3 workers at U.S. bases in Japan, 1 other man arrested over cannabis

Friday 05th December, 06:38 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 50 Total Comments Show All

romulus3 at 06:41 PM JST - 5th December

yeah but what about all those stoned US soldiers?
BBLeo at 07:17 PM JST - 5th December

Good question is: 'How did cannabis came to these US bases? I thought that such places would be free of drugs, and here we go US flag descending again.
franknbeans at 07:45 PM JST - 5th December

BB, noone said there was drugs on the base. Only the workers growing it in the mountains.

The association of the base has NOTHING to do with this story. Most likely, these miscreats dont integrate with the military personnel, don't work for the US Gov, and dont represent the military in any form or fashion.

Get on with it. There is no link to the US military. No stoned soldiers. Base personnel are not buying it.
Sarge at 09:30 PM JST - 5th December

romulus ( 6:41 PM ) - Good one.
Papawhale at 11:37 PM JST - 5th December

Is there an investigation into who they were selling to? It IS sloppy journalism at best. If they worked on a base and grew the herb in the mountains, who was using and why is this herb still illegal anyway. This fascinating plant has been used for medicinal and spiritual practice for thousands of years and if the liquor lobby (research a little on the history) wasn't so powerful it would never have been criminalized in the USA and elsewhere. Why other countries blindly follow the USA's foolishness is amazing to me. We're not as exceptional as you all think, except in our consumerism and greed. Maybe if more people used the Holy herb like it's meant to be, there would be less war, greed and violence in the world. Not to mention it's industrial uses which are quite numerous.
boboh at 12:16 AM JST - 6th December

As pointed out by many posters, this whole "US base" thingy is another beat up by the very honorable and reliable (pfft!) Kyodo News. They werent buying it on base, they werent dealing on base.

BBLeo Once again you have put 2 and 2 together and got 7. For God`s sake, read the article (and understand it) before commenting.
usaexpat at 01:11 AM JST - 6th December

oooooh evil weed. What a waste of law enforcement time and money.
Taka313 at 01:39 AM JST - 6th December

Playing devil's advocate, I'd like to point out that on the train groping gang story, one of the suspect's job location was also mentioned and had nothing to do with a U.S. military base.

Also, this story doesn't really surprise me. There were several Japanese workers at my old office that occassionally looked like they could have been blindfolded with dental floss.

Taka
DXXJP at 06:35 AM JST - 6th December

Are you kidding you know how many military brats get high. I cant tell you how many times the kids would come buy the yokota hobby shop looking for weed. Well that and the supervisor looks like a fat tommy chong. Hell just cruse a base once and you will get the picture. The yokota guy worked on base in the quick lube type building, well general maintenance for military personnel personal vehicles.
martyman at 12:21 PM JST - 6th December

DXXJP, I am surprised you didn't mention Sumo wrestlers in your comment. Are you implying the Japanese dope dealers only target foreign teenagers to make a buck? Japanese children would not dare use any illegal drugs.

This post does bring to light the mentality of where the mindset of news agencies mis-direction lies to make a buck(yen). And those readers, that like to twist it to what they think it should be. Facts are there for a reason, Japanese nationals arrested for cultivating cannibas in the mountains and tokyo resident arrested for purchasing 220 grams for 600,000 yen.
bushlover at 01:41 PM JST - 6th December

Come now! There must be some way we can blame the US for misguiding these poor souls. They would never be in this situation if they didn't have contact with those nasty US military men.
MeanRingo at 09:39 AM JST - 7th December

600,000 yen for 220 grams. Man, I would want a much better deal than that. Japan, a grower's paradise.
NuckinFutz at 10:40 PM JST - 7th December

These were Japanese government employees and they have nothing to do with the US military. Their boss is the government of Japan, their citizenship is Japanese, an dthey were conducting their activities in Japan. Leave the US military out of it!
notimpressed at 04:12 PM JST - 8th December

Smartacus: re the 19 yr old girl in Kobe, it was quoted that she bought it from a non-Japanese, and that was as far as the reporting of the story went.

There was another amusing marijuana story on the english translated news that I caught, where they continuously talked about how some grower did all sorts of evil things to his plants to increase the drugs "hallucinatory effects", and that the plants he grew would cause "stronger hallucinations." I would have pee'd myself laughing at that if it wasn't indicative of how fictional most of the 'facts' in marijuana related reporting are. Anyone who knows anything about Marijuana, at least knows it has NO hallucinatory properties. You will not go berserk with a samurai sword and kill your kids, and you will not see little green men coming after you at the combini. Its just pot, not LSD, not Psillocybin, not peyote, just herbs.

As for excusing Kyodo for mentioning the us bases, just because they mention employers names all the time...Well, there was a previous discussion here on JT where it was concluded that the employers names being mentioned is done to shame the company, and enforce the ostricism of the shameful employee. SO mentioning the US bases, even though they are not the employer, and are not responsible for the behaviour of Japanese nationals, is an intentional slight on the US bases.

And I love that idea of just dropping seeds from a plane over Japan. The stuff would take over the landscape, and would have to be burnt to clear it. And at long last everyone here would take a big lungful, a long slow sigh, and chill the hell out for once.
USARonin at 03:24 PM JST - 11th December

They knew the law; they chose to break the law.

What's the problem?

What a non-issue.