Link?
I don't mean to sound racist here, and I know lacey k is gonna say I'm racist here, but... like, in America the open air drug markets are run usually by ethnic groups like blacks or hispanics (on the street, that is). A lot of countries, like Japan, don't have significant ethnic populations, so it's just weird to me. Not to mention that many of these countries have such a different culture, where individuality is not a virtue and there is a much larger stigma. I'm not being racist here, but if you know anything about, say, Japanese culture, you'd understand how impossible it would be to have a drug market like America has over there.
Like in America, there definately is 'gang culture', which has a lot to do with your ethnicity. This is not being racist, it's just a lot of the illegality forces these groups to have very closed barriers to entry. In Japan, there is not glorification of gangs like there is in America, they value order and 'machinism' over everything. If you think I'm being racist, then it's because you don't understand Japan at all. Within America there are lots of different cultures, like black culture, et cetera, that have different rules than society at large may value. In Japan, there is only Japanese culture. In America, while I wouldn't say we are a racist nation, we are a multitude of large ethnically based cultures that are accepted.
I can understand open air drug markets in like Spain. But I know given how the culture is in Japan, there is no way they'd have open air drug markets. I'm not being racist here. I know you'll, think I'm racist, but I'd challenge that by saying that maybe it's because you don't understand foreign cultures.
I'd almost say that, compared to America, Japan doesn't use drugs. It's just the cultures are so different, so that's gonna impact how their drug culture is as well.