Japan and Cannabis
If you had exhausted all of your other options and were dying of cancer, wouldnt you want legal medical marijuana to be available to you? A 58-year-old Japanese chef from Kanagawa Prefecture with advanced liver cancer was arrested for possession of cannabis for medical use in December of 2015, and has recently been attending court for his violation of national Japanese law. Masamitsu Yamamoto has never been in trouble with the police before and said that his attempts to get legal cannabis treatment failed. His fight has become symbolic of Japans struggle to legalize medical marijuana. Yamamoto stated, I want to be saved, thats allIve tried everything else that modern medicine offers.
A Brief History of Cannabis in Japan
According to The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan has some of the strictest anti-cannabis laws in the world. But how did they come about? Japan has long included cannabis in its culture, and Takayasu Junichi, an expert on Japanese culture and cannabis, noted that for thousands of years cannabis has been at the very heart of Japanese culture. Cannabis is taima in Japanese. Junichi explained that the earliest traces of cannabis seeds and woven fibers made from hemp date back to 10,000 B.C.E to 200 B.C.E. This time period is known as the Jomon Period, and the findings indicate that cannabis sativa plants were used to make bow strings, fishing lines, and clothing due to their fibrous strength. Prehistoric cave paintings of cannabis plants are another strong indication, and Junichis Taima Hakabutsukan (The Cannabis Museum) is the only museum of its kind on Japan. The museum also holds 17th century woodblock prints and a working loom where Junichi weaves hemp fibers into woven fabrics.
Cannabis was so prominent in Japanese culture that its even inspired idiomatic phrases. A Japanese proverb translates to even gnarly weeds would straighten if grown among cannabis plants, meaning that a bad person surrounded by good people will eventually become good as well. Students at schools in areas where cannabis was grown sang songs about growing as straight and tall as cannabis plants. An interlocking cannabis leaf motif decorated childrens clothing and was believed to bring economic luck. (What do you make of that, Denver?)
Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan, promotes natural harmony and purity in the world and cannabis was cherished for cleansing just as sage was in other religions. Bunches of cannabis leaves were waved in order to get rid of evil spirits, and brides even wore cannabis veils to their weddings. Ise Jingu (the soul of Japan) is Japans most sacred shine, dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess. There are five taima ceremonies performed each year there, and thick ceremonial hemp ropes and displayed. Shinto priests often decorate their wands with the rind of cannabis stalks, as well.
Cannabis was cultivated until the early 20th century, and Japanese travelers would often leave cannabis offerings for safety on journeys some families burned cannabis in doorways during the Obon festival to welcome back the dead spirits of loved ones. Its unclear how Japanese people consumed cannabis; it may have been smoked or eaten, or both. Japan had the same cannabis-based medicines that the United States had before world-wide prohibition, and the country was also proud of its wariai kinoko, or laughing mushrooms. However, they were outlawed when Japan held the Japan-South Korea World Cup in 2002. Following World War II, American attitudes were imported into Japans culture, and cannabis became frowned upon the U.S. passed the 1948 Cannabis Control Act when they still had possession of Japan. The law still hasnt changed.
Japans Current Cannabis Laws
In Japan, possession of cannabis leads to a maximum five-year sentence, and cultivators get seven years. Of course, people arrested for cannabis possession or cultivation in Japan suffer cultural humiliation on television as well as career death, and Japanese scientists who wish to study cannabis are forced to travel to foreign countries in order to do so. With the progress that the United States, Europe, Canada, and South America are making in the area of cannabis reform, medicine, and scientific research, Japan would be wise to reconsider its archaic laws soon. Vice reported in 2014 that Japans laws on cannabis consumption and use only include the leaves and flowers of the plant, so CBD, the non-psychoactive compound, can legally be imported into Japan, helping many people.
The Fight for Medical Marijuana in Japan
Yamamoto was clearly suffering the effects of liver cancer at his court hearing fluid buildup was obvious in his abdomen and he required a ...
