Three men have been arrested and charged with abandoning the body of a 16-year-old boy in a forest in Machida, Tokyo, last December. The boy's body was found by a hiker roughly three months after his body was abandoned.
Police allege that the leader of the group, identified as 29-year-old Kenji Higuchi, and two teenage coworkers had been taking illegal stimulants with the boy when his condition suddenly worsened. According to police, Higuchi said, "We were afraid that if we took him to a hospital, our drug use would be revealed and we'd be arrested, so we decided to dump his body in the woods instead."
© Compiled from news reports
29 Comments
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mrjack
well their legal drug use has certainly come to light now, but now also with the heartless act of leaving someone to die.
Legal drug use........like beer or something......HUH?
How can people live with themselves after doing somthing like this.
madmel
Has NOTHING to do with most of what was discussed above...corruption???? Simple two brain dead people made the dumbest move in their lives...well maybe...we will never know. Really feel bad for the kids family...
602miko
OMG! thats horrible
Kevin Lee Brooke
@ Maitake
Sorry buddy, I don't live in a glass house when it comes to drugs, so I can throw stones. I.e. my self-righteousness is justified.
I am at this article because I live in Japan and like to keep up on what is happening in the place I call home.
What struck me about some of the comments on this board was that the self-righteous and self-centered prod-drug people used this case as a way to promote their lifestyle, rather than focusing on the tragedy of what happend to a 16 year old boy, and the general corruption of society.
Oh wait, sorry, I forgot, I guess drugs don't corrupt anything do they...?
Maitake
LOL. listen to your own captious rant JapanHusker. How do you know so much about the people who you lable "druggies"? Why are you at this article? Did you feel you needed to waste your time searching for news articles that give you a chance to be self-righteous?
Kevin Lee Brooke
LOL. I love how all the spineless druggies on this board try to use this case as a reason to legalize their vices. Apparently their lives are so pathetic they not only need drugs to enhance them, but they also feel they need to waste their time searching for news articles that somehow justify and "prove" that drugs should be legal.
This case is simple: BECAUSE these dudes were druggies, they cared more about their habit than the boy, and dumped his body - which was already in a near - if not all the way - dead state - FROM THE DRUGS.
Legal or not, this is what drugs do. Deal with it.
warnerbro
In Japan, medical confidentiality really doesn't exist. But the police would have to find them from the hospital's security camera and they could just say we found him on the street. They'd get a suspended sentence at most. To let the guy die to cover their own ars*s is despicable. At least they could have gone to a pay phone and called an ambulance. What disgusting idiots they are.
sakurala
Piglet: I am happy to hear that. Perhaps they should make an AC commmercial explaining that...I think that needless deaths like this one could be reduced if more people felt safe about helping others.
my2sense
Machida... that station is the creeps with creepy people.
Piglet
I sincerely doubt the hospital would call the police. The medical staff has to respect patient confidentiality, which can be broken only in very specific cases (child abuse, murder, terrorism). I don't think drug abuse fits in this category.
My sister works in an hospital and they often receive illegal immigrants (pregnant women) who are afraid the hospital would call the police. She has to explain them that the medical deontology forbids them from calling the police in most cases.
gaijinfo
So when actually did this boy die? After he laid in the woods a few hours? Couldn't these geniuses have left him outside an apartment building or something and called an ambulance?
Be careful who you hang out with. They may prefer to leave you for dead than get in trouble.
Elbuda Mexicano
It would be nice to read a news story, 3 losers hang for drugging up a minor, then leaving him to die in some crummy woods out in Machida, Tokyo. RIP.
sakurala
I don't think legalizing it would really help. I am all for legalizing marijuana based on the fact that you can't really OD on it but stimulants are very difficult to properly dose and regulate. There is a much higher risk to having an adverse reaction or OD therefore not making it a safe choice.
What needs to be done is a no questions asked policy; people can bring those who illegally took the drug and are ODing to the hospital for life saving medical aid and would not be grilled about their own substance use except to help the patient. This would be far more benificial.
Alphaape
@nisegaijin: yes it would have still happened. If you read the article, the boy was 16. If they legalized it, to match the current drinking age of 20, they still would have been breaking the law, contributing to the deliquency of a minor.
Also, just because it is legal dosen't mean that it will make accidents like this not happen. Legal stimulants, and a person takes them not knowing that they may have a negative body reaction still makes them just as dangerous.
johninnaha
What were the "illegal stimulants?"
Without knowing this, there's nothing to discuss.
Sugarymimi
i've read this article on yahoo news and it said that the victim was a boy!!!! i'm a bit confusing...
Moderator: Yes, that is correct. We apologize for the error.
Fadamor
This case proves that statement false. The girl's reaction to the drug had nothing to do with whether the stimulant was legal or not. It's not clear whether her life could have been saved had they brought her directly to a hospital. This drug is dangerous to some people.
Now take that drug, make it legal to buy without a prescription, and give it to 5,000 girls like her. How many make it to the hospital in time to save them? Now give it to the entire teenage population (if it's legal, you know they'll try it at least once). Out of all those teenagers, how many additional deaths happen because the drug isn't controlled in some fashion? The ONLY result of legalizing a drug as dangerous as this is even MORE deaths because, "If it's legal, it must be safe, right?"
goddog
Was she dead before they brought her to the woods?
BurakuminDes
By that statement , I mean it is uncommon for friends to abandon other friends in situations like this and the Oshio case...there is no likely risk of arrest.
Maitake
*of
Maitake
it is possible that the decriminalizating drugs could lead to a decrease in drug related deaths...
BurakuminDes
Not necessarily. These drugs are illegal in most countries (if not all) - however in some places ie Aus. UK, incidents like this are rare - in relation to the amount of users anyway. The police do not get involved (usually) in situations where friends call an ambulance for their buddy who has overdosed. It saves lives. Not that I am defending these 3 people - I am hoping for some serious prison time for all of them. Rest in Peace to the poor girl.
Zenny11
I doubt she would still be alive if the Drugs were legal.
How many teens and people kill themselves by misusing absolutely legal drugs. Just open a newspaper and likely you will find a report that another party went wrong and a teen/student died.
Nessie
What group?
Maitake
I agree with you nisegaijin, that is what first came to my mind.
Fadamor
Is there such a thing as a legal stimulant that doesn't require a prescription in Japan? I doubt it. I also doubt a prescription stimulant would be prescribed for "the patient and friends". Therefore, saying "if the drugs were legal" is the same as saying "if pigs could fly".
nisegaijin
If the drugs were legal. this wouldn't have happened..
gogogo
Seriously messed up, there needs to be more anonymity in hospitals.
Fadamor
So now they're going to be charged with manslaughter for killing the girl with their drugs? Or are they going to claim the drugs were hers to begin with? Based on their own statement, shouldn't they also be charged with illegal drug use?