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Marijuana and hashish become legal in Japan, after America

Mansoor

Sempai
4 Mar 2016
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These days the market of praising marijuana in the medias of America is hot, and you can find a lot of news and articles that admire this drug as a beneficial and useful substance that cure human! Even somebodies regret that why they didn't discover the amazing and useful properties of this healing substance and considered it as an illegal thing for many years.
Even some known and unknown persons in the medias welcome legalization this drug in the most of America states and have started publishing thousands cases of benefits of this dreamy and excellent substance!

You can see everyday several of such news and article in the Yahoo agency.

But you must know, marijuana is a drug as other drugs that are prohibited and it is not a useful and beneficial substance for depression better than some other medicines.

It is harmful and damages brain and nervous system in a long time and makes a crazy, insane and sick person from its user, although it offers the users a little joy, at the beginning.
I don't want to speak about harms and causes of marijuana here (may I do this in the future posts) but was thinking that may this drug be legal in Japan after America.

What do you think?
 
These days the market of praising marijuana in the medias of America is hot, and you can find a lot of news and articles that admire this drug as a beneficial and useful substance that cure human! Even somebodies regret that why they didn't discover the amazing and useful properties of this healing substance and considered it as an illegal thing for many years.
Even some known and unknown persons in the medias welcome legalization this drug in the most of America states and have started publishing thousands cases of benefits of this dreamy and excellent substance!

You can see everyday several of such news and article in the Yahoo agency.

But you must know, marijuana is a drug as other drugs that are prohibited and it is not a useful and beneficial substance for depression better than some other medicines.

It is harmful and damages brain and nervous system in a long time and makes a crazy, insane and sick person from its user, although it offers the users a little joy, at the beginning.
I don't want to speak about harms and causes of marijuana here (may I do this in the future posts) but was thinking that may this drug be legal in Japan after America.

What do you think?

To each their own. I am not using any, but I also feel no need to decide for others what they can or cannot use. People who want to use it, will find a way to do it with our without the government's approval anyway.

I am sure many people in your country are using shisha (maybe even you?) to smoke. I have read several articles that using those are quite bad for your health as well. How do you feel about those things?
 
Coming from a law enforcement background , I doubted the drug's use was legit. My last 20 years before I retired as a home care nurse , I saw many of my patients helped using it. I do believe for some medical problems and illnesses , it can be a wonder drug.
 
Marijuana has plenty of medicinal merits, and as a recreational drug it does way less damage than other, legal substances like alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs. The vilification of marijuana is the product of racism in America in the early 20th century, and it's still a schedule 1 controlled substance because we're still coming to terms with just how racist our "war on drugs" has been. Criminalizing a drug only makes the "drug problem" worse.

Japan doesn't seem to have as much trouble with drugs, it seems the government has successfully convinced the general population that "drugs are bad, mmkay," so there's no popular support to decriminalize it. I'd be surprised if Japan were to move in that direction, even if America led the way.
 
I live in Alaska, one of the states (like Washington, Oregon, and Colorado) that have recently legalized recreational use of cannabis. Medical use has been allowed by my state's law for years.

But the legal status of marijuana (cannabis) in the US is peculiar and unique. Despite legalization in the above states, marijuana use, possession, and sale remain crimes under federal law. The main reason that legalization has made headway in recent years is the fact that we have a Democrat in the White House who, as an ex-pot smoker himself, is very lenient on marijuana use. This status could change with a new president, and the feds could begin raiding marijuana shops that are legal under state law.

The only thing that will fix this conflict is an act of Congress that repeals the criminalization of marijuana.
 
To each their own. I am not using any, but I also feel no need to decide for others what they can or cannot use. People who want to use it, will find a way to do it with our without the government's approval anyway.

I am sure many people in your country are using shisha (maybe even you?) to smoke. I have read several articles that using those are quite bad for your health as well. How do you feel about those things?

The problem that I hinted to, was mostly about legalization of marijuana. Lifting the ban of this drug encourage people to use it freely and widespread.
No, basically the majority of persons in Iran don't smoke, especially hookah.
I recently stopped smoking, after 20 years! It is about two months that I have quit cigarette. It was very hard for me to leave smoking but I did that. During these two months, I just broke my repentance two time and smoked two cigarette! But I am not going to continue that. When the imagination and pressure of smoking comes in my mind I suppose a black and dirty monster who raises smoke from its head, lights a cigarette and offer it to me! I escape from that temptation by all my will.
However, I am trying hardly to pass from this critical step until I forget smoking quite.
 
But you must know, marijuana is a drug as other drugs that are prohibited and it is not a useful and beneficial substance for depression better than some other medicines.

It is harmful and damages brain and nervous system in a long time and makes a crazy, insane and sick person from its user, although it offers the users a little joy, at the beginning.
I don't want to speak about harms and causes of marijuana here (may I do this in the future posts) but was thinking that may this drug be legal in Japan after America.

What do you think?

I think you should stop stating opinion as fact.

As for your question, I doubt Japan would follow the U.S. lead on it. They have a different tradition, history and relationship with the substance.
 
One more thing.

I am sure that you have seen the country flag behind my name. The Netherlands have quite a reputation regarding its softdrugs policy. Weed can easily be obtained here once you reach adulthood, but it does not mean that everyone uses it. I'd like to believe it even brings crime down, since the government can control distribution. It is out of the shadows so to speak. And I will say it again: let people decide for themselves what to do, as long as it doesn't hurt or affect others.
 
These days the market of praising marijuana in the medias of America is hot, and you can find a lot of news and articles that admire this drug as a beneficial and useful substance that cure human! Even somebodies regret that why they didn't discover the amazing and useful properties of this healing substance and considered it as an illegal thing for many years.
Even some known and unknown persons in the medias welcome legalization this drug in the most of America states and have started publishing thousands cases of benefits of this dreamy and excellent substance!

You can see everyday several of such news and article in the Yahoo agency.

But you must know, marijuana is a drug as other drugs that are prohibited and it is not a useful and beneficial substance for depression better than some other medicines.

It is harmful and damages brain and nervous system in a long time and makes a crazy, insane and sick person from its user, although it offers the users a little joy, at the beginning.
I don't want to speak about harms and causes of marijuana here (may I do this in the future posts) but was thinking that may this drug be legal in Japan after America.

What do you think?
I don't like hashish's effect although it's very cheap and easy to find in my country but it's not worse than alcohool (which I like) in term of bad effect.
 
There is not any alternative for you except you trust on my enlightening. May some of you describe hashish and marijuana are two good substance that offer a good mood to their users, but I am sure it is an insufficient opinion about them.

Those who use liqueur think so too! When you alert them to stop drinking they become uneasy and unhappy and when you list a series of the harms of drinking and also being drunk, they will say, it doesn't matter if you drink in moderate!

Although I am not agree that drinking liqueur in moderate is harmless, based on my both biology and supernatural information, but who can warranties that he can drink in moderate always, when he is very happy or depressed?!
But let me I say a reality that a group of people prefer their joy and desire on their health ( whether their physiological or spiritual health). They always try to deny everything that is opposite to what they like.

I was in a forum and was hinting to the harms of liqueurs genteelly. Some users that were lover of wine and beer became uneasy and asked me to stop critiquing alcohol! As I was concerned that moderators of the forum to be excited and warn me about my comments versus alcohol, I had to stop talking about any intoxicant liquid!
But I believe silence of a knowledgeable adviser doesn't change the realities that are around.

Hashish and marijuana have adverse effect on the brain's cells. If you doubt about this truth see the users of these two drug how laugh unreasonably, how they imagine the odd things and views that doesn't exist, how their appetite are excited without they are hungry and how their eyes become red because of rushing blood into their eyes capillary.
Of course these two drugs have spiritual damages in addition to their physiological harms.
 
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Yes I know, the effect of smoking weed is enjoyable, but the problem is that it has some adverse effect on brain and body as well. Be sure, If there were not these biological and spiritual harms, I would be one of its enthusiastic advocates.
 
Stop with the 1980s Nancy Reagan fear mongering. It's not true, there's plenty of research to back its positive effects, and more all the time. You could sooner do yourself harm with tap water or Vitamin C, which can actually kill you. There's no known toxicity for THC, which makes it one of the most unique substances in the world. I dare you to find another that won't kill you from over-use or over-dose.

But, no, I wouldn't expect Japan to legalize it like some states within the USA anytime soon. However, like so many other things, the people that want it will continue to get it, like anything else. Legalizing it, however, reduces the crime surrounding its transport, distribution and sale. Legalizing it would reduce income for criminal enterprises as well as eliminate death and violence over supplying the market. It's a really stupid thing to die over or kill over, which is the lesson we (the USA) should have learned from our ill-advised Prohibition period, which increased violent crime related to alcohol while doing nothing to reduce its usage or the crime committed by those under its influence (something there's statistically irrelevant counterpart to for marijuana).

Alcohol, all things considered, is a terrible, yet legal drug. And it should stay legal. Adults should be allowed to make their own choices and, if necessary, be held accountable for their bad decisions.
 
I love this sentence that you told:
"Alcohol, is terrible"
But I didn't choose the sentence that you expressed:
"And alcohol should stay legal (for adults)"

I even heard, some Catholics say:" Jesus turned water into wine by miracle!"
Those Catholics are respectable for me, but It is a wonderful story! How one of the highest characters and most righteous messengers in the history changes a useful thing to a harmful thing so that people drink it, become drunk and hurt themselves ?!

However, alcohol is good but just for industry and using it instead of gasoline in the machines and not for drinking.

Weeds are harmful as well, but with different damages.

There is an experience:
Whatever becomes a common practice in USA, it will be permeated in other lands, after a while. and not only I am concerned about people of America getting this bad habit (using weeds), but I am concerned about naive Japanese youths that follow smoking grass.

And then you will see Tokyo is full of smokes of marijuana and hashish that rise from windows or air conditioning of every house and the loud sounds of laughter will be heard in the city without a funny motivation!
 
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Prohibition of drugs and/or alcohol always has social costs. There are monetary costs of law enforcement, prisons, court and social support systems, and the like, and non-monetary costs of broken families of both perpetrators and victims. But the cost impact is only secondary to the primary question of whether the government should be able to control what people put in their own bodies.

For a truly free man or woman, the choice of what to ingest is in their own hands. Individual rights should trump the government's desire to control our behavior. Too often, usually because of politics, the individual rights lose out to arguments that begin and end, "For the sake of society. . ." Or that even better one, "For the sake of the children!"

Government has no business trying to save me from myself. I'm an adult competent to handle my own affairs. Now they're telling me what I may eat or not, what medical treatment I may seek or not seek, and what business (Weed farmer or seller) I can make my living at. What's next? Will they tell us we may only eat meat on Tuesdays and Fridays, or who even gets to eat at all? Pretty soon maybe only the president's party members will be fed, and the rest of us will be reduced to beggers or slaves, like in North Korea.

The one thing the individual should be able to ask from the government is whether they are keeping us informed about the risks of the drug. Decades worth of studies have well-documented the harmful effects of alcohol. In the US there are no similar studies generated about cannabis-- at least none that were publicly funded--because the Congress has forbade study of cannabis. But over the same decades there have accumulated a mass of reports of victims of various maladies reporting relief from cannabis. It doesn't work for all people, or all conditions, but for some only. But those some were helped enormously. Appetite and normal sleep patterns are restored, mood and outlook is improved, pain is lessened.

Even if the only effect on a patient is a bit of euphoria, what's so bad about making someone a little happy while they wait to die of cancer or some other incurable disease?
 
Ronald, I myself believe freedom is a relative matter and not an absolute thing.
Can do a person drives 130 miles in a highway, with 80 miles speed limit? what is the meaning of freedom about this Issue? Why the law has determined the speed limit in the highway? For itself or for safety of that driver and others?
If that person drives 150 miles in a wide and lonely desert, is there any Prohibition for him to reduce his speed?
So what is the difference between a desert and a highway which the highway is included limit speed and prohibition of unauthorized speed?
A highway is a public way that its safety is connected to all passengers (society) and not only a person; but a desert can be an individual field for a single driver. He can drive fast and hurts himself or drive moderately and remains safe. It dependent his logic and decision.

But in a highway he is not free to do whatever he wishes. His decision is subject to other citizens too. He not only can hurt himself and can be the causes of a series of property damages, but he can be the cause of the serious physical harms to others.

Freedom in this condition is false and meaningless. So we can see a sign beside the road with the message:" You are not free to drive higher than 80 miles."
"You are not free" here finds an enforceable meaning. There are tens samples of such cases in the society that say"a person is not free to do a wrong in the public."

However, freedom is a relative thing and is not absolute. The freedom is acceptable that doesn't hurt society. Some laws in the west must be modified. The "ministry of heath" is responsible against health of people. As they supervise their food industries and medicine they have to show a reaction against harmful substances that damage the health of the people. Alcohol and weed are among the harmful substances.
 
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Mansewer, of course freedom is relative. If you drive drunk and hurt somebody, you should be held criminally responsible. But I don't need a Big Brother or nanny state telling me what I can and cannot put in my body.
 
In specific (small) dosis both alcoholic drinks like red wine and others and marihuana are good for you.

No matter how much you prohibit something, if people enjoy it they will do it. Making it illegal only benefits illegal drug dealers.

I am not going to smoke a single marihuana joint after they legalize it, like Roland said

I don't need a Big Brother or nanny state telling me what I can and cannot put in my body.

Tobacco smoking is perfectly legal and it kills hundreds of thousands each year. It has no benefits to your health whatsoever. Where's the debate on illegalizing cigarettes?
 
Can do a person drives 130 miles in a highway, with 80 miles speed limit? what is the meaning of freedom about this Issue? Why the law has determined the speed limit in the highway?
There are big differences between speed limits and substance prohibition. Excessive speed directly endangers others, while the use of mind-altering substances does not. Acts that the user engages in while intoxicated can be dangerous, but we can outlaw those acts rather than outlawing the substance.

The other major difference is that there is no 'black market' possible for speeding on the highway. When you outlaw substances, then criminals can easily profit by providing those substances. Violence often follows, either in territory disputes between criminal organizations or between criminal organizations and law enforcement. When the market is legal, the same substance transport and sale takes places without violence.

This problem of incentivizing black markets and criminal violence is very specific to substance prohibition. Other crimes are directly endangering society (reckless or violent acts, theft of property, etc.). Substance prohibition is unique in outlawing a perceived indirect cause of other acts that could endanger society. Unfortunately, by outlawing these substances, you create more violent and reckless behavior, not less.
 
There are big differences between speed limits and substance prohibition. Excessive speed directly endangers others, while the use of mind-altering substances does not. Acts that the user engages in while intoxicated can be dangerous, but we can outlaw those acts rather than outlawing the substance.

The other major difference is that there is no 'black market' possible for speeding on the highway. When you outlaw substances, then criminals can easily profit by providing those substances. Violence often follows, either in territory disputes between criminal organizations or between criminal organizations and law enforcement. When the market is legal, the same substance transport and sale takes places without violence.

This problem of incentivizing black markets and criminal violence is very specific to substance prohibition. Other crimes are directly endangering society (reckless or violent acts, theft of property, etc.). Substance prohibition is unique in outlawing a perceived indirect cause of other acts that could endanger society. Unfortunately, by outlawing these substances, you create more violent and reckless behavior, not less.

1-What about "no smoking" alert in an oil refinery or in a hospital? While tobacco and match are both substances?

2- is the alternative of removing drug lords, removing drug prohibition so that the violence and reckless acts are reduced?!

Isn't it like that the fuel of an airplane is going to be finished, then the pilots and crews shoot passengers out from the plane to save them from crashing?

Also isn't it the sign of weakness and inability of police and judiciary that leave drug lords free and give freedom to people to farm and use those drugs?
 
1-What about "no smoking" alert in an oil refinery or in a hospital? While tobacco and match are both substances?
I was using 'substance' as shorthand for 'mind-altering substance', essentially meaning 'drugs and alcohol'. So a match isn't a 'substance' in that sense.

In any case, in this case you are controlling the use of fire or the emission of smoke for the safety of those around. Again, you can't have a 'black market' for smoking in a non-smoking area, it's not a thing that can be sold. It's very similar to your speed limit example - you're restricting behavior in a shared space for the safety of everyone involved.

2- is the alternative of removing drug lords, removing drug prohibition so that the violence and reckless acts are reduced?!
Historically it does not appear to be. Alcohol Prohibition created bootleggers and led to a meteoric rise in the power of organized crime. Today, it is other substances that fuel the formation and funding of inner city gangs and drug-funded warlords but the pattern is the same.

Isn't it like that the fuel of an airplane is going to be finished, then the pilots and crews shoot passengers out from the plane to save them from crashing?
No, that analogy doesn't make any sense at all. The only time people are being shot is when there is violence over drug profits, or alcohol profits during prohibition.

Also isn't it the sign of weakness and inability of police and judiciary that leave drug lords free and give freedom to people to farm and use those drugs?
Not really. A lot of money and effort has been spent trying to control drugs and alcohol. It turns out, the more that you try to restrict these substances, the higher the value they have on the black market. The higher the value they have on the black market, the more people are willing to risk illegal activity to get rich quickly. At the same time, if the profits are extremely high then the black marketeers have the funds to bribe officials, purchase weapons, and hire mercenaries to fight law enforcement and other black marketeers.

That is, the harder you fight with conventional enforcement techniques, the higher the value of the black market rises until the black marketeers have the resources to overcome the efforts.

Of course, it could in theory be done in a sufficiently totalitarian regime. You have to be pretty extreme though - most totalitarian regimes still don't control the population nearly well enough to succeed in this. North Korea is perhaps the only regime that has a tight enough grip on their population to completely eliminate black markets (assuming that they have even done so, but it seems likely they have). I don't recommend anyone modelling their country after North Korea, however, the costs are quite high.
 
I myself believe freedom is a relative matter and not an absolute thing
Limitations on liberty does not make liberty a relative matter. Societies in which everyone is free to do "what he will" would be an anarchy. What we have are countries that guarantee certain liberties within paramaters that allow the maximum freedom for all. In English we have the phrase
"Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins"
which I think is a good principle. The limitations do not make it a relative concept. The limits are set by law, which, again, in principle, are based on the will of the people, and are tested in courts.
In the case of drugs, sometimes laws were created to protect pharmaceutical companies (based sometimes on phony data). and sometimes laws were created for different motivations (some moralistic). It is now being recognized that laws prohibiting marijuana were based on false data, or were created for business interests, and so these laws are being slowly repealed.
As Chris says above, the police and the judiciary are public servants. The US is not so much an authoritarian state, where the police have absolute power. There are limits to the power of the police and the judicial system, which is why the US is different from a totalitarian or fascist state. As for people farming or using drugs; it does me no injury for my neighbor to use hashish. It neither picks my pocket or breaks my leg. (← Paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson.)
 
In the case of drugs, sometimes laws were created to protect pharmaceutical companies (based sometimes on phony data). and sometimes laws were created for different motivations (some moralistic). It is now being recognized that laws prohibiting marijuana were based on false data, or were created for business interests, and so these laws are being slowly repealed.
While the pharmaceutical companies certainly have a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal, as it seems to have a wide variety of medical uses and is not patentable, the industry that primarily funded the original push to outlaw marijuana was the paper industry.

Marijuana is, after all, also known as 'hemp' and historically has been used to make paper, cloth and rope. It's actually quite an amazing plant with many industrial applications in addition to the pharmaceutical applications. A single marijuana farm could, in theory, provide fibers for paper, cloth and rope; seed oil for biodiesel and seeds for culinary applications, as well as the pharmaceutical applications from the leaf buds. In practice, this doesn't happen. There are a small number of farms raising low-THC content marijuana for textiles, and a larger number raising medical marijuana. Marijuana seeds are rarely harvested despite their potential nutritionally and as fuel, but then again there are many industries already competing in those spaces.

It might be worth noting that a lot of medical marijuana is also low THC content - it turns out the compounds that get a person 'high' are not always the same compounds that have beneficial pharmaceutical effects (depending on the application) and selective breeding is being done so that people can reap the medical benefits without getting 'high'. A lot of people view medical marijuana as an excuse to get high, but in practice this is not the case. The desirable characteristics of high-grade medical marijuana and high-grade recreational marijuana are generally quite different.
 
A lot of money and effort has been spent trying to control drugs and alcohol. It turns out, the more that you try to restrict these substances, the higher the value they have on the black market. The higher the value they have on the black market, the more people are willing to risk illegal activity to get rich quickly. At the same time, if the profits are extremely high then the black marketeers have the funds to bribe officials, purchase weapons, and hire mercenaries to fight law enforcement and other black marketeers.

That is, the harder you fight with conventional enforcement techniques, the higher the value of the black market rises until the black marketeers have the resources to overcome the efforts.

Of course, it could in theory be done in a sufficiently totalitarian regime. You have to be pretty extreme though - most totalitarian regimes still don't control the population nearly well enough to succeed in this. North Korea is perhaps the only regime that has a tight enough grip on their population to completely eliminate black markets (assuming that they have even done so, but it seems likely they have). I don't recommend anyone modelling their country after North Korea, however, the costs are quite high.

That ends the debate for me. :hilarious:
 
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