The way of thinking really is different in Japan when it comes to drugs. Everyone
doesn`t smoke weed in Japan. Really. Choose to believe what you want, but there is truly a world of difference in the way people think about drugs in general.
There really IS no drug culture. You don`t get people going around offering their opinions about it, you don`t get sites all over dedicated to the positive benefits of some drugs, etc. There may be a few, but you`d really have to go out looking for them. And as there isn`t really much exposure - people do not. The drugs you are more likely to encounter are heroin and meth - and I say "more likely" in just that direct meaning. More likely than 0, not
likely to encounter.
Somewhere drugs are prevalent, and there are tons of pot users, and people sort of come to doubt all the anti-drug stuff... Which sends it in a sort of spiral. But in Japan, drugs are very hard to come by in the first place, so there is no real prevalence. What people do see as examples of drug use are huffers, whacked out meth users, and the occasional heroin user who has destroyed their life. There is no mainstream use of anything, so most people never think beyond this and never doubt anti-drug literature... So pot DOES fall into the same category as the most heaviest drug in the public mind.
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I'm not claiming to have any first hand experience, I'm just going off intuition. Japan, like many countries, has it's traditions and cultures, but with the internet there's hardly any way I can believe the majority of Japanese citizens consider majiruana to be a "dangerous and risky behavior'. There's just far too much information on the web to counter that idea.
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In English, usually coming out of America, which is looked on as a den of drug use and crime to begin with. Try to find the similar in Japanese and all you`ll come up with in most cases are weird anonymous sites that teeter on the edge of being conspiracy sites. In other words, not at all mainstream.
Most people really DO view it as dangerous and risky behavior. It doesn`t matter if they could find information countering this - if they have no particular interest and no one around them uses... why would they seek it out?
It seems to be very hard for people who live in countries and communities where drugs are a normal thing to imagine, but Japan really
really doesn`t have the same way of thinking about it - and the penalties and such really are much much larger than I can imagine elsewhere.
For an example - A former student of my husband`s university was caught in Tokyo trying to buy a small amount of marijuana in Roppongi. Not only did he get arrested, lose his job, and had his university degree removed... the information was sent out in the alumni news, and contributions he had made to various projects during the past were considered to be of no value and removed. Chances are, customers also stopped business with his company.
He`ll probably never find work again. His family will probably not want him around and chances are he has been "disowned". My husband came under observation at his own company simply for being within 2 years of graduation of this guy. The university head and two former teachers of this guy went and personally apologized to the police and at least one of them went and apologized to the guy`s family for not having instilled better values in him during their time as his mentor. I have also heard that his high school became involved, but I don`t know to what extent because we only have contacts at the university...
Oh, and of course, the prison sentence. 5 years, I think?
It`s SERIOUS. You don`t get a slap on the wrist.