Japan is considering legalizing medical marijuana and criminalizing recreational use
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Could Japan be the next country in Asia to embrace medical marijuana? It looks like this.
The country’s Health Ministry held a meeting on Wednesday to negotiate revisions to the 1948 Cannabis Control Act. The ministry is considering legalizing cannabis for medicinal purposes and adding a provision to criminalize its recreational use, writes The Asahi Shimbun.
Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric via Pexels
Last June, the department produced a report recommending that the government approve medicinal marijuana-based drugs to treat refractory epilepsy, as is done in the US and other countries.
This summer, the ministry plans to develop proposals to amend the Cannabis Control Act, which bans the cultivation and possession of cannabis and the manufacture of medicines from the plant. The law bans the plant’s leaves, roots, spikes, and non-grown stems, which contain compounds that can be used to make therapeutic products.
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Other members of an intergovernmental political forum, the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US), allow the use of cannabis-derived CBD epilepsy drugs.
The ministry plans to revise the current law to ban certain cannabis substances instead of plant parts, making it easier to approve certain medical marijuana products. It will also discuss the inclusion of a new provision in the Cannabis Control Act to criminalize the use of marijuana other than for medical purposes.
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This type of penal provision had not previously been included in the law due to concerns that marijuana growers could end up being penalized for symptoms stemming from accidental inhalation of marijuana substances, according to the 2019 ministry survey.
This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.
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