FEARS OF 'REEFER MADNESS' UNDERSCORE JAPAN'S ALLERGY TO RECREATIONAL DRUGS

First a sumo wrestler, then an actor, now students at elite
universities and a tennis player -- the list of people caught using
marijuana has sparked fears of reefer madness in Japan.

More than 2,000 people were arrested on dope charges between January
and October this year, a 19 per cent increase on the same period last
year, according to the National Police Agency.

"[The] increase in marijuana abusers, as well as tightening
regulations, are both factors that pushed up the number of arrests,"
Shingo Katsuno, vice-president and an expert on Japan's drug issues at
Hyogo University of Teacher Education, said in an interview.

"Japan is now highly interested in the issue because it is spreading
in places like colleges, where it hardly existed before," he added.

Television stations and newspapers have been running almost daily
stories on high profile busts, drug dealers and ordinary people whose
lives have allegedly been ruined by pot.

But experts point out that surveys suggest reality is a lot different
- -- just one per cent of 18-year-olds in Japan have used marijuana
according to a nationwide poll of about 40,000 students in 2006.

In fact, the "epidemic" scare stories are more indicative of how much
Japan continues to resist the drug, Katsuno said.

"No other country is making such a big fuss with some one per cent.
This shows the strict awareness Japanese society has against drugs,"
he said.

Comparable surveys of teen marijuana habits in the U.S. and Britain
found many times the number -- 42 per cent and 38 per cent of older
teens respectively -- confessing to usage.

Anti-narcotics education is drummed into Japanese school students.
While legalizing marijuana or using it for medical purposes to treat
diseases such as cancer and AIDS has been debated and approved in some
western countries, such ideas haven't caught on in Japan.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney spent nine days in a Tokyo jail in 1980
after arriving at the capital's airport with a bag of marijuana in his
suitcase.

Today, anyone caught possessing marijuana faces up to five years in
prison.