Tag: japan

This week a Japanese health ministry panel issued cannabis policy recommendations, including a recommendation that Japan allow medical cannabis products to be imported. Generally speaking, the recommendation to allow medical cannabis product imports is a good thing, however, cannabis observers and advocates around the globe need to temper their celebrations, as the recommendation proves to be very limited upon further inspection, and it wasn’t the only recommendation that the panel offered up.

In addition to recommending that products ‘whose safety and efficacy were confirmed under laws governing pharmaceuticals and medical devices’ be allowed for importing, the panel also recommended that Japan make cannabis consumption itself a crime if it’s not for authorized medical purposes. That recommendation, coupled with the fact that the only medical cannabis product that seems to fit the panel’s criteria is Epidiolex, makes it clear that what is ultimately being proposed in Japan is ‘eh’ at best. It’s certainly better than outright prohibition with no exceptions, however, it’s not the medical cannabis policy overhaul that some may think it is.

Breeding Ground For Selective Enforcement

The nuances between enforcing prohibition as it pertains to possession versus consumption is significant. To be sure, both are harmful, however, prohibition on consumption can prove to be a greater violation of basic rights. Someone being charged with possession is exactly how it sounds – someone was found to be in possession of cannabis. When someone is charged with cannabis consumption, what we are really talking about is someone having cannabinoids in their system.

How do authorities discover that someone has cannabinoids in their system in the first place? In many instances, it will likely be coupled with a possession charge, with law enforcement seeing the person consuming and catching them in the act. Yet, there’s always the potential that law enforcement merely ‘suspects’ that a person has consumed cannabis, and uses that ‘suspicion’ as ‘justification’ to acquire bodily fluids for testing by whatever invasive means they deem to be useful. It’s an enforcement practice that can easily be weaponized and should never be implemented by any government anywhere.

What Is The Problem?

As I have pointed out in a previous article, the creation of the panel that issued the recent recommendations was born out of a rising consumption rate in Japan, especially among younger consumers. Lawmakers in Japan have expressed concern that there is a spike in consumption, and while that is technically true, it deserves some context, as Japan has one of the lowest cannabis consumption rates on the planet.

In the most recent year for which data is available (2019), Japan experienced a 21.5% increase in measured cannabis consumption compared to the previous year. While that may sound alarming to some lawmakers inside and outside of Japan, consider the fact that less than 2% of people in Japan report having consumed cannabis during their entire life. By comparison, 41.5% in Canada report having consumed cannabis during their lifetime, and 44.2% in the United States. Clearly, Japan doesn’t have a cannabis consumption addiction problem – it has a cannabis prohibition addiction problem.

The country is considering medical reform and will create a new legal framework to recriminalize adult use

The Ministry of Health in Japan has decided to embark on a path that would seem to indicate that at least medical use of some kinds of cannabis is on track to be authorized soon.

The bad news? The government also apparently intends to become alone in the world to make medical use legal while also planning to specifically penalize recreational users.

As of last week, the Ministry began formal discussions on how to revise the country’s Narcotics Control Act, enacted just after WWII, in 1948. Last year, internal discussions began to lead ministers in the government in the direction of reform after a report discussed the medical efficacy of the drug on diseases like epilepsy. The Ministry of Health intends to draw up proposals before the end of this summer.

All G-7 countries, with the exception of Japan, have approved the use of CBD-based drugs to treat epilepsy.

Going Sideways?

That said, it is not clear how fast the country will move on cannabis reform more generally. The governmental inquiry is also discussing a new provision to the Control Act that specifically criminalizes recreational use while providing a medical exception to patients. There are also expected to be harsh penalties for the consumption of recreational cannabis.

This is a country with a long and tortured cannabis history. In 1980, former Beatles member, Paul McCartney visited the country with about 8 ounces in his possession. He was subsequently banned from the country for 11 years.

The government also made international headlines in 2018, clearly targeting Japanese nationals living in North America when it forbade its ex-pat citizens to use cannabis even if living in a country where its use was legal.

More recently, this February, a U.S. Marine received two years of hard labour for importing a half-gallon of cannabis-infused liquid and a quarter pound of cannabis flower. On May 17, a Japanese school nurse was also imprisoned for suspected possession of an unspecified amount of dried cannabis flower.

As of last year, there were 5,400 people charged with illegal possession – a new record for the country. Offenders below thirty accounted for 70% of those arrested. The number of people arrested for possession has doubled since 2017.

While it is unlikely that this strange compromise will hold, Japan, as a result, has certainly entered the global cannabis conversation with a unique “reform” proposal – even if it is, obviously, an unsustainable one long term.