Tag - drugs

 
 

DRUGS

Police have arrested a Nigerian man on suspicion of smuggling stimulant drugs from Britain and tricking his romance scam victim into picking it up.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 26, 2024
Nigerian nabbed in Japan for drug smuggling through romance scam
Police say similar cases of romance scam victims being tricked into helping smuggle illegal drugs continue to occur.
World Anti-Doping Agency President Witold Banka speaks during a symposium in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March.
OLYMPICS
Apr 24, 2024
USADA calls for WADA overhaul and probe into China swimmers
WADA has continued to rebut accusations that the organization covered up the revelation that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a banned substance.
Customs officials at Narita Airport discovered stimulants inside a conveyor belt roller that was shipped from Mexico to Japan in June last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 23, 2024
Six arrested on suspicion of smuggling stimulants
The suspects, including a senior figure in a crime syndicate in Saitama Prefecture, allegedly hid some 15 kilograms of drugs inside a conveyor belt roller.
The legality of products that contain cannabinoids, a group of substances derived from the cannabis plant, has been somewhat murky in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 21, 2024
Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
Robust sales of products using CBD, a compound found in marijuana, are attributed to rising demand for products that offer relaxation and stress relief.
This photo of Yuval Tapuhi was taken at the Tribe of Nova festival before it was attacked on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led terrorists.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 20, 2024
What a terror attack in Israel might reveal about psychedelics and trauma
Scientists are studying the ravers who were attacked to determine the effects of such drugs at a moment of extreme trauma.
Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the bipartisan select committee, said that China's incentives suggest Beijing wants more fentanyl entering the U.S.
WORLD
Apr 17, 2024
U.S. committee finds China is subsidizing American fentanyl crisis
China denies the allegation, and says the U.S. government must do more to reduce domestic demand.
Jim Rauh, founder of Families Against Fentanyl, holds a photograph of his son Thomas in Akron, Ohio, on March 4. How Trump and Biden address a lethal chapter of the U.S. drug-overdose epidemic will be pivotal in swing states that are likely to decide the election.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 27, 2024
270,000 overdose deaths thrust fentanyl into heart of U.S. presidential race
More than 4 in 10 Americans personally know someone who has died from a drug overdose.
Officers from the Akashi police station discovered marijuana joint butts at the residence of the student's relative.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2024
Junior high school student arrested for marijuana possession
The 14-year-old male student admitted to purchasing marijuana from someone he met on a social networking website.
Cannabis and related products seized from a house in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, are displayed in the city of Fukuoka in January.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2024
Number of young marijuana offenders hits record high in Japan
The figure for cannabis cases involving those under 20 had decreased for the first time in nine years in 2022, but increased 34% in 2023.
Thailand will seek to get a new cannabis bill explicitly outlawing the recreational use of cannabis approved by the end of October.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 22, 2024
Thailand aims for clampdown on recreational cannabis by year-end
The move would put thousands of marijuana shops and farms out of business.
Takeshi Ebisawa poses with a rocket launcher during a meeting with an informant and two undercover Danish police officers at a warehouse in Copenhagen, Denmark on Feb. 3, 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 22, 2024
U.S. charges criminal group leader over conspiring to sell nuclear material
Prosecutors allege that Takeshi Ebisawa "brazenly" moved material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Myanmar.
The Osaka District Court handed a prison term to a man who appeared in a viral video engaging in unsanitary behavior at a Yoshinoya beef bowl diner.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 15, 2024
Man given prison term after food prank at beef bowl diner in Osaka
Ryu Shimazu was found guilty of obstructing business operations and causing property damage.
Military personnel conduct raid operations in the area surrounding Guayaquil, Ecuador on Jan. 27. President Daniel Noboa’s new war on gangs has received widespread support in a nation overwhelmed by violence, but experts warn it could endanger civil liberties.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 14, 2024
Terrorized by gangs, Ecuador embraces the hard-line ‘Noboa way’
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa's war on gangs is popular among citizens in spite of activists warning of human rights violations.
Police officers examine a scene where South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun was found dead at a park in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Dec 29, 2023
In South Korea, an unrelenting stance on drugs batters suspected users
Treatment experts say that authorities focus too much on punishment rather than rehabilitation.
An ambulance (left) carrying the body of South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun leaves a park in central Seoul on Wednesday. Lee, best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film "Parasite," was found dead in an apparent suicide, Yonhap news agency reported.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 27, 2023
'Parasite' actor Lee Sun-kyun found dead amid drug allegations
Lee had been under investigation amid an ongoing government crackdown on illegal drug use.
Gummy products containing hexahydrocannabihexol, which resembles a cannabis compound.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 22, 2023
Japan bans sale of 38 goods with synthetic cannabis compounds
The ban applies to items containing any of five substances, including hexahydrocannabiphorol and tetrahydrocannabiphorol acetate.
Nihon University's board of directors have decided in an extraordinary session to bring the club's 83-year history to an end.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 15, 2023
Nihon University officially opts to disband American football club
Nihon University has officially moved to disband its renowned American football team after some members were arrested over the possession or purchase of illegal drugs, a source with knowledge of the matter said Friday.
South Korean Lee Kyung-woo was sentenced to life in prison in October for the kidnapping and murder of a 48-year-old woman over a crypto dispute.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2023
Crypto and ketamine: The murder that shocked South Korea
Case resembling K-drama plot emerges in safe and almost drug-free country where violent killings are rare.
A revised cannabis control law is passed during an Upper House plenary session on Dec. 6.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2023
Marijuana sees image shift as Japan revises control law
The revised cannabis control law, enacted in early December, will allow the use of medicines containing substances derived from cannabis.
A man harvests opium as he works in an opium field outside Loikaw, Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 12, 2023
Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world's biggest opium producer
Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080 metric tons of opium this year, according to the latest report by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores