The use of the so-called dappo doraggu or quasi-legal drugs is spreading. They cause hallucination, intoxication and other euphoria but are not categorized as narcotics or stimulant drugs, whose possession or use is prohibited by law. An increasing number of young people are smoking dappo habu or quasi-legal herbs that are dried and mixed with chemicals causing those effects. They are sold as "herbal incense" to avoid legal action.
The government urgently needs to strengthen regulation of these drugs to protect young people from addiction to them.
One of the phenomena attributable to dappo doraggu is a series of traffic accidents caused by users of such drugs. In one such accident, a 26-year-old man driving a car ran on to the sidewalk in a crowded street in the Minami amusement area in Osaka on the evening of June 1 and injured two women. He reportedly was smoking a quasi-legal herb while driving.