# Japan customs lose hashish yesterday, fail to lose it to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 26, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646 "2008-05-26T13:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/1 "2008-05-26T13:31:13Z")
From [the news](http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1799016), > [@](#): > > A traveller who arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport over the weekend may have picked up an unusual souvenir from customs - a package of cannabis. > > A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong as a training exercise for sniffer dogs on Sunday, but lost track of both drugs and suitcase during the practice session, a spokeswoman for Tokyo customs said. From tonight’s TV news, it was hashish worth about $10,000. Now come on guys. Get with the program. _I_ came through Narita yesterday on a flight from Taiwan. Don’ you think you could have lost it in my bags? It’s not like most Japanese are going to know what to do with hashish if they were handed in on a silver plater, or placed in their bags, as it were. Actually, the laws are far too stict here, and were I to have found it when I unpacked last night I would have had to give it back. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/2 "2008-05-26T13:43:46Z")
Remember that old trope about how hashish is made? Mexican peasants run naked thorugh the marijuana fields, then scrape their bodies off. What if you were to go to Mexico, do your own running, and, when stopped by the sniffer-dog at customs, say “oh - that must have happened while I was hiking at the naturalist resort! If one of these young ladies could give me a sponge-bath, we can set this all right.” ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/3 "2008-05-26T14:53:52Z")
Went through Narita about a month ago. Someone left a stripey bag in the middle of the floor. WOW - was there a serious response! Plain clothes, uniforms, sniffer dogs, blast padding, remote robot, men talking into their upturned collars (and a bunch of western tourists watching from the mezzanine saying things like “You think the owner just went to the loo? Boy is he in for a surprise when he gets back!”). And is that a water cannon above the entry doors? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/4 "2008-05-26T15:23:34Z")
I see Harold and Kumar are working on the sequel already… ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/5 "2008-05-26T21:25:42Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] Now come on guys. Get with the program. _I_ came through Narita yesterday on a flight from Taiwan. Don’ you think you could have lost it in my bags? [/QUOTE] Is it possible that they **did** lose it in your bags, but that you have no memory of the experience? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/6 "2008-05-27T01:49:14Z")
[QUOTE=Enter the Flagon] Is it possible that they **did** lose it in your bags, but that you have no memory of the experience? 🙂 [/QUOTE] That would be a lot of drugs to do overnight. Humm. Don’t remember much. It’s especially funny, because of the harsh laws for drugs. I know a guy who spend a month in jail because a single marijuana seed was found in his car. Most Japanese have never smoked pot or even know anyone who does. People don’t know the difference between grass and harder drugs. Then Customs goes and lose – what is for Japan – a huge quantity of hashish. It made one of the top stories on national news last night. And they didn’t even have the courtesy to lose it into my bag. Humm. All this talk of Japanese efficiency. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-customs-lose-hashish-yesterday-fail-to-lose-it-to-me/450646/7 "2008-05-27T07:34:35Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] That would be a lot of drugs to do overnight. Humm. Don’t remember much. It’s especially funny, because of the harsh laws for drugs. I know a guy who spend a month in jail because a single marijuana seed was found in his car. Most Japanese have never smoked pot or even know anyone who does. People don’t know the difference between grass and harder drugs. Then Customs goes and lose – what is for Japan – a huge quantity of hashish. It made one of the top stories on national news last night. And they didn’t even have the courtesy to lose it into my bag. Humm. All this talk of Japanese efficiency. [/QUOTE] At high school here they have “sports day” which is sort of like field day in the states. Each class makes a class t-shirt and flag, and then they participate in different events like relay races and throwing balls in a basket and such. My “rebel” class of seniors made shirts with a huge pot leaf on the front. The teachers thought it was the maple leaf from the Canadian flag. People drive around with air fresheners in the shape of pot leaves. The kids have them and rasta colors on pencil cases. By and large, Japan has no idea about drugs.