Ingredients from China linked to at least 100 synthetic drug deaths in Japan
The use of illegal synthetic substances are on the rise, causing fatalities and numerous injuries
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 02 December, 2014, 10:44pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 December, 2014, 1:25am
Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Packets of illegal drugs seized in Japan. Photo: Kyodo
The ingredients for a new generation of synthetic drugs are being imported into Japan from China and have been linked to the deaths of at least 100 people this year, according to the Japanese police.
Hundreds more have been injured in accidents caused by people driving under the influence of what were previously known as loophole drugs, with traces of narcotics found in their possession or in their bodies.
The death toll is a sharp increase on nine deaths last year and eight the previous year. It includes people who have killed themselves or others under the influence of the drugs.
Known by commercial names such as "Aladdin" "Super Snake" "Feeling Royal" and "Booster", they are available as a powder or dried leaves for between Y1,000 (HK$65) and Y5,000 for a small packet, often sold in sex shops and labelled as a stimulant or aphrodisiac.
Between January and October of this year, 589 people were arrested for using or selling the drugs, according to national broadcaster NHK.
In July, a storage facility in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, burned down. Police found residue from chemicals and packaging bearing the names of designated dangerous drugs.
Six Japanese men are suspected of using the storage unit to manufacture illegal drugs, and the police investigation confirmed that they had transferred about US$5 million to a company in Shanghai for the raw materials.
Aware of a recent crackdown on the lucrative trade, exporters and importers are increasingly turning to transactions via the internet and by post that are difficult to trace.
Alternatively, exporters are deliberately misidentifying chemicals that are being sent to Japan in an attempt to throw customs officials off the scent, although the biggest problem appears to be countless ways in which the structure of chemical compounds can be tweaked to get around Japan's system of very precise identification of what are listed as "dangerous drugs".
"There are so many different kinds of chemicals that are used and in so many different combinations that there is no way that we can identify and detect all of them," Yumiko Aoyagi, of the Health and Welfare Ministry's Compliance and Narcotics Division, said.
"We have a register of drugs that are designated as dangerous, but because the Chinese manufacturers are able to change their chemical structures, they are very difficult to detect.
"We are very concerned that while these narcotics may have a similar effect on the people who take them, because they have been altered in some way there is no way to know their full impact," she said.
Authorities have decided to revise customs legislation to give officials at ports and airports greater powers.
Japanese police are also working with their Chinese counterparts in an effort to stem the trade, NHK reported the National Police as saying, with authorities requesting that Chinese exporters be subject to more stringent checks and for agencies in both nations to share information.
