Once you become addicted to drugs, you instantly lose other people's trust.

Need to look for the cause of addiction before one can fight it.

This is a result of the war on drugs that turned a health issue into a criminal/moral one.

Need to look for the cause of addiction before one can fight it.

There's no cause of addiction, all you need is to try it once. Why people try that once in the first place, it can be just to show to their group that they belong. Can be just having bad day, try once and end up become addicted to it.

That's why country like Singapore forbid those substance with strict penalty because once you try it, high chance you become addicted and ruin your life without turning back.

https://time.com/6299116/singapore-death-penalty-woman-executed-drugs/

https://singaporelegaladvice.com/law-articles/what-are-singapores-laws-on-drug-consumption

Alcohol is a drug. So is nicotine.

Which means most of the Japanese salary-men and gov't bureaucrats can't be trusted then.

Means we can't trust anybosy who frequents Starbucks either. A ridiculous statement.

once you try it, high chance you become addicted and ruin your life without turning back.

Frankly, that is BS. And you have failed to specify which 'drug' you are talking about anyway. In Singapore, even weed is illegal and nobody suggests you instantly become addicted to it. Meanwhile, addiction to tech gadgets like smartphones, deliberately addictive social media and even shopping seem to be fine because they feed the consumerism beast.

Alcohol is by far the most destructive drug of them all, yet it is legalized and accepted as a normal part of society. All other drugs combined, both "soft and hard", can't hold a candle to the negative impact that alcohol has on the mental, physical and social well-being of society.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a shot of tequila now and then like anybody else, but I also know how to put "drugs" into their proper perspective. Addictions of all kinds need to be treated and not criminalized.

S

There's no cause of addiction, all you need is to try it once.

Scientists who study this say otherwise. Do you feel you know more on this subject than scientists who went to school, got degrees, and spend their employment studying in this field?

In "Sakurasuki " we hear the lost voice of J. Edgar Hoover.

I grew up in a city in Europe where drugs were all around me, I saw the destruction and what damage they can do and lost a few friends because of these poisons.

Alcohol is a drug. So is nicotine.

True that.

Alcohol is a drug. So is nicotine.

Agree.

Which means most of the Japanese salary-men and gov't bureaucrats can't be trusted then.

I don't.

What an archaic philosophy.

Taken in isolation, this is a weird thing to say, especially for someone helping addicts.

Many addicts are high-functioning, holding down jobs and positions of responsibility. Their addictions go unnoticed by those around them. It wouldn't surprise me if thirty plus members of the Japanese or UK parliaments are alcoholics or other substance abusers. Most alcoholics and even hard drug users are not "in the gutter".

kohakuebisu - agree - most alcohol/drug users even abusers are not impoverished zombies. And yes bit strange saying others will lose trust in you doesn't really fit the "helpful mold".

Anecdotal I know - but have known many users over the course - mainly marijuana - who have been good citizens and contributed to their communities.

2 cases of close friends : 1 became the financial manager of a very large University Hospital. Another was a senior manger of a world wide Optometrist chain. Both smoked mj for decades. Both now very happily retired.

Others have been successful teachers, public servants, small business operators etc.

As others indicated the world wide toll of alcohol abuse is terrifying.

WHO statistics tell a sad tale of 3 million annual deaths directly related to alcohol, not taking into account the untold misery and costs caused for millions of others.

And statistics for tobacco are also shocking.

Empirical evidence for cannabis use disorders is not so well researched but there is no doubt that incidents such as accidents, lung/blood health and neurological problems to name a few are evident.

Of course more potent drugs create more potent problems - ie opioids in the US or meth etc.

And the notion of soft drugs are a gateway to hard drugs has little merit. Association with certain people will be the major factor not the drug itself. If that was the case all beer drinkers (about 4% alc) would graduate to wine to gin to vodka to whiskey (50%+). It does happen but for most it doesn't.

The best way to deal with drug addiction is to firstly come clean on what drugs are, followed by social / educational programs with necessary backup support esp from govt agencies.

Putting out Scare Headlines won't cut it imo.

There are plenty of things that can be destructively addictive, with different levels of severity. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sweets, computer games, gambling, etc. Whatever the underlying cause, in the end the decision to partake or not, to seek help or not, is ours. We should choose wisely.

I'm glad I live in Japan, where the policies and attitudes toward narcotics are generally the right ones. My home country, Canada, by contrast, has failed with its permissive and empathetic policies.

Just ask my friends who have to live there. My home province officially declared a narcotics crisis a few years back. It's awful and depressing. Thank god for safe and stable Japan.

Just ask my friends who have to live there. My home province officially declared a narcotics crisis a few years back. It's awful and depressing. Thank god for safe and stable Japan.

I live in your home country, in one of those supposed hell-holes. There are junkies around, and some of them are crazy. That part of it is a mess.

But morally, it's better than treating a health crisis with the prison system. There are problems, but only idiots think making drugs illegal is the solution to them, if that were true, the drug problem would have been solved, seeing as the war on drugs has been going on for nearly 100 years, and hasn't ever resulted in an absence of drugs anywhere.

People on drugs need help, not imprisonment. Imprisoning them is multiple wrongs - it puts people who need help in jail, costing money, and the risk factor creates a black market that causes violence in the community.

Having drugs illegal is worse for society than the actual drugs themselves.

but only idiots think making drugs illegal is the solution to them, 

That would be the vast majority of Japanese....and Koreans and Taiwanese and other "idiots" around the world (excluding the superior West, of course).

That would be the vast majority of Japanese....and Koreans and Taiwanese and other "idiots" around the world

Yeah, all these countries still have drugs in them, so if they think their war on drugs has worked, they're idiots.

Sorry, was I supposed to ignore reality for some sort of ideology or something?

 all these countries still have drugs in them

Yep, Japan's heroin crisis is clearly out of control.

I'm always reminded of that when I walk the grim dangerous streets of Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore, then later the cheery safe and wholesome streets of downtown LA, Vancouver, Portland, SFO, etc.

Two different parts of the world: two diametrically opposed approaches to narcotics use. It's soooo obviously clear which side got it right, and which side is failing miserably, right?

I supposed to ignore reality for some sort of ideology or something?

Don't know about you, but I look at policy outcomes, OD numbers, and other boring empirical stuff.

Oh stop it...when you become addicted to drugs you have given up on life and made a sess pitt if your own making

Oh stop it...when you become addicted to drugs you have given up on life and made a sess pitt if your own making

How do functional addicts, who do their jobs for years while doing drugs, fit into your rhetoric? If they've given up on life, why are they still doing it?

Yep, Japan's heroin crisis is clearly out of control.

Are you suggesting there are no drugs in Japan, and that the war on drugs has been a success?

See my original post for what I think about that.

I think that although I feel much more secure raising a family in Japan than in my own country, with no need to worry about the overall prevalence of drugs and drug-related crime, there is still a remarkable lack of knowledge as to drugs here beyond the mantra "drug is bad".

Several years ago I was taken aback when a friend of mine, who works for one of the biggest law firms in Japan admitted that he didn't know that heroin and cocaine were different things.

I suppose this is the natural result of a media which reports seizures of anything other than marijuana as "an illegal drug" or a "stimulant".

And I'm not even going to get into the sheer nonsense of someone's life, reputation and career being destroyed for minute traces of "stimulant" (remember Noripi? 0.008g in the home she shared with her junkie husband) when getting pass-out drunk, urinating and vomiting in public on a weekly basis is viewed as part of the extra-curricular requirement of socialising in many major Japanese companies.

Drugs are evil. But ignorance doesn't help anything.