A population that old and conservative loves shit like that. Also, the government urging young people to instead drink more alcohol sounds like something straight out of the Soviet Unions playbook.
Drunk people might accidentally get pregnant and help with the population. Really an obvious move
I have a friend who moved from the UK to South Korea. He says that drugs is extremely illegal so everybody just gets totally wasted on alcohol there and that that’s extremely normalized.
They have no rules on alcohol advertisements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWBIufbD6aE
You can guess all the rest
We definitely have issues with alcoholism here. I think part of it is that a ton of small businesses (as well as larger ones) are ones that survive on alcohol revenue. I remember when I lived in the US, a lot of bars and breweries would fight legalization claiming it would hurt their business. I think they are stuck in the mindset that no one will leave the house or something, but that’s just speculation on my part.
WTF? Japan, you’re supposed to be doing the opposite!
Tbh, I don’t expect any culture that considers tattoos to be taboo to be cool with weed.
Yeah, they have some nice things going for them but Japanese culture still very patriarchal and conservative overall
amid increasing concerns that the lack of a ban on use is promoting drug abuse by young people.
This fucking backwards ass notion of weed as a “gateway drug” needs to die. Their reasoning for calling it that shows their idiocy, in that it’s called that because it’s cheap and harmless, so they think it will lead to people believing other drugs are similar. Imagine branding something as dangerous because it’s (Checks Notes) cheap and harmless.
Although from personal experience, I’d say that weed is a gateway drug of sorts, in that if you’re addicted to something far more dangerous (like alcohol), using weed can act like a “gateway” to sobriety.
And unlike cannabis use (as far as I’m aware), alcoholism is actually a real problem in Japan, because drinking alcohol is not only socially acceptable but downright enforced.
It’s even worse, because over a third of Japanese are allergic to alcohol and probably shouldn’t be consuming for increased health risk.
If its like the US they get buckoo tax monies they aren’t getting from canna.
In my experience weed can be a gateway drug when you have to buy it from a drug dealer. As an analogy, lots of people end up buying something other than what they went into Target to buy.
Also a criminal record can fuck your life in a myriad of ways, if like me you fall in love with someone from another country and you both have weed charges neither country will let you live together even decades later destroying what’s probably your only chance at happiness.
These rules are needlessly cruel and absurd.
It’s not harmless. It’s linked to mental illness and increased stress. People need to stop spreading this myth.
EDIT: I know that people are down voting because weed is incredibly popular and rarely does harm, but that doesn’t mean you should propagate the myth that it’s harmless. Your personal experience should not speak for everyone.
Weed can easily cause intense anxiety and paranoia if the user takes more than they can handle. This is just as true for someone who is trying it for the first time as it is for someone with a long history of use.
If you have ever had panic attacks or heart palpitations, the combined increase in heart rate and anxiety may trigger a panic attack. It’s also habit-forming enough that people who’ve had panic attacks will keep using it despite knowing they are risking a really stressful experience.
You’ll need to cite your sources on that, though the APA style guide doesn’t have a citation format for “conservative grandparents with dementia.”
if you’re into that, just wait till you hear about alcohol and cigarettes! Anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks seem fine compared to Cirrhosis, COPD, Emphysema, Cancer, Stroke, Renal Failure, Kidney Failure, and Fatty Liver Disease. All of them painful, all of them deadly.
But god forbid people smoke some weed 🙄 They might in very rare occasions get a temporary increase in anxiety!
More whataboutism. We’re talking about weed. And I’m not making the blanket statement that no one should smoke weed. I’m saying it does have health risks that should not be ignored.
Also it’s offensive that you would trivialize the suffering that people go through in a panic attack.
but getting blind drunk in the street every night for them is fine. Ridiculous.
There’s a reason why countries with proper transit infrastructure view alcoholism as a novelty.
Like smoking, alcohol is a huge industry in Japan. It’s “normal” for Japanese companies to addict their employees to their products and because the companies ARE the government, they enact incredibly protectionist laws like this to prevent external competition.
Their economy depends on it. It’s super gross. Like America and guns, or Sweden and flatpak furniture (the last one is a half joke)
If Japan starts being a cannabis producer, they’ll 180 so fast you’ll get vertigo.
I bet they’d produce some bomb ass bud though. It would also look pretty as fuck as each nug is meticulously sculpted into a tiny little bonsai.
Honestly, i think the reason is that just the right amount of alcohol dependency is amazing for capitalism. Dont get me wrong, I’m not judging anyone. I understand and I enjoy a drink myself. I just think we need to be honest with ourselves about it.
It keeps you consuming and it makes you forget all the bullshit you had to put up with all day. It dulls your your problem solving, your creativity and (most importantly) your empathy, so supervisors, middle managers, department managers and execs are less disinclined not to beat down on those below them.
I’m not saying its some grand conspiracy. I’m saying, those in power have known exactly the right drugs to administer to the masses in order to placate them. The Romans knew to give wine and not cannabis. The British army knew to give rum & brandy but not weed.
In fact, all of them were legal. Then, capitalism really took off and, totally unrelated in sure, every drug other than alcohol suddenly became illegal.
This is worse than you think. Most countries don’t criminalize use, only possession. Criminalizing use like Sweden does likely means that even having cannabis in your system is illegal and could lead to fines, criminal record, and jail time. It’s insanely backwards.
Sweden is nuts. When I moved here, I was shocked. It’s really backwards. Everyone drinks here, but weed is something like heroin to them. They should all smoke weed.
As a swede: Word. It’s backwards as fuck here. The previous government didn’t even want to investigate whether or not to decriminalize, because doing so (investigate, mind you) would “send the wrong signals”. Yeeah fuck science and people’s lives when you have “signals” to worry about.
There is a rather new, more or less scientific-oriented party around in all our EU countries, you might want to look into their platform (VOLT). Not affiliated btw, but they sparked my interest.
When I traveled through Europe, I left Netherlands on a train, and ended up in Sweden with a couple hash joints left. I found a secluded area near train tracks to smoke, and even then it’s like I could feel the illegality of it. It was made worse by the fact that everyone walks or bicycles there, so random passerbys kept coming along making me feel tremendously exposed. 1/10 would not recommend.
On the other hand, smoking a hash joint and chatting with friendly strangers in the weed cafe’s of Amsterdam was sublime, 10/10 definitely recommend.
First week after we moved here - article in local newspaper: Schoolboy caught with drugs scandal. Those frs did drug tests and he had some THC in him. 17 year old. I remember thinking where the F did we move to…
No thank you, and I’d really like it if people stopped smoking it in public places. Many marijuana users seem to have very little regard for other people. Absolutely reeks of it at many central stations, on the subway, commuter trains and busses. Quite literally makes me sick. At least most tobacco users have the decency to not ruin enclosed public spaces for the general populace.
At least most tobacco users have the decency to not ruin enclosed public spaces for the general populace.
Because we banned them doing that just recently? And could and probably should do the same if any actual action or progress could be had these days?
I hate public smokers with a passion. But you must realize that you have effectively zero exposure to people that contain their smoke by doing it at home or using a method without smoke production. And there could be a lot more of those.
The last line is especially golden for me since I live in the Netherlands so we have plenty of weed being smoked but the vast vast majority of public smoke hinderance is from tobacco smokers. If they decide to smoke in public they have absolutely no shame and will literally do it at places like bus stops and just outside restaurants. Weed smokers rarely do that here. So if I were to believe you it seems to just be correlated to people with shitty attitudes rather than the substance.
But there’s no denying that if everyone would drop alcohol for weed, it would be better. Not because weed is harmless but because alcohol is pretty terrible health wise.
You are a criminal. Just like when you rape a child in a country where it’s legal (statutory rape based on age) you are held liable in your home country if the AoC is higher than in the country you visited.
Not mostly how this works, it is true that for underage sex many countries do have laws like that, but those are usually special exceptions to the general principle that the laws of the place where you are (or where your actions have an effect) apply and not those of your home country or any arbitrary country.
So if an American drinks a beer in a German biergarten or in a park in france they should be charged with violating the open container law?
In most cases if you are a tourist and are accused of minor crimes you just get deported unless you’ve done something else more serious. Detaining someone on a short term visa is awkward (what if their passport expires while in custody?) and kicking them out of the country accomplishes the same thing as jailing them.
