Marijuana and hashish become legal in Japan, after America

Lothor said:

Culturally, marijuana is about the last drug that the Japanese government would want to encourage.

It goes completely against the gambaru mentality that is instilled into the Japanese population. The prospect of making available a drug that encourages physical inertia and removes people's everyday filters, making them completely content to examine the grain on a piece of wood for hours on end as if seeing it for the first time, would fill the average lawmaker or boss with horror. I mean, what the hell is the point of a person if they are not working or consuming?

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Life is hard. It is tempting to take something to ease the pain, even if temporary, even if you know it will hurt more than help in the long run. And then there is the risk of becoming addicted, as with all drugs including alcohol. Instead of turning to drugs, East Asian countries have traditionally been able to find solace in their religious and spiritual practices that encourage social harmony, despite all of its negative aspects.

Drugs like marijuana will 'work' in any society if the numbers of users who are rendered net non-contributors of society are vastly outnumbered by the workers and consumers who can support a social and economic welfare system to compensate. Not sure Japan has the tolerance for that level of social disorder that is found in the US.

The thing that gets me is that "codeine" is found in over-the-counter cough syrup here (and definitely in easily obtainable cough syrup from a doc). Over the past 5 years, I've seen more and more empty bottles around parks, etc.

Japan is far behind in medicine and if this picks up, we're gonna have a larger problem than marijuana could ever pose (I mean, look at the US for this one).

Please note that marijuana is different with opium and the substances that are extracted from that. Opium brings the user a type of relaxation and reduce pains. Opium and its derivatives don't create delusion in the user but unlike marijuana the user finds a type of relaxation and better thinking (due to the relaxation). But beside this great positive effects the opium and its extracted drugs have a great problem as well and it is addiction. If someone use those drugs they don't destruct his brain and memory in a long term but the brain, nerve system and the cells of body addict to the opium, heroine and so on.

Sadly, addiction to opium and its derivatives is very severer than addiction to marijuana. In fact, using marijuana in a long term destruct brain, manner of correct of thinking and reaction against realities, but opium and its extracted substances destruct body (in the long run).

All the cells of the user's body addict to the opium or the more powerful drugs that are extracted from that. When the drug is cut off all the body cells send the message of a hard pain (that is intolerable) to the brain via nerve system.

Marijuana makes some disorders in the brain and the brain receive some wrong reports and issues some wrong commands to the body organs and systems.

For example, the user feels he is hungry, while he is full! Or brain sends an order to the nerve system to force blood system to send additional blood to the brain and eyes in addition to the delusions that happen in the brain. In fact, after using marijuana the brain is not able to control the network systems of body correctly.

Opium and its extracted substances don't create such the disorder in the brain but they addict the cells of the user's body to the drugs hardly.

I'm not a biologist to know scientifically, why the users become very thin and weak. Probably some of their body cells die and are destroyed, but their brain remains intact. As I told before, opium and its extracted drug don't take the user in a fantasy and delusive world (except being sleepy after using up the drugs) but its addiction is harder and severer than marijuana. Somebody who use marijuana can give it up with a little will, but giving up opium, heroine and other similar drugs is not easy and is alone with tolerating a series of pain and difficulties. I saw a little number of users who used opium or heroine to leave them permanently.

However, both the opioids and marijuana (cannabis, hashish) are among the killer drugs in a long term, one because of damaging brain and spirit, and one because of its severe addiction.

In our country all the medicines should be sold legally based on the prescription of doctors, but usually people (among me) refer to the drugstores and buy the ordinary medicines. Apart from the order and rules of the medicine organization, usually the codeine pills and syrups are sold as a routine in the drugstores and are not considered as an opioid drug. some persons just use them as a medicine for cold and similar sicknesses. These are not serious as the addictive medicines and I have never seen somebody use them routinely or addicts to them.

Has anyone seen those paintings by medieval artists who were aware of the existence of elephants but had never seen one, so their paintings were just the best guess based on how they had been described? Reading that felt like walking through a museum exhibit of misshapen elephants, and then being told it was a biology class.


@Mansoor, please stop pretending you're some kind of authority about drugs and its social effects, you clearly don't know much about them.

Codeine is a mild opioid, but it can and IS abused all around the world, namely because it's cheap and plentiful. Clearly you haven't heard of "syrup" or "lean" in American rap culture. There are tons of songs that reference it; Three Six Mafia's "Sipping on Sizzurp" came out TWENTY YEARS AGO. Here's a breakdown of Macklemore's song about the problem of syrup and prescription drug addiction, which has become the face of America's biggest drug problem. Lil Wayne was famous for drinking syrup, and overdosing on it. Here he is talking about how he got started. Look in the suggested videos about other rappers talking about their own addiction.

Maybe you haven't heard of Europes "silent opioid addiction" to codeine,
or Nigeria's codeine problem,
or Zimbabwe's:

Oh hey look, even your country has some codeine abuse. Here's the relevant bit:

Codeine is usually supplied and consumed as codeine-containing pain-killer tablets that mostly also contain acetaminophen. Both acetaminophen-codeine tablets and tramadol tablets are prescription drugs, but some pharmacies sell them without a prescription. Codeine-containing tablets are among the most requested prescription drugs in Iran (46*). Actually there are reports that acetaminophen-codeine tablets are one of the best selling drugs in Iran.

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But since you haven't seen anyone yourself abusing these drugs it's not really a problem, right? Or maybe this is going on all around you to some extent and you really have no idea what's happening.

(this entire thread should be deleted)

Hi, nice gaijin

What I wrote was not pretending. I sometimes decide to write a comment for two purposes:

1- practicing English

2- When I write something it is a type of relaxation for me

3- I try to inform others about what I know that is useful for them.

What I told about marijuana and its family ( hashish and so on) , and also about opioids were true.

Yes, if codeine is used in a long term it can be the cause of addiction. Codeine in the medicines such as Acetaminophen pills or Expectorant syrup work like a palliative med. This narcotic substance reduce pain and fever beside the main medicines. Those pills and syrup are offered (by doctors) just for a short time of usage. using them in a long term lead to a type of addiction. When I get cold I usually use a few Acetaminophen codeine during the sickness period and then give up using anymore.

The problems that you pointed to are because of using the medicines extremely for a long time unreasonably and just for intoxication and relaxation! This manner of using codeine addict the user in a long run.

Hi juhannyG

Why do you believe this topic should be locked?! Today, drugs and addiction is an obvious problem in the world. I don't think speaking about this matter is an improper thing in the forum. The comments in the topic can enlighten readers.

Mansoor, sometimes you write your opinions as if there are no other points of view or that your opinion is the only correct viewpoint which may irritate people. But I agree with you in that what you wrote in that last post is mostly factual. Or, at least, commonly held opinions.

The premise of this thread itself has a very tenuous connection to Japan. There is no serious effort to make marijuana legal in Japan and I doubt there would be any change for at least a decade or two. But we have plenty of threads like that so I don't see a reason to delete it either.

And you are correct, opioid addiction is an extremely serious problem across the world. In America much of the abuse is from legally manufactured "medicine." More so than heroin or opium I believe. I'm not sure what the situation is in Japan. They have some advantage in that they can control their borders much easier than countries with long land borders.