Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
At long last, one year later than initially planned, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics shall soon be upon us. And between the restrictions on spectator turnout and medical controls to avoid the spread of COVID, a number of stealthy moves are afoot to cater to the Orinpikku tokuju (special demand created by the Olympics), Friday (July 9) reveals.
One of these is large-scale cultivation of marijuana, which the magazine alleges will be surreptitiously supplied to athletes, coaches and other 18,000 residents of the Olympic Athlete's Village. As shown in an accompanying photo, plants with the characteristic leaf shape of cannabis sativa are being cultivated inside a specialized container somewhere in the greater Kanto area. Arrays of photosynthesis lamps serve as substitutes for sunshine, with air circulation and irrigation also controlled on a round-the-clock basis.
According to the photo caption, even when cultivated indoors, marijuana growth is affected by the rainy season, and harvest of the current crop is expected to be delayed by about one week.
A second photo explains that the processed leaves sell for between 2,500 to 3,500 yen per gram at wholesale, with a street price of around 9,000 yen per gram.
Friday's reporter made contact with a Mr A, who is readying shipments of locally grown locoweed.
"During the Olympic Games, we're expecting sales to be up by tenfold that of a normal year," he tells the magazine. "I can't comment on how our group's organized, but sellers are looking at a windfall of about 12 million yen per person. The buyers will mostly be foreign athletes from Europe and North America, especially the most privileged and popular ones.
"All I'm saying now is that we've already lined up a sale to members of a men's softball team," he added, saying that athletes who undergo mandatory doping tests normally test positive for marijuana use from one to four days after smoking it.
"So I suppose they'll space their usage to the days between games," says A.
In ordinary times, A's customers are Japanese, but he plans to deal with foreign athletes exclusively while the Games are in progress.
"The biggest advantage to dealing with foreign athletes is that we'll be able to sell low-quality weed at high prices," he says. "Since they're only here to compete, they won't complain even if they're dissatisfied. And we don't have to worry about nurturing repeat business, since they'll have left soon enough."
According to A, to boost their output tenfold, some suppliers laid out about 1 million yen for new equipment and facilities.
"We started from last November," he relates. "At present in the Tokyo metropolis our members are raising weed in three indoor rooms, and in five concealed containers located in the suburbs, as well as in hilly spots in rural districts.
"We imported photosynthesis lamps from the U.S., and also procured compost and fertilizer, and air purifiers. The most difficult thing has been managing irrigation. Marijuana plants are easily infected by blight, so we obtained cloning dome kits, to control water quality," says A.
A tells the magazine that the two factors by which authorities are able to detect and shut down illegal marijuana cultivation are irregular boosts in electrical power usage ("we urge growers to do what they can to keep their charges to under 30,000 yen per month") and suspicious neighbors who report on them ("people are advised to exchange greetings with neighbors, and also air out their facilities very early in the morning, when few people are out and about who might notice the characteristic smell").
Since A's consortium is by no means the only one involved in pot production and sales, Friday supposes that if competition heats up or if dissatisfied foreign customers turn on the brokers, there's always a chance that trouble with the law might be looming.
© Japan Today
13 Comments
Login to comment
Wolfpack
Yes. Athletes will, no matter how high the stakes, continue to risk their fame and fortunes for dumb reasons like this and many more. There are numerous examples every year of some uber talented and pampered athlete throwing it all away for some ridiculous reason like drugs, carrying a gun, dog fighting, getting in a fist fight, etc. If they could only apply an ounce of the same self discipline they do for their claim to fame they would have it made. So many just can’t manage it. It’s a crying shame - yet humorous at the same time.
William Bjornson
They're selling Cannabis "leaves"? They might as well be selling Oregano...try to understand, the Cannabinoids are concentrated in the 'flower' and, in the unmolested wild plant, are to the herbivorous browser what the calorie rich Blackberries on the wild vine are. Wages. Plants learned to put us to work as their "wet nurses' (seed carriers/disbursers) long, long ago. For the most part, rich caloric sources placed around their 'children' induce the 'carriers' to suck down nutrient and offspring and deposit offspring in a warm, moist, highly fertilized heap of ideal plant nursery. Cannabis is Nature's apothecary and, rather than providing calories, it provides to the browser relief, relief from pain, relief from malaise (other animals have essentially the same physiological and structural problems WE do), without ANY crippling effects that might enhance their chances of predation. There is typically very little, if any, Cannabinoids in the leaves as it is expensive to make and is made for a reason and eating of the leaves is damaging to the plant whereas eating of the 'flowers' is not. Or words to this effect...
Sven Asai
Storm that whole drug hell with full police force and clear it from those criminals.
Joseph
This article is BS. Do they really think athletes are going to risk everything they have worked for just to get high for two weeks in a country with draconian drug laws? Oh, and never mind that because of Japanese paranoia there won't be any customers at the Olympics because there won't be any people there.
virusrex
On one side the government assure that the olympic village will be a completely impermeable bubble separated from the rest of the country perfectly.
On the other people dealing illegal goods say they can easily do their business there.
I think I know who is more likely to be correct.
NCIS Reruns
It's hard to imagine the J-cops running a drug raid inside the Olympics Athletes' Village. Actually I don't think they're concerned that much about pot smoking by foreigners, as long as it's not allowed to spill over to Japanese citizens. It might be safer to buy pot locally than risk getting caught by airport customers while attempting to bring it from abroad. So the story seems plausible.
asiafriend
Really? Why do you want Japan to turn into another Seattle, even if only in the realm of selling pot or edibles? Seattle was great at one time, but now has among the worst homelessness problem in the country. The crime rate has skyrocketed and liberalism continues to destroy what was once a fantastic and safe place. The BLM chop zone destroyed businesses and BLM tried to burn down a police station with the police still in it. Two black children were killed in the chop zone. I guess their black lives did not matter. No, Japan should not get on the bandwagon. Let Japan be Japan. Not every foreign influence is a beneficial one.
Laguna
I was struck during my last visit to Seattle on how the THC business has progressed. A visit to a dispensary was like a visit to a Luis Viton boutique. There were concierges knowledgeable about the effects of each product and would explain in detail. Of course, it's more expensive than the stuff on the street, and you could just grow your own, but it is progress. I wish Japan would get on the bandwagon.
Alfie Noakes
Yes, and the Olympics is now so toxic the only corporate media coverage considered "safe" is ludicrous tripe like this and Suga's daily pledging.
Richard Gallagher
Low quality weed at outrageously high prices. That's a sales strategy. As if, 'A' will actually be able to access athletes during a pandemic in a supposed locked-down Olympic Village. Or maybe the NBA starts, parked out in the bay, on their yacht.
A men's softball team will be toking up. Uh. Sure.
The author of this narrative must be 'stoned'.
What magazine? What photo?
Kaerimashita
This can’t be true can it?