Sumo wrestler busted for smoking pot
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 1:09 pm
Japan makes no distinction between soft and hard drugs. So if you get caught bringing Marijuana into Narita airport, you'd be prosecuted the same as if you had brought in Heroin.
Japan, as a whole, doesn't really have much interest in drugs. The most abused drug in Japan is amphetamines, usually in the workforce, so that they can work insanely long shifts.
That said, there are a great number of head shops in Japan which sell drug paraphernalia (bongs, pipes, Bob Marley posters, and tie-dye.) And if you have the right connections, you can obtain Marijuana, but it is ridiculously expensive, and of dubious quality.
Up until a few years ago (2003) due to a loophole in pharmaceutical importation laws, natural hallucinogens (mushrooms and peyote) were legal and could be purchased at the aforementioned head shops. The Diet (Japanese Parliament) closed this loophole at the end of 2003.
As for the Wakanoho. His career is probably finished. The Sumo Association is incredibly strict, their word is law, and they are the only authority in the matter. My guess is that he will probably be shipped back to Russia in disgrace.
(And if you must know, during the six years I lived in Japan, I probably only smoked pot two or three times, but I also didn't go looking for it at all.)
Japan, as a whole, doesn't really have much interest in drugs. The most abused drug in Japan is amphetamines, usually in the workforce, so that they can work insanely long shifts.
That said, there are a great number of head shops in Japan which sell drug paraphernalia (bongs, pipes, Bob Marley posters, and tie-dye.) And if you have the right connections, you can obtain Marijuana, but it is ridiculously expensive, and of dubious quality.
Up until a few years ago (2003) due to a loophole in pharmaceutical importation laws, natural hallucinogens (mushrooms and peyote) were legal and could be purchased at the aforementioned head shops. The Diet (Japanese Parliament) closed this loophole at the end of 2003.
As for the Wakanoho. His career is probably finished. The Sumo Association is incredibly strict, their word is law, and they are the only authority in the matter. My guess is that he will probably be shipped back to Russia in disgrace.
(And if you must know, during the six years I lived in Japan, I probably only smoked pot two or three times, but I also didn't go looking for it at all.)
