka. The ingredients printed on a label included HHCH, or hexahydrocannabihexol, according to the Tokyo metropolitan and Osaka governments. HHCH is a synthetic substance with a structure similar to tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a constituent of cannabis, and can cause effects such as hallucinations and memory impairment. While THC is banned in Japan, HHCH is not, according to the health ministry.

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The health ministry said yesterday that it is now planning to ban HHCH and all substances with structures similar to HHCH, which can cause hallucinations and memory impairment. Another psychoactive constituent of cannabis known as THC is already prohibited in Japan.