NATIONAL DRUG WOES SURFACE IN U.S. REPORT

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) A U.S. government report on narcotics control
Friday describes Japan as a place with widespread marijuana use and
one of the largest markets for methamphetamines in Asia.

The 2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued by
the U.S. Department of State, said that "marijuana use is widespread"
in Japan while "methamphetamine abuse remains the biggest challenge"
to its antinarcotics efforts.

Although the report did not elaborate, its reference to marijuana use
in Japan apparently reflects the recent statistical jump in
cannabis-related crimes, including highly publicized cases involving
sumo wrestlers and college students in the past year.

Earlier this month, the National Police Agency reported that police
departments across the country handled 3,832 cannabis-related cases
involving 2,778 offenders last year, both all-time highs since the
NPA began tracking records in 1956.

One of the cases that drew national attention was when Russian sumo
wrestler Wakanoho was arrested for marijuana possession in August.

Two other Russians tested positive for marijuana shortly afterward in
tests conducted by sumo's governing body, before a Japanese grappler
was arrested in January in the latest marijuana-related incident to
hit the ancient sport. All four have been dismissed from sumo.

Arrests of college students were reported throughout the year for
possessing, smoking, growing or smuggling cannabis or marijuana.

As for methamphetamine abuse in Japan, the State Department report
said the reduction in the drug's supply that began in mid-2006
"appears to have reversed" and that Chinese traffickers using
supplies from China and Canada are believed to "have stepped in to
fill the gap" presumably created by the 2006 closure of mega-labs in
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The report said Afghanistan "remained the world's largest grower of
opium poppy" despite a 19 percent decline in 2008 in opium poppy
cultivation in the country. It noted that the antigovernment
insurgency, most commonly associated with the Taliban, exploits the
narcotics trade for financial gain.

On the situation in North Korea, the report said drug trafficking
with a connection to the communist country "appears to be down sharply."

"There have been no instances of drug trafficking suggestive of
state-directed trafficking for six years (in North Korea), but there
still is insufficient evidence to say for certain that
state-sponsored trafficking has stopped at this time," it said.