|
Newsbrief:
Japan
to
Move
to
Outlaw
Designer
Drugs
1/28/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/372/japan.shtml
A little more than two years
ago, the Japanese
government slammed shut a loophole in the law that allowed for the
sale and consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms, citing public health
concerns. Now the government has set its sights on designer drugs
(or "dappo drugs" in local usage), synthetic compounds similar in effect
to some banned substances but sufficiently chemically distinct as to fall
outside the purview of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Drug Control Law.
The Japanese newspaper Asahi
Shimbun reported Tuesday that Health Ministry sources said the ministry
will set up a group of more than a dozen experts including those from the
fields of medicine, pharmacology, criminal law and juvenile delinquency,
to come up with plans by October for controlling the substances.
The experts will decide how to classify the drugs under current drug laws.
Based on the findings of the experts, the ministry plans to submit a bill
to the Diet in 2006 to expand the range of banned substances, using existing
laws to outlaw the trade in and possession of such drugs.
Under current law, designer
drugs are not within the purview of the drug laws, nor, because they contain
no medicinal substances, are they subject to the Pharmaceutical Affairs
Law. Thus, they are totally unregulated and can be sold as aromatics
or even video cleaners, the newspaper reported. Again, public officials
are citing a threat to the public health. In one widely publicized
case linked to the synthetics, a man was arrested in July 2004 in Tokyo
for allegedly killing the woman he was living with after he took three
different "unregulated drugs."
Among the substances in question,
the newspaper reported, is AMT, or alpha-methyltyptamine. Known in
Japan as "Day Tripper," the drug has been linked to a total of three overdose
deaths in the US and was placed on the US controlled substance list on
an emergency basis in April 2003. That ban was made permanent in
October
2004.
For more on AMT, visit the
Vaults
of Erowid.
-- END --
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Issue #372
-- 1/28/05
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