Getting High in Berlin and the Perceptions of Marijuana in Japan

Disclaimer : I am in no way trying to endorse the usage of marijuana. I am no researcher, I have zero numbers that I have created, nor have I done enough personal research to persuade anybody. I just want to share the different perceptions of weed I have witnessed as a bicultural.

I got high in Berlin.

Just going to let that sentence stand on its own for a second because its a powerful statement that can be taken in so many ways. It gives me a sense of power, an immature feeling of superiority in breaking the law in Japan and feeling cool about it. I know that’s stupid. It also gives society an upper hand because what if I get divorced in the future and the judge calls me a drug addict for it? It would become a huge deficit for me if I’m trying to win the rights to my own child or just whatever situation I am in.

In Japan, the act of smoking weed, holding weed, producing weed is known to be one of the most dangerous and criminal things one can do. You see so many celebrities’ lives ruined because of this. This is perhaps linked to how drugs (weed, MDMA, cocaine all together) are taught in our Japanese text books. In one section of the text book I used to be taught in elementary school, the title always says “ダメ絶対“ (translation: no, absolutely not) and discusses how weed specifically causes mental disorder, hallucination, change of character, effect towards reproductive functions and respiratory systems. Which, all of it might be true, but the fact that they depict weed as something unquestionably wrong saying “ダメ絶対“ is questionable. How is it “ダメ絶対“ compared to over drinking of alcohol which kills 350,000 Japanese people yearly(source) or tabacco in which we could’ve saved 90,000 people yearly from getting cancer if they had not been smoking(source), when weed barely kills anybody?

The external effects as well, personally it’s more difficult to imagine a high person forcing another to smoke weed than a drunk person forcing another to drink more.

Maybe the way they teach drugs here in Japan is linked to history. We watched the economic downfall of our neighbored country China during the opium war. This historical event painted the word “hallucination, ecstasy, daydreaming“ a forever horrific impression in Asian countries. Any usage of “drugs“ will lead to less control of a sane mind and ruin you.

On the other hand though, as more and more nations legalize marijuana, we realize the economic positive impact it has as well.

Again, I’m not trying to endorse the usage of weed. After legalization of weed in the States, there is some research that state that it led to problematic use of weed or increase of usage in hard drugs. I’m simply stating that it is dangerous for the people to create assumptions based off of education provided to them.

In this information society, in this digital world, we are able to reach out to points of views outside of our bubble, and that’s what gets you close.

Take the situation you live and create your interpretation, instead of believing in something you are told, and this goes for anything.