Legal Q GHB or GBL in Japan

Legal Q GHB or GBLin Japan

Hi, I have recently moved to Japan from a country where GHB was recently banned. I would like to import a small amount of GHB or GBL for my personal use, however before I do this I would like to know if it is legal? I can`t read Japanese, so findin information is difficult. I have found a Japanese website that offers to sell a popular GHB drink RE********, but it is very expensive... This suggests to me that it is legal, but I would like to be 100% sure before importing a cheaper alternative. I have posted this in legal Q`s but as this is the Asia forum, I thought I might find some help here. Ewoid gave some idea of stutus, however it is old and not very clear.
Thank you in advance.
Toshi

I don't know of anyone in Asia who posts here...
Now that I've said that however, 40 people who post rarely and live there will reply to this thread

Japan We received a report that as of December 2001, GHB is now controlled in Japan and vendors have replaced GHB products with 1,4b and colored the liquid blue. (from KO)
As of October 2001, GHB is still legal in Japan, though legislation is reported to be immanent that will make it illegal to possess.(note from anonymous source, oct 22 2001) - That's off Erowid. Pretty sketchy, but by the sounds of things you're treading on very thin ice by trying to obtain it...
Sorry I can't be of any more assistance
Good luck.

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I've spent a while searching the Net for Japanese news articles about GHB and have not found anything much from this year, nor reference to changes in their pharmaceuticals laws. Most of the info I found comes from a spate of articles last year after the death of a 16 year old. It appears (my translation may be rough and should certainly not be taken as legal gospel) that GHB is not approved - which doesn't necessarily mean illegal - and there may be some legal loophole that uses allows people to privately import the stuff. In the case above, someone got arrested for breaking their Pharmaceutical Law for *advertising* a non-recognized medicine (rather than possession/supply).
However I can't urge you strongly enough to not even think about importing any amount. The Japanese are really *serious* about drugs and you really really don't want to go there. Here's a link to an article on what prisons are like (and a reasonable percentage of people are in for minor drug offences)
http://www.japanfile.com/culture_and_society/social_issues/Prisons-1.shtml
If you are a foreigner you stick out like a sore thumb and you risk the attention of Customs and officialdom by importing. I suggest you ask around and try and find the stuff locally...
Good luck!

I'm from Japan! hai hai hai! And although I wouldn't say G is common over there, I know one dude who always has a 2-litre bottle of it cuz he buys it online. Do a search under Yahoo for "buy GHB", and it'll come up with a couple of sites that have G up or sale. There is ONE *supergood* site that will ship to Japan and has lots of information on it. Here's the thing: I can't say for sure if GHB is legal in Japan or not, BUT, this website makes it painfully clear that they won't ship to Australia or The US. I'm sure this is because it's illegal to do so. So I'm just assuming that if it was illegal in Japan too, they would have it up on their site. (am I making myself clear? Sorry if I'm not..) Anyway please don't take my theory as the last word, but I think it'd be safe to say that you could buy G online and have it shipped to you, no problem. Check out the site; I would buy from there too if I only had a credit card.
Oh and one more thing! If you go to one of those cute little head shops in Shibuya (I'm not sure if I can write the name here or not), you can get shit which *isn't* GHB, but once it's in your body it's converted to GHB, so pretty much does the same thing. At least, that's what I was told by the shop assistant anyway.
Hope I helped you some* It's so cool to know there's someone in Japan posting here. I'm going home for a month starting next Friday, so if you're ever going out, email me if you want! I'm always at Luners, Code, Yoyogi park, Liquid Room... :D peace*

Thanks for the help, but at this stage, all the information I can find is still unclear... as was said Japan is very very hard on drug laws and the info from ewoid is unrealiable in this case... I would really appriciate it if someone could help.. if GHB is not approved, then what about GBL? I am finding it tuff to get any hard facts. Some sites seam to have no problem shipping to Japan, but I would much rather be safe than sorry... Thanks in advance... please help.

This discussion has been all good so far, and thankyou to those that have posted for not specifically naming sources... as you're probably aware there is a policy of no sources, and this has been followed so far - I'm only posting as a reminder for future posts just in case the discussion gets more specific...

I did a bit more searching on quite a few Japanese and English newspapers and couldn't find any reference to amendments in the law in the last 12-18mths so I suspect that there hasn't been any major change in the drug laws (though the sale/possession of mushrooms were made illegal under the Narcotics Control Law this year). The best description I could find of the situation was in ths article:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010508b5.htm

While the drugs -- which do not fall under regulated categories of narcotics or stimulants -- are legal, metro officials warn they are potentially harmful and are sometimes used in connection with sex crimes.
But the officials acknowledge that little can be done to check the trend under the current legal framework.
I still say it would be better to get with cash in person rather than importing from outside Japan...

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