Unsuspecting passenger returns cannabis after sniffer dog test botched at Narita

Is it really going for Y7000 a gram in Japan? Not like it is back home.

Dumb dog.

That's at least 5 ounces and would need more than a small metal container, unless it's resin. I'm thinking they included the weight of the container in with the weight of the weed.

what an idiot!!!!! hope the person wasn`t traveling to other parts of asia or the middle east where there can be the death penalty for drugs. IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!

Astonishing. Imagine being caught with drugs which you knew nothing about. After spending several years in jail you find out that a customs officer planted the drugs and forgot about them. Regrettable indeed.

The officer should be strung up by the short hairs! He used a passenger's suitcase without consent, then lost it. If that victim had gone on to another country where the dogs are better, then that person would be in an interrogation cell trying to explain how it happened. Which he wouldn't be able to do because he never knew it was there.

The news update from late last night said that a male foreigner found the box and returned it to the police. If I was him, and I knew of this story, I would take it to the media and sue the heck out of the Japanese TSA.

As you can tell, this story shook me up a lot because its bad enough to know that some TSA is going to be rifling through my shorts and socks to find a bomb, but to know that they could be intentionally planting drugs in my suitcase makes me lose all confidence in security.

What happens if next time, the security guy tries the same thing but using a live grenade or C-4 in the suitcase. Sure, C-4 won't go off without a detonator, but if they lose it, and the passenger goes on to somewhere like LAX... it'll be a one-way trip to Guantanamo without the benefit of a lawyer or due process.

There should be more of an outcry at the Narita TSA!

This is simply unbelievable. I'm literally (((quaking)))in my boots.

So what would have happened if the dog DID find it?

"Sorry for the delay, sir. We're trampling on your human rights in order to better test our security protocals."

SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE!!!

S

It was today on JTV. They put to foreign visitors pack course. Officer will keep his job as usual, because this is Japan. If that person would be cached,would that "officer" say something? I doubt. Lucky day for foreigner and unlucky for J news. Yes, fingerprinting it must, We got next drug smuggler! Guilty through announcement in the press without official confirmation, then jail because this is what press and people wants. No investigation needed. Doctors (student of medicine) train surgery on real people too, what next Japan? You develop many "intelligent" robots who can take care of oldies, show the way, take care of kids... Its more and more scare to leave in this country. You get in jail for drugs you didn`t bring, for grabbing a girl in the train you never done either, for being foreigner etc.

Great job, I feel much safer now that I know security are doing the best of their job. I would like to suggest a few more items worth checking the detectability: revolver, machine gun, rocket launcher, enriched plutonium, cut-to-small-pieces Filippina, pictures with GWB

As a imm. official , i am totally against this pratice. As one of the few non-japanese in the "system". It was baffling to me, becuase this was know before it broke out in the media. Because the agents could not find the passenger. It is trully regrettable that this happens. many people are innocently sent to jail on "planted" drugs.

It is truly a "scary" thought that customs can go into your luggage at will and do this .

Using a passenger’s luggage without knowledge or consent to practice drug-detection techniques?! Unfrickinbelievable. I'm stunned at the implications this may hold for any passenger caught with drugs that they REALLY didn't know were in their suitcase. This is such a gross abuse of power and trust that dismissal notices are most definitely in order, going straight up the ladder, particularly since Japan takes such pride in being an immovable hardass when it comes to discovering drugs in customs. I have to say it again: Unfrickinbelievable...

instead, the officer hid the metal box, containing 142 grams of the drug, in the black suitcase he had selected at random on the baggage carousel. But he lost sight of who picked up the suitcase.

that is a more than a disgrace. that is some of the most diabolical action ever committed by these idiot cops. note to self. suitcase with no side pockets and a titanium steel lock from now on.

I hope that at least the box was clearly labeled, in case it does get lost, and detected elsewhere. If not, then this guy and whoever is in charge are irresponsible.

Write to immigration and get this guy fired. Absolutely appalling.

ALTRIA。。NOT IMMIGRATIONS....CUSTOMS. WE ARE NOT THE SAME...

The passenger was brave to call the police. Fortunately for him, Customs had alerted the police, but he couldn't know that. How could he be sure they would believe his story? If it had been me, I probably would have flushed the stuff down the toilet and disposed of the container.

I remember a few weeks back there was this news report about some police drill aimed at evaluating the response of J-cops in case of a terrorist attack; in that case everybody, including the "bad guys", knew exactly what to do, where to go and at what point to go down, with the crowds cheering from the side. The JT posters back then were outraged by the complete control of the whole operation and by the fact that nothing was left to chance, when in the real world anything can go different than the rehearsed scenario.

Well... THIS is what happens when a J-cop acts on impulse and tries to add one extra variable (or should I say "any variable") to the scenario. It all goes to sh*t! Maybe the reason why the guys high-up on the hierarchy insist on not letting anything to chance is because they know something...

Idiots at it again. What is he forgot and the police picked this passenger up? Unforgivable. Fire the moron and his boss who should have been monitoring this test properly.

Well, that has to be the most idiotic thing I have heard in a long time. What would the consequences have been for this unsuspecting individual if he had been stopped by police after leaving the airport. I guess the upside is, he would not have had to work again after all the litigation had finished. I sincerely hope this person intends to file a suit against them for this stupid act. And, the idiot who did it should be fired without notice. Reprimanded??? - What a joke!

Hey! It's OK everybody! The idiot responsible got "reprimanded"! (a fate worse than being fired, surely)

...so there's no possibility at all that this will EVER happen again

I hope that at least the box was clearly labeled, in case it does get lost, and detected elsewhere. If not, then this guy and whoever is in charge are irresponsible.

Didn't you read the article? It was lost and the unfortunately victim found it their luggage and reported it to the police. In addition, even if the box was clearly labeled, this immigration officer was irresponsible and was clearly not following standard procedures.

I am never ever checking in my bags to Japan again!!

I'm sure this is what happened to Nick Baker, and I plan to use this defence if ever nailed at Narita for the heinous crime of possession of antihistamine in my luggage.

"cannabis worth 1 million yen"

Something is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

This guy (and his dog) should be sacked - one for gross misconduct - the other for not being able to carry out his/her job

This is just one more candle in the cake of incompetence by japanese authorities. And finding that stuff I would have flushed them too and not had anything to do with the police. Does this guy know their track record? I guess not.

He gets reprimanded and the dog gets sent to Korea. Maybe he should be sent with the dog.

I've been reading JT for 3 years, but this is the first time I've been completely gobsmacked. Planting drugs on a passenger? Not caring that if things went wrong the unsuspecting passenger could've been arrested inside or outside the airport, or even executed if he happened to be flying to Singapore/China anytime soon and didn't check his baggage pockets? And even if things had go to plan, what about the shock, indignation and confusion the passenger would've have felt if the weed had been detected by the mutt? And what a surprise that a foreigner was picked 'at random'. Obviously they wouldn't dream of treating a Japanese in this completely reckless and disgusting manner. A great 'Yokoso Japan' moment... not only will we fingerprint you, we will completely abuse your trust in us by planting drugs on you for our own benefit. After all, you're just a gaijin, so it doesn't matter if you're offended or humiliated.

unbelievable that he wasnt fired and publicly humiliated for this.

Doesn't the Narita Drugs Squad budget run to purchasing a few bags of their own to plant drugs in?

He should have kept the dope and sold it. I hope he sues the pants off these idiots.

Oh Moron!!!!!!! why did he return it? he just threw away a million yen won in lottery.. or lots of weed!!! depends how you look at it! what a dweeb!!

Oh Moron!!!!!!!......what a dweeb!!

Or depending how you look at it, what a normal, law-abiding citizen not interested in getting a quick illicit buck from peddling drugs and ruining other folk's lives, and definitely not interested in getting run in for someone else's 'mistake'.

This is strange...Japanese newspapers reported that the police tracked down the owner of the suitcase to retrieve the dope, based on whatever "declaration" of something submitted by passengers.

Not a word about the owner finding it and calling the police. It's hard to believe that the owner didn't unpack his suitcase before the police arrived. Isn't that the most of travellers do firsgt when they get to hotel?

Good thing that this man wasn't en route to Malaysia or somewhere his life might have been endangered by this incompetency. If that happened, I'm sure the Japanese police would insist that it wasn't their fault.

here is another view. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080526p2a00m0na032000c.html

Lighten up, folks. 1 million yen worth of poison has been taken off the streets of Japan by an honest person.

People need to realize that this story does have a happy ending.

RR

This is scary. What would have happened if the sniffer dog had picked it up and the handlers were just as incompetent as the officer who planted this stuff? Another Nick Baker story?

Surely they don´t need to endanger unsuspecting travellers to test their sniffer dogs!

i find it unbelievable that the customs guy and his bosses still have their jobs. they should be fired and possible criminal negligence charges. I am sure his bosses conceived and authorized this, since a low-level employee in Japan is not allowed to make this sort of decisions.

the nazis at customs in Narita are the most racist people you could find. they harass the heck out of foreigners coming in, and they never search Japanese tourists when they come back. in 12 years i have never seen them check any Japanese person's bags, but they check mine every time for the last 3 years.

This sets an incredible precedent and possible defense for ANYONE caught with any improper material at customs in Japan, however, the concept of "reasonable doubt" and other things that westeners are expected to get will unlikely not be present in Japanese court. If this happened in the US, it would be a disaster for law enforcement officials. Maybe 10-15 people could handle a bag from the point it's unloaded from the plane until it comes out of the baggage claim belt.

Something must be done to make sure those people get what they deserve.

“I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability.” He was reprimanded by the head of customs at Narita."

Sounds like to me that this really could have been a setup.

taiko666, I doubt the customs guy chose a gaijin bag to place the weed in on purpose, he probably planted it randomly in the first bag he thought of as convenient for the "task". This, however, speaks of the total lack of consideration these officers have for the average traveller, be it a Japanese national or not, and of the ease with which they are willing to transform the tourists into their test subjects. Hell, after all, that's what they did with the fingerprinting "counter-terrorist" measure, isn't it? I mean, I don't recall being asked if I'm okay with being fingerprinted at the airport, pretty much the same way the owner of the bag wasn't asked if he's okay with carrying stuff that, under the wrong circumstances, could land him in jail.

Or maybe the customs guy is just plain stupid...

Pepin, they have checked my bag only once in 10 years (and probably because I was coming back from Taiwan through Haneda). So it must be you :) These guys are not racist, they are just incompetent

1 million yen worth of poison has been taken off the streets of Japan by an honest person.

They were not on the streets. They were planted in his luggage by a law enforcer. I wonder how happy your ending would be if it were your suitcase RomeoRamen11? This whole case stinks (like pot)! He should be fired and the entire agency should be reprimanded.

dinkum, you are missing the point. A extremely dangerous narcotic was returned to the authorities by an honest person. You should be rejoicing over this news.

RR

timeon: consider yourself lucky, they never asked me the first 9 years but every time the last three, and they never check in any computer before deciding, they just look at you, so it must be some profiling going on there. in the USA, the Immigration counter guy checks your record on the system before writing a code on your Customs Declaration, depending on the Customs people later on will either check your bag or let you go through, its much more scientific in a Big Brother sort of way.

This should definetely not be under crime as the victim committed any crime. Unless we assume the Japanese customs officers are he criminals!! This is one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard!!

"extremely dangerous narcotic"

What, a little weed? xD

I think this case could give every convicted drug smuggler in Japan a real chance to appeal their sentences as their is circumstantial evidence that the Japanese customs are not beyond planting drugs to justify their existence!!

Sarge, yes. Marijuana is a known gateway narcotic to harder stuff. I am relieved to know that it was returned to the Japanese authorities by an honest traveler.

RR

This guy should be fired from his job!

Can you imagine if the dog had found this and the officer concerned never stepped forward to assure his colleagues it was all part of a test? OMG!

The passenger concerned should sue Narita Airport for this!

boycottolympics:

I think this case could give every convicted drug smuggler in Japan a real chance to appeal their sentences as their is circumstantial evidence that the Japanese customs are not beyond planting drugs to justify their existence!!

Very good point.

This is one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard!!

Exactly .... you HEARD about it. The Japanese TSA publically admitted they made a mistake and an honest traveler returned that poison to them.

This ends up being a rare good news story to appear at JT.

RR

Instead, the officer hid the metal box, containing 142 grams of the drug, in the black suitcase he had selected at random on the baggage

I beg your fooking pardon?????

Besides being highly illegal to select a passengers bag, peoples lives could be ruined for a dipsh!t like this customs official.

??? police dog failed to sniff the drug police officer smuggles drug in somebody's else bag police officer lose track of the bag is this a comedy? is these people serious? btw, 142 gr. of cannabis is 1M yen worth?????? 7000 yen /gr??? cocaine is far cheaper in Europe!

"extremely dangerous narcotic"

hahahahaha. Who said that?

So are the authorities able to open a person's luggage and place a prohibited substance in that luggage without the consent of the person? This seems to be a huge invasion of rights. If I was the person concerned, I would literally go head hunting for all and any persons involved in this "exercise." These people should be sacked, charged (attempted entrapment) and the man in question should receive an apology from as far up the command chain as possible.
At the same time, as somebody with a serious dog background (breeding guidedogs, polic dogs - mainly retrievers), I would suggest that the reason the dog could not find the dope was that they were either badly trained, or the handler didn't "cast" the dog correctly. This in itself is a disgrace.

Just out of interest, there was a case in Australia a couple of years ago where the police got a bag of cocaine (used for sensory training) and a bag of flour (used for handler visual training) mixed up. The net result was that the police graduated 6 dogs who in addition to being able to detect mary-jane, were also able to detect concealed bakery goods.

An utter disgrace.

I'm also wondering when this hits the international news.

Anyone know of any reports yet?

RR / F&C

RR - I was just teasing. Of course I'm glad the passenger returned the pot to the police and didn't use it himself or sell it. A gateway to harder stuff? It is for some, and it isn't for others, like me. I enjoyed pot in college and have never tried heroin or cocaine.

F&C - It wasn't exactly a case of planting drugs - that is for framing people. This was a botched attempt to train the sniffer dog.

It's topping the list of 'most popular stories' on the BBC News HP.

Ah yes - it has - CNN, BBC, Reuters...

...even China's People's Daily who amusingly headline it: "Tokyo customs slips weeds into passenger's bag"

Weeds. :)

Thanks Cleo!

A extremely dangerous narcotic was returned

Just a few questions, RR.

1. What's the lethal dose of this etremely dangerous narcotic?

2. What is the pharmacological category of this extremely dangerous narcotic whose pharmacological category is not "narcotic"?

3. Which is more addictive: nicotine or weed?

--

It's only extremely dangerous because it can get you locked up in j-land and elsewhere. But that's not the weed, is it?

And it's 1 million yen's worth of weed in this case because that's how much you could get from j-customs by suing the crap out of them. If you can stuff 1 million yen's worth of weed in that box without using a black hole, you should be onstage with Sigfreid and Roy in Vegas.

Weeds... :)

When I heard the news last night, I told my wife that someone here would try to make this a race issue.

The finder should've padded it out with coriander seeds and oregano to bring the weight up to 200 grams, then given it back, and then told customs: "Here's your 200 grams of weed. You mean he told you it was only 142 grams? Riiiiight..."

Pad it? He should have fired up the tin of "Yokoso Weed" How can the idiot cops bust him WHEN THEY GAVE IT TO HIM! Then fill the tin with coriander seeds and oregano and call the morons to come get it. Unbelievable that this dipsh%$ gets off with a reprimand! If it were me I'd be calling CNN to dish out a little worldwide embarassment. Can you imagine the cops walking into this guys hotel room to claim the weed only to find cameras and reporters - priceless!

I WOULD THINK THAT IT IS PROBABLY 1 MILLION YEN WORTH ON SPOTS. Not weed

This customs officer should be punished, fined and fired a.s.a.p. I can not imagine such a negligence towards his duties. Tampering passenger baggages with illegal substances (infact any substances) should be considered as severe crime. What if that passenger was sniffed by airport dog while carrying his baggage? Narita Airport Authorities (NAA) must ensure that their officers are trained, disciplined and well mannered even while speaking to foreigners who arrive. Otherwise, there is no difference between a customs officer posted at Narita airport and a monkey held captive in Ueno zoo.

wow, what a nice feeling must be arriving at a foreign country and having the dog finding cannabis in your bag. So is it that easy for a person to get into the baggage area, open a suitcase and putting drugs in it?

What I don't get, is assuming the dog was able to locate the dope, only the guy who planted it 'knew' where it was, so the guy holding the bag would have been subject to a search and perhaps, unjustly interrogated by other customs officials. Is this what the officer was planning to do? I don't understand the point of his 'training exercise'.

I wonder how many experiments like this have been carried out...and then...the folks at Narita HAVE been looking a lot more relaxed lately....

An utter disgrace.

I'm also wondering when this hits the international news.

Anyone know of any reports yet?

Well, we were all having a good laugh about it in the teacher's room of our school here in Oz this morning.

Anyone know of any reports yet?

soothsayer: see my post above

Ah yes - it has - CNN, BBC, Reuters...

benjie: may be this officer was looking for quick promotion. Too serious can't laugh away.

Anyone know of any reports yet?

3rd most viewed on BBC World

i woulda returned it along with a massive kick to this guy's balls

Now that we know they do this how can they bust anybody bringing dope in. They just shot them selves in the foot. Also if they had done that to my bag and made a sceen in the airport retriving it a few cops would have had a beat down to rimind them its illigal to tamper with security checked bags.

Help me out. Was this mentioned on this morning's (or last night's) NHK news?

There was not one mention of it on tonight's NHK broadcast.

Sue 'em. F unbelievable, but also worrying.

"The dog couldn’t find it and the officer also forgot which bag he put it in,” “I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability.”

ummmm???? FIRED!

@blvtzpk I think we can expect this story to be buried very quickly. Customs will also become total hardasses from now on to restore their pride. Expect to be strip searched.

It is a worry, countries like Dubai put people in jail for a long time for just traces of drugs, and some countries have the death sentence. This is a very serious betrayal of trust. We are left wondering if they are treating our fingerprints in the same manner, flagging people as terrorists to see if the system works maybe ?

It also makes you wonder what they expected to happen, was the dog supposed to find the drugs before or after the person picked up their bags. In which case what would they tell the person if the person objected ? Don't make a fuss or else ?

RomeoRamen, you aren't amusing.

Paging Nick Baker's lawyer.... Attention Nick Baker's lawyer.

Taka

This has absoulty nothing to do with Nick Baker and its not even remotly related to it and its not grounds to reopen any other drug cases in this country.

1 million yen for 142 grams . must have been some pretty good smoke :-)

So they stashed it in someone's luggage? What if the dog had found it? Would this innocent traveller have been able to prove it wasn't his weed? I have to go with the conspiracy theorists and assume this copper was going to get a promotion out of the bust. This make me very very nervous.

@blvtzpk Expect to be strip searched.

I'm practicing touching my toes as I type this. ;)

How funny!!!!

Was the drug labeled "property of Japan Customs" or something like that? If not, this guy must have been pretty stupid or naive to take it to the police. That was asking for trouble. The story does not say how many hours, or weeks, for that matter, he spent in the police station unitl the truth came out.

Also, why was it necessary to use 142gm for the test. That seems a bit excessive. If you want to test the dog, surely 1gm would be enough.

I suppose like so many stories in Japan it will not be investigated to find and reveal the details.

This is something that can easily be brought up to an international comitee to put pressure on this pathetic excuse of a "drill". Involving any foriegn national that may just be passing through or visiting without their specific consent or knowledge is just asking for someone to sue. I really do hope the man involved gets the smarts enough to take this to Japanese courts, because as others have stated, if he ended up travelling to some other country and this was found in his luggage, all hell would break loose.

My cousin overdosed on marijuana. Glad to see this guy didn't decide to smoke it and OD too.

I trust all the people here so happy to be fingerprinted are taking note! If you have done nothing wrong, there's nothing to be worried about they proclaim! Ha ha ha.

WMD, at least it would prove that your fingerprints were not on the dope.

“The dog couldn’t find it and the officer also forgot which bag he put it in.” Short term memory loss . . . hmm.

This is a candidate for the PSYA - Police SNAFU of the Year Award.

haha i have a piece of advice for would be smugglers: find out the specs for the container used and just use that one... that way if they get caught they can get of scot free! hehehe

any word on whether the customs officers get fired yet?

To kendodan this is clear grounds to open up any case where the person was caught at Narita & subsequently convicted!! It completely shatters any kind of faith or credibility that Japanese Law Enforcement/Customs may have had! It wouldn't take a smart lawyer to much effort to build an excellent case that their is reasonable doubt that the marijuana was in fact the owners. Now instead of someone else must have packed my bags or someone told me to bring this in for them a person who is now stopped can say perhaps you guys put it in my bags as you have been known to do so before!! Serious doubt can now be cast on any such case!!

boycottolympics,

Yes, but that is simply not the case here. People that have been busted for drugs were caught with large amount of drugs hidden and conceled in their baggage.

This was a stupid thing done by customs offical and was confessed as such. Now if your so-called lawyer could prove actual cases like this were the customs offical was doing this to frame someone, then yeah.

Their is just not enogh of this to discredit any trials in the past.

Wow ! This is waaaaaayyyy wrong ! I've actually worked with the immigration police officers and dog units ! This is not "standard procedure" by any means ! The police here are covering this up for exactly the reasons boycottolys has mentioned...

"this is clear grounds to open up any case where the person was caught at Narita & subsequently convicted"

Wow !

no way this cud be used in other cases where drugs are found in luggage, do any of you seriously think REAL evidence play much importance in the J-court, come on now you all know better than that

Next to the cop who gave a suspect drenched in flammible liquid a lighter, this is the stupidest thing I have read. Dumb @ss cop could have put a big "can't miss this" sticker on the side of the luggage as an identifier,and still had a good test. At least then, customs could have halted him prior to leaving the Airport. As for me, it wouldn't matter...test or no test. Its a gov sponsored breach of trust that very easily could have cost the travelor his/her freedom or maybe their life. Money....and a few firings would definately need to happen.

It's bad enough that travellers have to worry about smugglers putting drugs in their luggage. Now a customs officer has done this? The passenger was very lucky, things turned out OK but the officer's thoughtless act put this passenger in a lot of danger. What happens when an incident like this collides with zero-tolerance drug laws? An innocent person might have had his life destroyed.

• What if the passenger had been caught with these drugs by Japanese police? How would the police know that the drugs were there because of a botched (and illegal) procedure in customs? Even if customs explained the situation, they couldn't identify the passenger, so how could the passenger prove that he was indeed the victim of this incident? At best, he might be exonerated after a very scary experience; at worst, several years in a Japanese prison!

• Even worse, what if the passenger had only been in transit (and couldn't check his luggage before getting on his next flight)? If he then landed at his destination in possession of that cannabis, he would have a very hard time explaining to the local authorities why the drugs were there. Even an official explanation from Japan might not be enough.

A reprimand is nowhere near enough punishment. This customs officer should be fired, and maybe even charged with drug trafficking. The use of passenger luggage for drug detection experiments is totally illegal and immoral!!

142gms!! I think that this story is both funny and stupid. I absolutely agree with Eric USA states! "Hear Hear!"

Eric sorry but if in transit his luggage would have been transfered from one plane to another without going to a baggage carousel where passengers could pick it up. He went through Japanese Customs with it hidden on his suitcase which shows that the dog, and the customs officer that actually had contact with him before he left the airport were also not able to detect it. Does the dog miss a meal and the customs officer that didn't catch it as last point of contact also miss a meal??

Or depending how you look at it, what a normal, law-abiding citizen not interested in getting a quick illicit buck from peddling drugs and ruining other folk's lives, and definitely not interested in getting run in for someone else's 'mistake'.

stop reading propaganda and come to realize the truth: marijuana never ever ruined anyone's life before. ever.
other drugs. drugs don't ruin people lives. people do this to themselves by ABUSING them. not using, but ABUSING.

l don't respect a single law written about drugs because they suppress constitutional rights of freedom of choice.

Neither I use any drugs because I don't need them. I am fine with alcohol.

What if the passenger had been caught with these drugs by Japanese police? How would the police know that the drugs were there because of a botched (and illegal) procedure in customs?

It was all over the news. If, as many here claim, the cops spend all their time in the koban watching telly, they knew alright.

drugs don't ruin people lives.

Yeah, yeah, and guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Not everyone who abuses drugs wakes up one fine day and decides, 'Right starting today I'm going to ruin my life by abusing drugs'. It's much more insidious (starting with 'safe' drugs like cannabis) and often aided by people who are skilled at exploiting other people's weaknesses and stand to make big money from turning people into addicts. Big legal guns are needed to curb the rights of drug dealers and pushers. If that means it's a little bit harder to get your hands on 'recreational' mind-altering drugs, fine. Constitutional rights of freedom of choice for drug pushers be damned.

Hellyhansen, LOL, you can't overdose on marijuana, that is the craziest thing I ever heard.

Here is what happens when you "overdose" on marijuana... you fall ASLEEP.

Location: Narita Airport. Undertrained Customs Dog meets Incompetent Customs Officer

UCD: Okay, let's get this over with. It's late and my bitch is horny. Snif-snif... Are? Snif-snif... What the hell... Hey man, you ain't got no weed on you!

ICO: He-he! That's right, dawg, it's not on me!

UCD: What'd you do with it?

ICO: I stashed it in some bag on the carousel.

UCD: You did what??? Are you stupid or something? What, am I supposed to sniff all those bags now? I'll never find it, you know I'm totally undertrained for that kind of stuff. I'm only in this thing for the uniform, man, bitches love it!

ICO: Hmmm... Ooops?

UCD: Moron! How could you be so irresponsible and trample on a traveller's human rights like that?

ICO: How could I... what? Hey, wait a... He-he! Dawg, you almost had me going there for a second... Hell, I thought you were serious! Ha-ha, that was rich!

UCD: He-he! Yeah, I know, just made that up on the spot... But still, if that weed gets lost, it's our asses, man!

ICO: Hey, it's okay, the boss won't say a thing, he's just as bad as we are, and he knows it...

UCD: But if this leaks out... specially to those JT posting bastards... you know they're gonna have a field day, they'll make mince meat out of our asses! And then the sh*t may hit the fan big-time!

ICO: Hm, didn't think that far... Ooops?

UCD: Moron!

Bushlover, you're wrong on this. EricUSA is right on.

I recently flew from Canada into NRT on my way to Bangkok. My 2 tickets were issued separately - one was a purchased ticket to NRT, and the other was a free reward ticket from Narita to Bangkok. For this reason the carrier in Canada refused to check either of my bags through to Bangkok. I had to pick them both up in Narita.

So I checked 2 bags - one full of household stuff for my mansion in Japan. The other empty, for shopping in Bangkok. My connecting flight was supposed to allow me about 3 hours in Narita, where I had time to clear Japanese customs with both bags, then have the one bag bag sent from the airport by courier to my house in Japan, and then allow me time to re-check-in with my empty bag in Narita on my way to Bangkok.

As it happened, my flight from Canada arrived late into Narita and both bags were directed into the customs area without me, while I was rushed by agents through the terminal to meet my connecting flight. THAI AIRWAYS RETRIEVED MY BAGS FROM THE CUSTOMS AREA AT NARITA, then forwarded both to Bangkok, including the 22kg bag full of household stuff for Japan.

Needless to say, things go wrong, and it's very possible to have a bag pulled from the Japanese customs area to be forwarded to a final destination for a variety of reasons, as mine was last February 08. Imagine my surprise if the Japanese Drugs were discovered by Thai customs, or worse, by customs in Singapore or Indonesia.

That officer should be FIRED at very least. Possibly charged.

Was this actually reported much on the Japanese TV news or newspapers?

Was this actually reported much on the Japanese TV news or newspapers?

From what I saw, no. The Daily Yomiuri had one 'news in brief' paragraph on page 2 detailing Hong Kong's concern with the case (the person had come of a HK flight).

One poster said it was 'all over' the news, but certainly NHK didn't report on it on the Tuesday, which is when Hong kong made the complaint. On Sunday's there are some weekly round-up news shows - watching them might give you a clue.