TOKYO - Japan will criminalise cannabis use and legalise medical products using substances derived from the plant under revised laws that will take effect on Dec 12, the health ministry said on Thursday.
      • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.worldEnglish
        97·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, they have some nice things going for them but Japanese culture still very patriarchal and conservative overall

          • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            30·
            3 months ago

            That plus a massive amount of inherent isolationism plus an extreme birth shortage and an already very aged population.

            The writing is on the wall in many ways unless major, unprecedented changes were to be made. Japan in a hundred years will be unrecognizable without them.

    • Blackout@fedia.io
      28·
      3 months ago

      They are some of the most repressed puritans. I would always try to get my friend to leave work early (in reality on time) so we could do something but they will not stand up for themselves. Have to put in the minimal 10hrs per day in a 40hr workweek or you are a slacker.

  • Chainslaw@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    3 months ago

    I told a guy in Tokyo we smoke weed walking down the street in America and he looked at me like I was insane.

  • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    761·
    3 months ago

    Wasn’t it already illegal. My wife’s cousin served two years for an amount that is so small police wouldn’t even bother to confiscate it in europe.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      44·
      3 months ago

      Yeah, it’s news to me that it wasn’t technically illegal. They still believe in the reefer madness shit and act like it.

  • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I thought they already did that. (Didn’t a number of touring rock stars, including IIRC one of the Beatles, get busted for having it?)

    • Jimbabwe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Use vs. Possession

      Possession is the behavior that’s typically illegal, but use is legally tolerated because people can be exposed to it (the article gives the example of farmers being exposed while producing legal hemp).

  • rustyfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1881·
    3 months ago

    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.

    • gencha@lemm.eeEnglish
      512·
      3 months ago

      Drunk people might accidentally get pregnant and help with the population. Really an obvious move

    • systemglitch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1025·
      3 months ago

      Alcohol leads to fucking and they need more babies. From a logic perspective it makes perfect sense.

      No one smokes weed then gets overly horny.

      • jpreston2005@lemmy.worldEnglish
        282·
        3 months ago

        Man, high sex is so good though. For me, it’s like I get tunnel vision around the sensuality, enveloped by sexual desire, where the only thing that exists is my partner, and for that time we are purely sexual beings. Every touch elicits goosebumps, every nerve at attention, like my entire body is a sexual organ in the throes of hedonistic pleasure. I never feel more connected to my partner, and for some reason it also lends itself really well to aftercare; like, once we’ve cleaned up and/or caught our breath, I just want to cuddle and continue to feel the safety and comfort of their warmth.

        Truly the best kind of sex imo

      • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        62·
        3 months ago

        I wouldn’t be so sure about that… Sex on psychedelic substances is quite an experience, compared to alcohol which numbs.

          • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            4·
            3 months ago

            Ok, I was not precise in my wording – but THC clearly is a psychoactive substance through which people can observe profound experiences and have intense physical and emotional perceptions.

        • Frog@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Yes.

          Also alcohol is a depressant. That’s how “whiskey dick” happens.

          Also alcohol is leading cause of overdose. How are more dead people going to make babies?

          • HandBash@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            It would be hard to quantify the effect but you also have the alcohol induces risky behavior aspect that would lead to more births though. Somewhat balancing your impotence and toxicology effects at least. Overall probably still a net negative.

        • griD@feddit.orgEnglish
          14·
          3 months ago

          Indeed, especially for women in my limited experience. Hmm, do I want to really commit SuicideByWords by mentioning a small sample size?

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        3 months ago

        The original propaganda against weed, called Reefer Madness, was all about how black men would smoke weed and then literally couldn’t stop themselves from raping white women because they got so horny.

        (I guess I have to point out that of course that isn’t true)

      • rustyfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        3 months ago

        I can only talk for myself but never in my life did I have sex more crazy, borderline fucked up, as that one time me and my partner smoked weed before jumping in the sheets.

        Alcohol on the other hand turns me into a useless sack of meat. Literally the end times for any boner of mine.

      • limonfiesta@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        3 months ago

        If alcohol consumption fixed declining birth rates, Japan wouldn’t have an aging population and Russia wouldn’t have been facing a demographic collapse even before the Ukraine invasion.

        This isn’t about boosting sex, it’s about being a conservative policy counterweight to opening the door to legalizing medicines derived from cannabis.

        My guess is that it’s a result of an internal NJP compromise between center right and hard right factions: only agreeing to allow liberalized medical cannabis policy, if the law also increased the scope of, and penalties for, recreational uses.

        But that’s just my assumption based on my limited understanding of Japan’s post-war uniparty government.

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
      9·
      3 months ago

      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.

    • x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      28·
      3 months ago

      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.

  • Skates@feddit.nlEnglish
    116·
    3 months ago

    Part of the world: takes a step forward

    Japan: not on my fucking watch

  • irotsoma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    632·
    3 months ago

    The pant is illegal because it’s cheap to grow yourself, but if you let some drug companies make money off of processing it, then it’s perfectly fine to use…

    • x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      287·
      3 months ago

      “A plant known for opening the mind and making you question things? That’s illegal.”

        • Laser@feddit.orgEnglish
          7·
          3 months ago

          Weed makes you question if you should get more snacks

          I haven’t tried it in a really long time though but I didn’t really like it very much. Not that I think it’s bad, but it’s a downer and they’re just not my favorite.

          Acid and 2C-B on the other hand, man. Haven’t tried other psychs unfortunately but I find them both great for their individual effects. Unfortunately, there’s the huge stigma around psychs in general plus the naturalistic crowd that makes up a proportion of psych users will only accept stuff like shrooms, peyote and ayahuasca.

      • agelord@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        3 months ago

        Could you please elaborate on how it “opens” your mind and makes you question things?

        • chaogomu@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          3 months ago

          As a teen, the main question I had was, “can I make a pipe out of this?”.

          Now that I’m old, the question is mostly “why the hell is this still illegal on a federal level?”

        • KrankyKong@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          It’s hard to explain. At least for me, it helps me see things from another perspective. I work in web dev, and one of my favorite activities is to smoke a little bit, then work on my side projects. Some of my best work has come from my hyper focused, high, programming sessions.

          Weed really kinda follows you wherever you take it. If you wanna veg out on the couch and watch TV, it’ll facilitate that for you. If you wanna go down a research rabbit hole on some obscure topic, it’ll facilitate that just fine too.

  • TheFrirish@jlai.luEnglish
    141·
    3 months ago

    but getting blind drunk in the street every night for them is fine. Ridiculous.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      3 months ago

      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.

    • socsa@piefed.social
      353·
      3 months ago

      There’s a reason why countries with proper transit infrastructure view alcoholism as a novelty.

      • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        I’m honestly not sure what you’re saying. Countries like the US with poor public transit infrastructure think alcoholism is serious solely because of people who drink and drive?

    • undergroundoverground@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      3 months ago

      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.

    • ngwoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      I was shocked at how often you just see people laying passed out on the sidewalk or sleeping on a bench. Japan is an insanely different place after the bars start closing. Was genuinely uneasy with how many people everywhere just had zero control of themselves.

  • DMCMNFIBFFF@lemmy.worldEnglish
    91·
    3 months ago

    1a. It’s a relatively small incentive to get people to emigrate, particularly the young.

    ​

    2b. wp:Cannabis in China

    (my bold)

    In 1985, the People’s Republic of China joined the Convention on Psychotropic Substances and identified marijuana as a dangerous narcotic drug, and illegal to possess or use it. The penalty for marijuana possession in China is disputed from various sources, but according to the Law on Public Security Administration Punishments, marijuana smokers shall be detained for 10 to 15 days and fined a maximum of 2,000 yuan.[16][17] However, the cultivation of cannabis for industrial purposes (hemp) has never been prohibited in China.[1]

    ​

    On another hand, cannabis seeds have been continuously listed in the Chinese Pharmacopeia[18] and hemp has never been prohibited in the history of the country.[19]

  • PenisDuckCuck9001@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    42·
    3 months ago

    I’m going to boycott everything having to do with Japan from now on then. Putting people in jail over thc metabolites is absolutely wrong and absolutely unacceptable.