Japanese actor and musician Pierre Taki arrested for alleged cocaine use

Everyone in Showbiz does coke and weed. Pick an entertainer and fill your arrest quota. It simple really. Only the paranoid survive.

So what? Nothing is going to happen to him, so why bring this to attention?

This is costing this guy an awful lot of money in penalties for his endorsements. Like hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jenny , you obviously dont know much about what you talking about , but recreational drugs are not banned or deemed illegal because of the danger to the user or the supply chain.

Just like weed slowly becoming legal, similar recreational drugs lime cocaine , mdma and lsd and psylocibin are being reintroduced, and the reason is that Big Pharma established ways to control the trade while US ( CIA ) found that the fake "war on drugs" in order to sponsor their other illicit activities does not pay out as well as it did because of the high visibility.

Mind you, coka plantations in south america as well as opium fields in middle east are under US gov protection.

All it takes to find truth for yourself is some reading and opening your mind to more than the usual propaganda.

All that said , yes in Japan use is deemed as possession, which is pretty insane but thats the law... either follow it or become politico and try reverse it or pay the price .... anyway, he is deemed to lose bunch of contracts and will be out in less than a month with suspended sentence.

Snitches get stitches.

Your example of a great artistic talent saved by drug leniency is... rd jr? :v

Sadly, GoGo is correct

Hopefully, gogogo is correct.

I would hate to see someone's career destroyed because of a little blow.

As an example of such career destruction, just imagine the Iron Man or Avengers movies without Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark.

Sadly, GoGo is correct

"tipped off" someone didn't like him... what does it really matter, he is famous, he will get a suspended sentence and be back on air after bowing and saying sorry within 6 months. If anything it will help his acting career. #welcometojapan

Celebrities snorting blow.... yawn...

Just heard Sega will stop the release of it's new game with him it. Ironic since he plays a baddie. Taking it a bit far me thinks.

As people have noted the cycle of "illicit drug" production, distribution and consumption has many negative sides, not the least being the involvement of organised crime.

But as is more often than not the case in Japan, the focus is usually on the end-user, and sensationalized by media to get their pound of flesh from the culprits (usually well known celebs) and please the authorities at the same time. Everyone loves a "Well, tchhh, tchhh - who'd ever thought he could do such a thing" story to humble the elevated ones.

This very story on NHK tonite had an interview with a professor who stated that over use of cocaine can lead to hallucinations and he reported about a case where a person attacked his own body with an ice-pick to kill the bugs crawling out of his skin. It may well be true, but I'd suggest this is full blown scare-mongering. They did mention a little of cocaines history and drug dependency, but a far more analytical, comprehensive look into the whole industry and in fact the whole situation of illegal / legal drugs would have been of greater benefit. Witness the opioid crisis in US.

The black market around cocaine is much more dangerous than the actual cocaine.

The war on drugs has created a major problem, without ever solving any problem.

BTW Mr Downvoter, I don’t condone drug use but made the observation that it was interesting it was an offence to ‘have used’ the drug. Most countries I thought would not have that but rather simple possession/trafficking etc.

Possession, trafficking, importing I can understand but being arrested for ‘using’ the drug seems strange, but I guess it is an offence up there.

Good ‘tip off’...

would like to know its purity where he got it and cost...

Don't forget the suspended sentence. If you are a celebrity in Japan, you must have a minimum of six suspended sentences before you do any real jail time

Fast forward to a tearful apology deep bowing and a release with a slap on the back

You seem more interested in justifying what most of society has rightly deemed unjustifiable -- what? Well a large segment of society continue to use these things so saying society has deemed it's usage as unjustified is not justified mearly because a large segment of this society do use drugs. I don't condone it but it makes no sence to make personal choices illegal. Particularly when as this story illustrates no one was hurt.

I do not think cocaine is "the way to go" in this story no one was hurt. So why is it even a story? Government law says it's illegal so of course people will make money from it. Prohibition fuelled organised crime. The war on drugs gives the criminal element a huge source of income. 1912 you could buy a comefort package for troops from Supermarkets that contained cocaine and opioids . There was no problem. The problem started when like alcohol it was banned. Again who was hurt?

Cricky Today  05:23 pm JST

Well the cocaine was produced by people who made a wage, transported by people who made a wage consumed by people who have an excess of wage. And the crime is? 

Okay, it seems that you are pretty oblivious to the massive incidence of death and destroyed lives caused by hard drugs like cocaine.

That people "make a wage" peddling such dangerous drugs is justification for it?

The crime is that cocaine is illegal. It's illegal for a reason. But you don't seem interested in even considering what that reason is.

You seem more interested in justifying what most of society has rightly deemed unjustifiable -- and "personal choice and pleasure" is your inadequate way of trying.

Cricky Today  04:53 pm JST

Little bit confused, who did he harm? The story mentions nothing about why his choice was detrimental to society?

You don't think cocaine use is detrimental to society as a whole?

Well the cocaine was produced by people who made a wage, transported by people who made a wage consumed by people who have an excess of wage. And the crime is? The personal choice effected who? Really if you can afford it have the funds why is it such a problem.

The story mentions nothing about why his choice was detrimental to society?

Ever wonder about where cocaine comes from and all the suffering involved just so some “musician” can feel his roots?

Naw, didn’t think so.

Little bit confused, who did he harm? The story mentions nothing about why his choice was detrimental to society?

Grassed up.  'Fessed up.  Now soon to be banged up.

Poor Pierru