FEATUREJapan hemp growing between the legal crack
Source: Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report)
Pubdate: Sun, Aug 24, 1997

    By Stuart Young
TOKYO, Aug 25 (Reuter)  In a country with strict but slightly bizarre
drug laws, Yasunao Nakayama possesses a much soughtafter permit.
His recently acquired "hemp grower's licence" allows him to cultivate
the less potent cousin of the "demon weed"  Cannabis Sativa, or
marijuana, Nakayama said.
"I can grow hemp to make fibres and extract the oil... Hemp and
cannabis were used throughout the ages in Japan for clothes and as a herbal
remedy. I'm just continuing that," he said.
Nakayama is the first person to receive a licence in highly urbanised
Shizuoka Prefecture, 100 km (62.5 miles) south of Tokyo, but he joins
traditional hemp farmers in rural regions who have continued an ageold
industry in the shadow of Japan's strict drug laws.
In his shop called "Kaya," the word used for cannabis in the lyrics of
Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley, Nakayama sells skin creams containing
hemp oil and clothes and craftwork made from hemp grown in his garden.
'HEMP FESTIVAL' DRAWS TOURISTS
A "hemp festival" held every August in Shizukuishicho village in
northern Iwate Prefecture draws growing crowds of sightseers, said Haruko
Oda, a member of the local hemp growers' association.
"We get more and more people every year who come to join in the
harvest... We cut the twometre (seven foot) high hemp plants, blanch them
in hot water and then burn the leftovers," she said.
The association of 15 growers sells medicines, skin creams and insect
repellents made from hemp, which has been an inextricable part of the local
culture for centuries despite a ban on cannabis introduced by American
occupation authorities after World War Two, Oda added.
"Before the ban we had been growing hemp here for centuries. It was
used to make cloth for the feudal lords and for wedding ceremonies 
because of the fineness and strength of the thread  and as a medicine,"
she said.
"Now we have to grow the less potent varieties and get a licence from
the local health centre just to cultivate it... But of course we don't
smoke it."
'DEMON WEED' IMAGE WITH ALIEN ROOTS
Lawyer Hidehiro Marui, who has spent the past 22 years defending in
court people caught for possession of cannabis, said the 1948 ban on
marijuana imposed by the U.S. authorities was alien to Japanese culture.
"Until the U.S. forces ban, cannabis had been freely used in Japan for
over 10,000 years. There is archaeological evidence which shows cannabis
was used for clothing material and the seeds were eaten in Japan right back
to the Jomon Era (10,000 to 300 BC)," he said.
"The demonisation of cannabis is not part of Japanese heritage... The
Chinese character for 'hemp' is even used in the name of the Ise shrine,
one of Japan's most sacred religious centres," he added.
'LEGAL HIGH' LOOPHOLE
Despite the fact that hallucinogenic substances such as psylocibin in
magic mushrooms and mescaline in peyote cacti are specifically prohibited
by Japan's drug laws, their raw source is freely on sale in Tokyo's crowded
Shibuya leisure and entertainment district.
Standing by his stall laden with hallucinogenic materials  magic
mushroom spore kits, whole peyote cacti, bella donna leaves, morning glory
seeds, passion flower leaves, Hawaiian wood rose seeds and wormwood 
Mitsumi, 26, capitalises on the paradoxical nature of Japan's narcotics
legislation.
"It's no problem. You can import it if it's not processed. And there's
no ban against growing it yourself," longhaired Mitsumi said with a smile.
A Health and Welfare Ministry spokesman confirmed the loophole,
saying: "It's illegal to possess or import the drug itself, but the plant
from which it comes is legal."
CANNABIS 'AS DANGEROUS AS HEROIN'
The loophole exists because Japan's drug laws were imposed from
outside, he said.
In the early half of this century cannabis was a prescription drug in
Japan used for treating asthma and other respiratory diseases, the
spokesman added.
But Japan was forced to adopt stricter controls due to international
pressure, he said.
"This means that under Japanese law cannabis is treated as if it was
just as dangerous as heroin or cocaine... Although it could be said that
cannabis is about as addictive or mindaltering as alcohol," he added.
YAKUZA RUNNING DRUG RINGS
Japan's "yakuza" criminal gangs control the vast majority of drug
trafficking and their most lucrative product is amphetamines, known by the
street names "speed" or "ice," which are popular as a pickmeup for those
with fastpaced lifestyles, a National Police Agency spokesman said.
Amphetaminesrelated convictions have risen continually over the past
five years  last year 19,400 people were convicted for amphetamine
smuggling, possession and use, up 2,300 on the previous year, he said.
Meanwhile, cannabis convictions fell from 2,000 people in 1994 to
1,200 last year, he added.
Nevertheless, police put priority on catching cannabis offenders as
much as trying to break hard drugs smuggling rings.
"Amphetamines are the big problem but we are enforcing the cannabis
laws as rigorously as the other drug laws," he said.
SOFTEN CANNABIS LAWS, CRACK DOWN ON HARD DRUGS
However, crime underworld and drug scene nonfiction writer Nobuhiro
Motobashi said the cannabis ban should be relaxed to strike a blow against
yakuza criminal gangs who traffic in marijuana and other drugs.
"The yakuza are running a dirty trade in drugs which could be
seriously damaged if you relaxed marijuana restrictions and at the same
time tightened laws to catch out hard drugs traffickers," he said.
He added: "In my own experience, marijuana isn't that dangerous, not
like amphetamines or cocaine. Cannabis should still be illegal but it
should be in a class of its own." REUTER