The Japanese government is set to introduce a bill that would revise the Cannabis Control Act and allow the use of medical marijuana. An outline of bills suggests the government is considering allowing terminally ill patients to be treated with marijuana. This would mean revising the current Cannabis Control Act with the proposed revision simultaneously criminalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
Currently, the medical use of marijuana is banned along with its recreational use which was banned in 1948 in Japan due to its intoxicating effect, however there are no penalties for its use for farmers who are allowed to grow it and can be involuntarily submitted to uptake by the plant during its harvest.
If medical marijuana were to be allowed in future, the Japanese government said it would crack down on recreational use to prevent young people from getting involved and abusing marijuana as a “gateway drug.” Marijuana was named a “gateway drug” as it is said to lead to other forms of drug abuse. The government plans to strengthen its crackdown on marijuana to prevent youth from abuse of the drug, which is currently evolving as a social problem in Japan.
The revised law is a precondition for using the cannabis-derived epilepsy drug Epidiolex, which is currently undergoing clinical trials in Japan, a report said.
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