Japan's culture is a double edged sword. The very same phenomenon that allows you to have politeness-by-default and lots of dedication to professionalism is the same mechanism by which you get glacial paces of change when the culture settled into the wrong ideology. There are lots of more downsides (lots of flipped-coin situations), but this is just one of them.
Japan is much less likely to change rapidly on this front than any other society, in my opinion changing attitudes everywhere else is what will convince Japan. One thing I could see is them legalizing marijuana but taxing is incredibly (as a way to offset some long-term economics issues), but I don't know of a single politician willing to be that progressive (and not lose backing)... That's not what "progressive" looks like here really.
Going to go with the unpopular opinion here, but I don't understand the comments saying "Japan/Korea is so backwards/archaic, cannabis tobacco and alcohol are all drugs, if you allow one, you should allow them all".
In the US/Europe, I totally agree with you. The benefits of making it legal far exceed the cost and the associated risks, so if I was asked to vote, I would vote for legalizing cannabis. But this is not a vote to cannabis, it's a vote against the criminal networks that are profiting from cannabis.
Now, what you are saying, is that a country that does not have a cannabis problem should still legalize it. Call me old fashioned, but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not. Saying "yes, but alcohol/tobacco is worst" does not make is good.
Your point basically is: "these countries should allow weed because in the West, we do have an issue with the criminality associated with it". I believe on the contrary that Japan, Korea (and a few others, such as Singapore) should be very proud of not having a drug problem, keep one working towards not creating one, while at the same time focusing on solving their tobacco / alcohol one.
No, its not really a matter of being old fashioned - it's a matter of being authoritarian.
> but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not.
The society that doesn't forbid people who want to smoke to do so is better because it is more free. That is valuable in itself, although this point seems to have fallen out of fashion on HN these days.
Do you really think it's ethical to use violence against people who consume a certain plant or substance merely because they happen to live in a culture that doesn't approve of that?
To me it seems extremely likely that drugs and their legalization will ultimately be put in the same category as the legalization of homosexuality or the freedom of speech
1) Drug problems still exist in those countries. Albeit it’s different than say, the US, pretending that it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
2) I’m not saying the attitude toward weed in japan should be the same as in the US, but having this amount of social stigma is ridiculous. It’s absurd when you consider just how much Koreans and Japanese people drink. It’s way more than Americans, and at least in Korea it’s mandatory after work for a lot of people.
3) Legalizing marijuana (even just for medical use) will not create or worsen any existing drug issues.
Okay, I will call you old-fashioned. These things exist, and you cannot bury your head in the sand.
Do you know what happens when cannabis is illegal and people decide to skirt that? People synthesize technically-legal alternatives, and give them acronyms like 'JWH', and sell them online.
It may not seem too harmful, making the products of public research on the effects of cannabinoids on rodents available to the public. But the legislatures will catch on eventually, because it is a clear end-run around the law, right?
Fast-forward a few years, and look at all the harm that this causes; it's like heroin -> fentanyl. What is wrong with the principles of harm reduction?
You're not "old-fashioned", that's far too nice a word for someone who endorses violence and incarceration for people who like a drug that you disapprove of.
I agree with you if that means anything to you. The fact that drug problems in a country like Japan are far diminished relative to a country like the US means, in my mind, that the culture should attempt to maintain that purity, which can only be reasonably done by preventing people from partaking.
Take fast food for instance. The Americanization of the Japanese diet is leading to increased obesity in what used to be a very healthy society. It is the mere exposure of these addictive foods that has lead to this. Honestly, it makes me a bit sad.
Living in Korea, it's just baffling to see these ridiculous, archaic attitudes toward marijuana in Korea and Japan.
It's like stepping into a time machine. The internet and its resources are available, yet no amount of reasoning or information gets through to a lot of people. Marijuana is just "evil" or only "people who commit/will commit crimes" use it.
I don't necessarily think the attitude here should be just like in the US, but at least let people use it medically, and get rid of the disproportionate stigma.
As @laureig mentioned, one can’t even admit trying marijuana in polite/semi-polite company (of other Koreans). With foreigners it’s a little different. Generally it only gets discussed if you’re closer with them.
---
At the same time, alcohol [and alcoholism] is not only totally fine, it's encouraged! Sometimes it's even mandatory to go drinking with your coworkers after work, due to social pressure from peers and bosses. I have spoken with a few people like this.
But going to clubs in 홍대 Hongdae/강남 Gangnam and drinking until 9am or drinking at a dozen bars in Golden Gai until 6am is totally fine. Drinking until you puke on the street is totally fine. (Admittedly I did do this once in 세종시 Sejong-City, Korea)
In my experience more people than you might expect have experience with cannabis in Japan. I was at a small party and the topic of cannabis came up. I asked the group if anyone had smoked it before. Everyone gave a resounding "No, of course not".
When the party was winding down, two separate people said "Actually, I've tried it. I just didn't want to say anything in front of other people."
I find it strange how in the next few weeks up and down the country Japanese people will go out and many will get very drunk from morning to night while sitting under the blooming sakura trees but any other drug is so taboo you can barely mention it in polite company.
Yeah, I totally forgot about the polite company thing. It’s exactly the same with Koreans. The ones who were forward about it were people who had lived in America or abroad for some period of time, typically.
In the same way you shouldn’t ask a group of Koreans “do you understand?” when teaching, because they might answer “yes” to save face.
It’s definitely an interesting culture, compared to mine (American).
Not sure what exactly you're referring to; most people don't refer to illegal drug abuse openly in polite company here in America either. Of course, it's also impolite to ask.
No matter how much or what kind of drugs are being used, it's not logical to ever wage a drug war. This is probably the sickest, most disgusting American cultural export in a sea of sick, disgusting cultural exports. It's one thing to succumb to this type of sick, vile thinking when a country is under occupation but a whole other thing to keep at it once you are no longer occupied. In no way am I singling out Japan here. Most countries succumbed to US pressure on this issue and even made it their own issue, persecuting and killing their own people. The people who perpetrated these acts, acts akin to war crimes themselves should be ashamed and hunted down but that won't happen because justice doesn't exist. It is not too late to reverse such policies and to shirk off this horrific cultural export as even the US is starting to do. Unfortunately, many of these people ardently believe the lies they learned and want to continue killing, jailing, torturing, and persecuting others who are sick and would be better off served with compassion and medical care. Hopefully, the world will wise up and get rid of this drug war, this American mind poison, and reclaim their cultures and dignity for their countries.
Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States
From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose
Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid
In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999
On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose
The LD50 for cannabinoids is approximately your own weight. At least in the monkeys and rats studied, because there has never been a documented human overdose and proper studies are both unethical and (in the US) illegal.
It's amazing to me how Japan can be so Puritan about some things, and so... not Puritan about other things. Though I guess an outsider could say the same thing about the U.S.
I would be more surprised to find any longstanding human culture that didn't have any glaring inconsistencies in the things it encourages vs the things it discourages.
I think a lot of these things boil down to demographics. What societies make the most dynamic changes in the shortest times? My theory is that it's ones with large-base demographic pyramids. Once you become vertical or inverted (like Japan a couple decades ago, the US and most of europe, China soon) you start to become more conservative as a society. Things change more slowly, maybe not directly in terms of politics (meaning things may not swing far right) but in terms of the actual look and feel of society.
This article is enlightening in Japan's attitude towards these stimulants. But I could go any convenience store and pick up bottles of "genki" (energy) drinks. There doesn't seem to be much regulations and only the occasional news story of people overdosing.
To be fair, adderrall (And other Amphetamine based drugs) are illegal in a lot of countries that are not the US. The stimulants Ritalin and Modafinil are available here, and Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) is in clinical trials
Why exactly did the US go so crazy against drugs? Seems like after WWII this war on drugs mentality took root and probably peaked in the 1980s or so with the peak of the WWII generation's power.
Hemp competed with cotton and doesn't require chemical spraying (it's a weed!). How are you going to convince John Q. Public to ban hemp? Give it a Mexican-sounding name...
The Nixon-era War on Drugs:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
I've heard versions of the war on drugs as a veiled racial policy [0]. But, I'm not from the US, and that idea seems too ... convenient (?) so I wouldn't take it at face value.
I guess it had to do with hippies protesting aganst the Vietnam war, DuPont's money, Mexican farmers getting a buck, Eastern Block countries being hemp fibre exporters. The US esentially destroyed this industry in other countries, except for China and India who pretty much control this market now.
My guess is that, at least when it comes to Marijuana, conservatives are so deeply offended by drugs because they're anti-productivity. Pot slows you down, relaxes you, lowers drive (even just temporarily). For those on the right wing, this translates to, "it makes you lazy, a burden on society, it undermines the American spirit of hard work and self-started progress". They rationalize it any number of ways, but I think that aspect is what makes it personal.
I have an interesting personal anecdote on this. I'm a 27-year-old Caucasian American (relevant) who doesn't speak any Japanese and who recently spent 3 months in Japan with my girlfriend.
Her aunt by adoption is an ethnically Japanese native of Tokyo who of course speaks fluent Japanese, and we spent a month living with her there.
At one point, we went over her aunt's friend's family's house for dinner. The friend's family does not speak any English.
All night we managed to have a really interesting and fun time by using Google translate to translate what I wanted to say (my gf mostly just spectated), and Google translate would horribly mistranslate it to humorous and confusing effect, and then Yuka (the aunt) would explain to the family what I actually meant with a proper translation.
Now in the middle of dinner, after a good hour of this and now at a stage where we had mostly set google translate aside, it came up that I don't drink alcohol, and the father commented how much money I must save this way. And I, fool that I am, joked "oh no I blow all the savings on cocaine." And I looked at Yuka, who chuckled and said "no, no, I'm not going to translate that." But she didn't add any cultural warning, so I thought she was just being a little formal. So I said, "fine I'll translate it with google translate!"
Now sure, you might say it was a bad joke, but in the US depending who you're eating with it would still elicit chuckles or smiles, even if it was just polite.
Not in Japan. When I held up the phone with the translation for them to see, the reaction was shocked silence. It was as though I had held up an image of hardcore pornography at the table. Even the two high school age boys were horrified, not so much as a smile.
After a moment the father muttered in halting English "bad joke."
And that is how I learned just how taboo drugs are in Japan.
In retrospect Yuka found it hilarious. "I told you not to say it!" "No you didn't, you just said you wouldn't translate it, that's not the same thing!" "Ha ha well..."
It's worth noting that this article is by Johann Hari, who has a long history of telling compelling but untrue stories. Most recently about depression:
> I was told by Jake Adelstein, one of the leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, and the author of the book Tokyo Vice.
He must be _really_ good to rank above all the experts who are from Japan.
OTOH, while Japan may have failed to produce leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, they seem to be doing pretty decently in terms of actual drug and crime issues. If you were Japanese, would you want to follow American advice on drug and crime policy? There are many good things about America, but would you say its drug and crime situations are the highlights worth imitating?
It amuses me how Western media outlets continue to quote Adelstein, his entire shtick consists of spouting made up stuff about Japan to Western reporters with no means of fact-checking.
I guess it goes both ways though, the self-proclaimed "America-tsuu (US experts)" here aren't any better.
Well, the thing is that most of Japan’s Japanese experts on drugs and crime don’t spend a significant amount of their time interacting with the English speaking world, and there aren’t many people interested in merely translating their work without adding their own take on it.
Jake Adelstein however has become very good at being a point of contact for English speaking non Japanese speaking people who wish to report on Japanese crime, independently of how qualified you might think he is or isn’t.
No, only parts of Western Europe have tended to be particularly lighter than the US on drug laws. Aggressive US drug laws are also mostly a recent phenomenon (recent in the history of the country), the war on drugs era combined with mandatory minimum sentencing. For the majority of US history, there were few drug laws at all.
Nearly all of Asia, comprising 35-40% of the world population, lives under far stricter drug laws than exist in the US.
The US will federally legalize marijuana at some point in the next decade, as enough states legalize it. China is definitely not going to follow, you can expect them to hold firm on that. There's a chance that given some time (within two decades after the US legalizes it perhaps), South Korea and Japan will be seriously considering it. The US influence on those two nations will play a big role in the attitude change, and it'll still take a long time.
Could you name a few countries you're thinking of?
Also, there is a huge amount of nuance lost in the term "drug". Alcohol is a drug, Tobacco is a drug, Marijuana is a drug, Oxycodone is a drug. I think what most people mean when they mention drug laws being harsh in the US is the combination of very high penalties for drugs that have been proven to have minimal negative repercussions, and the CIA's sordid history in the US and abroad. You don't have to take my word for it, since wikipedia exists[0] (there's lots more but it's a good starter).
Most societies may say they are anti drug, but how harsh is the sentencing, and how much of it is actually prosecuted?
> Does the US really have harsh drug laws compared to other countries?
Depends on your race. The USA has the second-highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, and a large proportion of those currently or formerly incarcerated are black men facing time for simple cannabis posession. Not a problem if you're a white male who went to a good school and "knows this guy," and has time to post on HN.
[+] [-] hardwaresofton|7 years ago|reply
Japan is much less likely to change rapidly on this front than any other society, in my opinion changing attitudes everywhere else is what will convince Japan. One thing I could see is them legalizing marijuana but taxing is incredibly (as a way to offset some long-term economics issues), but I don't know of a single politician willing to be that progressive (and not lose backing)... That's not what "progressive" looks like here really.
[+] [-] selestify|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vhb|7 years ago|reply
In the US/Europe, I totally agree with you. The benefits of making it legal far exceed the cost and the associated risks, so if I was asked to vote, I would vote for legalizing cannabis. But this is not a vote to cannabis, it's a vote against the criminal networks that are profiting from cannabis.
Now, what you are saying, is that a country that does not have a cannabis problem should still legalize it. Call me old fashioned, but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not. Saying "yes, but alcohol/tobacco is worst" does not make is good.
Your point basically is: "these countries should allow weed because in the West, we do have an issue with the criminality associated with it". I believe on the contrary that Japan, Korea (and a few others, such as Singapore) should be very proud of not having a drug problem, keep one working towards not creating one, while at the same time focusing on solving their tobacco / alcohol one.
[+] [-] balfirevic|7 years ago|reply
No, its not really a matter of being old fashioned - it's a matter of being authoritarian.
> but I do not think that a society that smokes weed is better than a society that does not.
The society that doesn't forbid people who want to smoke to do so is better because it is more free. That is valuable in itself, although this point seems to have fallen out of fashion on HN these days.
[+] [-] voldacar|7 years ago|reply
To me it seems extremely likely that drugs and their legalization will ultimately be put in the same category as the legalization of homosexuality or the freedom of speech
[+] [-] intertextuality|7 years ago|reply
2) I’m not saying the attitude toward weed in japan should be the same as in the US, but having this amount of social stigma is ridiculous. It’s absurd when you consider just how much Koreans and Japanese people drink. It’s way more than Americans, and at least in Korea it’s mandatory after work for a lot of people.
3) Legalizing marijuana (even just for medical use) will not create or worsen any existing drug issues.
[+] [-] leggomylibro|7 years ago|reply
Do you know what happens when cannabis is illegal and people decide to skirt that? People synthesize technically-legal alternatives, and give them acronyms like 'JWH', and sell them online.
It may not seem too harmful, making the products of public research on the effects of cannabinoids on rodents available to the public. But the legislatures will catch on eventually, because it is a clear end-run around the law, right?
Fast-forward a few years, and look at all the harm that this causes; it's like heroin -> fentanyl. What is wrong with the principles of harm reduction?
[+] [-] 3131s|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imetatroll|7 years ago|reply
Take fast food for instance. The Americanization of the Japanese diet is leading to increased obesity in what used to be a very healthy society. It is the mere exposure of these addictive foods that has lead to this. Honestly, it makes me a bit sad.
[+] [-] intertextuality|7 years ago|reply
It's like stepping into a time machine. The internet and its resources are available, yet no amount of reasoning or information gets through to a lot of people. Marijuana is just "evil" or only "people who commit/will commit crimes" use it.
I don't necessarily think the attitude here should be just like in the US, but at least let people use it medically, and get rid of the disproportionate stigma.
As @laureig mentioned, one can’t even admit trying marijuana in polite/semi-polite company (of other Koreans). With foreigners it’s a little different. Generally it only gets discussed if you’re closer with them.
---
At the same time, alcohol [and alcoholism] is not only totally fine, it's encouraged! Sometimes it's even mandatory to go drinking with your coworkers after work, due to social pressure from peers and bosses. I have spoken with a few people like this.
But going to clubs in 홍대 Hongdae/강남 Gangnam and drinking until 9am or drinking at a dozen bars in Golden Gai until 6am is totally fine. Drinking until you puke on the street is totally fine. (Admittedly I did do this once in 세종시 Sejong-City, Korea)
[+] [-] laurieg|7 years ago|reply
When the party was winding down, two separate people said "Actually, I've tried it. I just didn't want to say anything in front of other people."
I find it strange how in the next few weeks up and down the country Japanese people will go out and many will get very drunk from morning to night while sitting under the blooming sakura trees but any other drug is so taboo you can barely mention it in polite company.
[+] [-] intertextuality|7 years ago|reply
In the same way you shouldn’t ask a group of Koreans “do you understand?” when teaching, because they might answer “yes” to save face.
It’s definitely an interesting culture, compared to mine (American).
[+] [-] mises|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mnm1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jfptech|7 years ago|reply
Drug overdose deaths continue to increase in the United States
From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 people have died from a drug overdose
Around 68% of the more than 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017 involved an opioid
In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl) was 6 times higher than in 1999
On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
Government spends billions waging war on marijuana while Purdue Pharma, Pill Mills, and The FDA kill the rest of us with Oxycontin
[+] [-] bregma|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _Schizotypy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bxg1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kranner|7 years ago|reply
We are all hypocrites.
[+] [-] opportune|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tayo42|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] black-tea|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jac_no_k|7 years ago|reply
This article is enlightening in Japan's attitude towards these stimulants. But I could go any convenience store and pick up bottles of "genki" (energy) drinks. There doesn't seem to be much regulations and only the occasional news story of people overdosing.
[+] [-] refurb|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dvcrn|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _Schizotypy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ejolto|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] api|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apsec112|7 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
[+] [-] rangibaby|7 years ago|reply
The Nixon-era War on Drugs:
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
[0] https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
[+] [-] anitil|7 years ago|reply
[0] See https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman for the direct quote
[+] [-] petre|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _bxg1|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tossawayonphine|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] aerovistae|7 years ago|reply
Her aunt by adoption is an ethnically Japanese native of Tokyo who of course speaks fluent Japanese, and we spent a month living with her there.
At one point, we went over her aunt's friend's family's house for dinner. The friend's family does not speak any English.
All night we managed to have a really interesting and fun time by using Google translate to translate what I wanted to say (my gf mostly just spectated), and Google translate would horribly mistranslate it to humorous and confusing effect, and then Yuka (the aunt) would explain to the family what I actually meant with a proper translation.
Now in the middle of dinner, after a good hour of this and now at a stage where we had mostly set google translate aside, it came up that I don't drink alcohol, and the father commented how much money I must save this way. And I, fool that I am, joked "oh no I blow all the savings on cocaine." And I looked at Yuka, who chuckled and said "no, no, I'm not going to translate that." But she didn't add any cultural warning, so I thought she was just being a little formal. So I said, "fine I'll translate it with google translate!"
Now sure, you might say it was a bad joke, but in the US depending who you're eating with it would still elicit chuckles or smiles, even if it was just polite.
Not in Japan. When I held up the phone with the translation for them to see, the reaction was shocked silence. It was as though I had held up an image of hardcore pornography at the table. Even the two high school age boys were horrified, not so much as a smile.
After a moment the father muttered in halting English "bad joke."
And that is how I learned just how taboo drugs are in Japan.
In retrospect Yuka found it hilarious. "I told you not to say it!" "No you didn't, you just said you wouldn't translate it, that's not the same thing!" "Ha ha well..."
[+] [-] twic|7 years ago|reply
https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2018/jan/...
EDIT and the backstory:
http://www.jeremy-duns.com/blog/2014/9/7/kdgwxcbsned1rknh0h3...
He mentions Rat Park, which isn't as clear-cut as he makes out:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/25/against-rat-park/
I think it's wise to treat this story as a useful pointer towards an interesting topic, but not as a reliable treatment of that topic.
[+] [-] alexmat|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pamar|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _Schizotypy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Camillo|7 years ago|reply
He must be _really_ good to rank above all the experts who are from Japan.
OTOH, while Japan may have failed to produce leading experts on drugs and crime in Japan, they seem to be doing pretty decently in terms of actual drug and crime issues. If you were Japanese, would you want to follow American advice on drug and crime policy? There are many good things about America, but would you say its drug and crime situations are the highlights worth imitating?
[+] [-] scottishcow|7 years ago|reply
I guess it goes both ways though, the self-proclaimed "America-tsuu (US experts)" here aren't any better.
[+] [-] viraptor|7 years ago|reply
I'm fine with that. Also "one of the leading experts", not "above all".
[+] [-] GuiA|7 years ago|reply
Jake Adelstein however has become very good at being a point of contact for English speaking non Japanese speaking people who wish to report on Japanese crime, independently of how qualified you might think he is or isn’t.
[+] [-] etaioinshrdlu|7 years ago|reply
I also don't believe that other countries are harsh on drugs just because the US or UN is. Doesn't seem to be a primary driver.
I think it's much simpler. Most societies are very anti drug.
[+] [-] adventured|7 years ago|reply
Nearly all of Asia, comprising 35-40% of the world population, lives under far stricter drug laws than exist in the US.
The US will federally legalize marijuana at some point in the next decade, as enough states legalize it. China is definitely not going to follow, you can expect them to hold firm on that. There's a chance that given some time (within two decades after the US legalizes it perhaps), South Korea and Japan will be seriously considering it. The US influence on those two nations will play a big role in the attitude change, and it'll still take a long time.
[+] [-] hardwaresofton|7 years ago|reply
Also, there is a huge amount of nuance lost in the term "drug". Alcohol is a drug, Tobacco is a drug, Marijuana is a drug, Oxycodone is a drug. I think what most people mean when they mention drug laws being harsh in the US is the combination of very high penalties for drugs that have been proven to have minimal negative repercussions, and the CIA's sordid history in the US and abroad. You don't have to take my word for it, since wikipedia exists[0] (there's lots more but it's a good starter).
Most societies may say they are anti drug, but how harsh is the sentencing, and how much of it is actually prosecuted?
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs
[+] [-] bregma|7 years ago|reply
Depends on your race. The USA has the second-highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world, and a large proportion of those currently or formerly incarcerated are black men facing time for simple cannabis posession. Not a problem if you're a white male who went to a good school and "knows this guy," and has time to post on HN.
[+] [-] eternalban|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] honestoHeminway|7 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] charliebrownau|7 years ago|reply
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