Abe declares war on quasi-legal ‘dappo’ drugs (Japan)

slimvictor

slimvictor

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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday declared a new war against quasi-legal highs known as “dappo” drugs, pledging to adopt a speedier process by which regulators can identify and outlaw products with dangerous narcotic or hallucinogenic ingredients.

The pronouncement came at an emergency government meeting was held in response to a recent spate of car accidents involving drivers high on the drugs. In some cases the drivers hit and killed pedestrians.

“Dappo” means law-evading in Japanese. Usually a mix of dried herbs and synthetic stimulants, dealers are quick to produce and market new cocktails that contain chemicals whose molecular structure differs very slightly from those proscribed by law.

According to the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry, the number of chemicals outlawed under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law surged to more than 1,300 from 68 in April 2012. Still, police have been unable to keep up with the rapid emergence of new dappo drugs.

The government will quicken processes by which authorities can outlaw dangerous chemical components by using information on such drugs from other countries, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference following the meeting.

Police will also take “every measure available” to crack down on dappo drugs, including those that are not yet outlawed under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, Suga said. He gave no details.

The National Police Agency says 40 drivers in traffic accidents were high on dappo drugs in 2013, up from 19 people in 2012.

On June 24 this year, motorist Keiji Nagura, 37, of Saitama Prefecture, reportedly took a dappo drug and then struck and killed a woman and injured seven people in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo.

On Feb. 4, a car hit and injured 15 people in the Tenjin area in the city of Fukuoka. The driver had allegedly taken dappo drugs.

Suga indirectly asked media outlets to refrain from calling the drugs “dappo haabu”(dappo herb), saying it could give the impression that they are less dangerous than other narcotics.

“We’d like people in the media to ensure that (the drugs) are understood to be highly dangerous,” Suga said.

cont at
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...ares-war-quasi-legal-dappo-drugs#.U76LJl7_7SE
 
I'm just guessing he's talking about synth. Cannabanoids and rc's. A lot of good people are having serious issues with the "spice" shit. The jwh didn't seem as bad as these new formulations that are available now. I got some of the new shit thinking it was gonna be like the jwh blends but whoaaa, fuckin way different shit IMO. Lots of addiction issues and people having serious wd issues with it. Who would've thought? I sure didn't. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world but it's some trippy shit for sure. I can't speak on the the rest of the rc's I cause I've never tried them but it seems to me and from everything I read here on bl that the new cannabanoids maybe should be taken off the shelves. You'll always be able to get them if u really want them, but this will keep them away from inexperienced people who think because it's at the corner store it's safe. I'm not a fan of prohibition but this substance really seems to be doing more harm than good. Stick to the weed if possible...
 
I totally agree, but it has to be total legalization. I've got medical issues and my dr won't write for it, he knows it'll help and he was letting me smoke(on my own) now I'm going to pain man. So I had to stop, my pcp is petrified of the dea so he won't write. And pain man. Is wicked strict, tried to write for marinol(ins won't pay) but no weed, WTF!! Lol. But it's gotta be blanket legalization I think, drs need to stop testing for it like a drug too. C'mon, weed?? I smoked for 20yrs, 5-10x a day, put it down like nothing. It's not addictive. Well not if ur minds right with it anyways. I gotta move to Colorado lol. I just can't believe it's still illegal, it's just not logical. Unless u work in le...
 
If any country has been semi successful in the war against drugs it's japan. Proper hard drugs while not completely non existent, are a lot harder to come by in Japan. Overall society is very anti drugs too. Interestingly enough gun control is super effective in Japan too. Culture has a big say in why this is the case.

This is a short essay that pretty much sums up japan

http://opinion.yamanotestyle.com/home/legal-drugs-in-japan
 
I don't know much at all about Japan's history of drug use - other than the fact that alcoholic beverages and tobacco products are legal to use for recreational purposes.

What I do know however is that addiction is an extremely complex issue which may be manifested from countless causes spanning decades. For this reason, addiction is also a unique experience for everyone, and no two stories of a person's life leading up to habitual drug use is ever exactly the same.

In any case, the fact that the two deadliest drugs are available in Japan to be abused to my liver and lung's content makes any success they have had with the "hard" drugs seem rather hollow.
 
As much as I enjoy drug use it's difficult to argue that japan has a huge addiction problem compared to the us. Society is simply conditioned to look down upon even benign drug use such as cannabis. As far as I'm aware even prescription amphetamines are not available. If you are looking at a purely health perspective I'd say the fact the Japanese have one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world then they must be doing something right.

They also take a hard line against tattoos too so take that as you will.
 
^ Yes, but there is relatively little social stigma to returning home shit-faced drunk, on the floor of the train, every night, as long as you keep contributing to society during the day.
"He just loves beer" / "He works hard and needs a break" (shrug it off with a laugh)
Much more accepted than in the West, where people would say "that alcoholic guy needs help".
(If we can consider alcohol a "hard drug", as I like to, then the problem is evident.)

And, to make sure that it is clear, the fact that, as you said, "Society is simply conditioned to look down upon even benign drug use such as cannabis" is very true, for mainstream society.
However, there are "alternative" societies (basically those involved with hippie-type music/culture or electronic, trance-type music/culture) where cannabis is smoked incredibly openly.
At some festivals, people smoke cannabis and even DMT while sitting around the tent or the fire, offering strangers a hit.
So, the seeds of an alternate viewpoint exist in Japan.
 
Oh I know from personal experience the Japanese subculture ;)

There is no ignoring the fact though that compared to almost all other Asian countries, and even those with far more severe drug punishments, japan has managed to keep their drug "problem" relatively contained.

Even compared to most western countries, Japan's alcohol use/abuse is tame. Sure they like to give it a good nudge, why not when you have such great sake and beer? However the violence that is often associated with alcohol just doesn't exist. As for liver damage, reality is you need to have a hefty doses of alcoholism to reach that stage. If I was Japanese I'd worry more about radiation induced cancers than alcohol.

I'd be just fine if tobacco was banned worldwide to be fair.
 
Interestingly enough, the most common illicit drug use in Japan is I.V. methamphetamine. That said, it's still at a super-low level compared to the rest of the developed world.
 
"True privacy consists of not being noticed."
-- Japanese proverb

This is a great piece of wisdom that I've taken to heart. There is no better protection from powerful people with an interest in stopping you doing what you do, than flying under their radar. This means keep your big yap shut, and not doing odd things that arouse curiosity in front of other people, unless you've truly got nothing to hide. One of the biggest things I took away from my bad romance with Japanese culture, was that being secretive is not inherently bad, and living one's life as an open book is highly overrated. This is especially true if your nonconformism runs far deeper than youthful rebellion, that is, you deliberately choose as a sane adult to think, say, and do things that many folks in mainstream society have a problem with. For about ~48h at a stretch, all other things being ideal, I can convincingly play-act as the most square, strait-laced golden boy you've ever seen. This isn't insincerity, it's survival.

Every conversation I've ever had about drugs and Japan has always ended with the same bottom line: Neither the authorities nor the populace have any tolerance for them, and if you have anything to do with drugs in Japan, you probably will be caught and will certainly have the book thrown at you. Everybody then has a couple of stories they pull out, usually about foreigners but sometimes a local, who got caught. Invariably the hapless drug user was caught under freak circumstances he couldn't have foreseen, with only a tiny personal-use amount of a fairly benign drug or even just dirty urine, and has his life utterly ruined over it. For a foreigner the story usually ends with deportation with no chance of ever returning, sometimes after a lengthy and tortuous prison sentence, despite having a family and a vibrant life in Japan, and being an otherwise model member of society.

I don't doubt that the above really does go on, and the stories are not exaggerations. But I'm channeling Robert Anton Wilson here, and the whole business smacks of "what they want you to think". And when we're dealing with a Confucian face-saving culture, that lives in constant paranoia of being dominated by an outside power, and has possibly the world's most effective example of centralized top-down governance, there's a whole lot of "what they want you to think" in Japan, both for insiders and outsiders approaching the country. What I'm getting at is, the affable gaijin with 40+ crime-free years in Japan who gets caught with a pinch of doobie, gets brutally made a sacrificial lamb in order to scare the foreign population in Japan. And from the way the conversations always seem to go (including this thread), it seems to be working.

I actually think Japan's rate of drug use is higher than any official statistic you'll find anywhere. Because the Japanese are masters of both saving face and putting on a unified front, I think most drug users in Japan take great pains to ensure absolutely no one (except their dealer) will ever suspect. I suspect many would be too paranoid to even disclose on an ostensibly anonymous survey, lest the promise of anonymity be false, or someone look over their shoulder as they take the survey. Plus they're a people so conditioned to give "the answer people are looking for", not "the ugly truth".

I say this because Japan actually had an indigenous tradition of cannabis use (among some geisha guilds) before the Meiji government stamped it out and wrote it out of history to look civilized to the West. Amphetamines were invented in Japan, and the Japanese seem to have a weakness for this class of drugs I've seldom seen matched elsewhere. They've had 3 big "epidemics" of amphetamine addiction since the drug was invented there, and am sure haven't seen the last of it. They're as scared of amphetamines as the Chinese are of opium, due to history. No wonder they're not available by prescription in Japan.

No, I don't think the true extent of drug use in Japan will ever come to light.
 
So true. They are the society that invented wearing a mask. It would be naive to think that the true drug scene in other Western countries isn't camouflage by secrecy though.

The fact that a gram of cocaine in Tokyo is considerably cheaper than in Sydney to me always suggested that their drug scene is thriving. I actually don't think that is a bad thing personally, like the proverb I believe that any successful soldier in the war against drugs must utilise camouflage. There is nothing to be gained in exposing yourself unnecessarily.
 
Nice post, MDAO!
I agree that there is more to drugs than meets the eye in Japan.
Once I smelled cannabis smoke coming from my neighbor's house.
Just regular people, here in the Japanese countryside, so I was quite surprised.
I never figured out if it was the parents or teenage daughter, but I was glad either way.

I didn't know you had a "failed romance" with Japan.
I hope you have both recovered and that everything is ok now! ;)
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
There is no better protection from powerful people with an interest in stopping you doing what you do, than flying under their radar. This means keep your big yap shut, and not doing odd things that arouse curiosity in front of other people, unless you've truly got nothing to hide.
Click to expand...

The unfortunately reality (at least based on my experiences) is that "the truth will [not] set you free." As such, I find the above (partial) quote to be quite profound.

Edit - And I agree with slimvictor, really well-written post MDAO!
 
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Honestly I can see why countries which have been seized by fascism are against amphetamine. It preaches total subservience to military power. I do think some people need it, though, and imo it can help to stay away from other more harmful substances if used as directed. But I still don't see the logic in ruining one's life because they take drugs. I think there might be a better way to fill the void, so to speak, though I don't think society has progressed enough in this manner.

These legal drugs will not cease (at least for a while) being used until some changes in policy are made. Though I use no unprescribed drugs except for caffeine and nicotine, and once in a while might have a few drinks, I can see why people want to get high. It's their nature. Personally, I know it's a dead end, so I stay away. And will forever. Some can lead a productive life using recreational drugs routinely.

No, they're probably more dangerous than other narcotics. That's why there ought to be safer alternatives, or better treatment.
 
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