The recent conviction of former baseball player Kazuhiro Kiyohara for purchasing, possessing and using stimulant drugs underlines the need for the nation to build a strong system to rehabilitate people who have developed dependency on narcotics and psychoactive drugs. The Tokyo District Court sentenced Kiyohara to 2½ years in prison, suspended for four years.

It is generally considered to be difficult for drug abusers to escape addiction. The use of stimulant drugs — such as amphetamine and methamphetamine — especially develops a strong dependency, making it highly difficult for them to kick the habit. Most people who have been investigated or arrested for using stimulant drugs are recidivists. According to the National Police Agency, the police last year investigated or arrested some 13,000 people for possession or use of narcotics or psychoactive drugs. Of them, cases involving stimulant drugs were the largest in number, accounting for more than 80 percent. Some 11,000 people were investigated or arrested for possessing or using stimulant drugs, with recidivists amounting to 64.8 percent of them on average.

The rate of recidivism increases as the age of stimulant drug abusers goes up — 36.0 percent among users in their 20s and 57.9 percent among users in their 30s. The rate is the highest at 72.2 percent among users in their 40s, the category Kiyohara falls into. Among people in their 30s, the number of people investigated or arrested in connection with violation of the stimulant drugs control law stands at 21 per 100,000 people or the highest, followed by the 20.5 among people in their 40s. The police think that middle-aged people, who are relatively well off, are most likely to be tempted to purchase stimulant drugs, whose market price is said to be about ¥70,000 per gram, as means of dealing with difficulties they face at work or in their personal relationships. Kiyohara told the court that he started using stimulant drugs to get rid of the anxiety that he began feeling after he retired from baseball.