Japan Shocked By Marijuana Scandals

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I seem to remember methamphetamine being pretty big in Japan in the WWII/ post WWII years... Also, opium was used pretty heavily in China for a period. I'd say the current drug situation is more a result of the USA and its global drug policy than you're giving credit to.

You're right, but China (originally becoming a trade-post for opium at the behest of Western powers) was trying to eradicate the opium trade when it got to epidemic proportions; the British wouldn't let them. And Japan hardly had a government in the 1950's, so millions of desolated civilians raided vast WWII supplies of meth. One may make a case for Japan during WWII, in that kamikazes went through a bizarre ritual before they went on missions which included being injected with amphetamine, but during that period I'd argue Japan, under a totalitarian government, radically shied away from all traditional ideals which didn't deal with militarism or its imperialist goal.