A U.S. Marine is going through two years in jail with laborious labor following his conviction for ordering a quarter-pound of hashish to be despatched to his base in Okinawa.
Corporal Nicholas Garner on Friday was given the jail sentence together with a $4,344 wonderful for an try to evade Japan’s drug legal guidelines, a courtroom spokesperson informed Stars and Stripes. Whereas 18 states and the District of Columbia have legalized leisure use of hashish, Japan has maintained its strict prohibition on the drug.
Garner pleaded responsible final month to 2 counts of violating Japan’s Hashish Management and Customs Act after ordering a bundle from unnamed people in Nevada that included a half-gallon of weed-infused liquid and the quarter-pound of hashish, stories Stars and Stripes. Garner had the bundle mailed to him at his residence at Camp Foster in Okinawa on June 7 and had a small quantity of hashish and liquid on him when he was arrested.
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Individually, Corporal Deshane Fox and Lance Corporal Alfred Johnson pleaded responsible on Thursday to 1 rely of violating the act and will face three years’ imprisonment and $4,000 fines, in accordance with Stars and Stripes. They had been charged after customs intercepted a bundle at Camp Kinser, additionally in Okinawa, with over a quarter-pound of hashish and over 4 grams of liquid despatched from California.
Each stated they had been going through monetary difficulties and their attorneys have requested suspended sentences.
“I ought to have sought monetary assist,” Fox informed the courtroom, explaining {that a} divorce and pay lower pushed him towards promoting medication. Johnson stated he thought promoting hashish was his solely possibility after desirous to help his mom within the U.S., who had misplaced her job through the pandemic.
Whereas different Asian nations have relaxed their cannabis laws, Japan’s stay strict. Extra Japanese shoppers are utilizing cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive hashish compound more and more used for its purported well being and wellness advantages, reported The Japan Times. The Japanese well being ministry in 2019 permitted the usage of CBD for refractory epilepsy. Nonetheless, the paper stories that well being authorities are carefully monitoring the pattern.
Positioned between the mainland of Japan and Taiwan, the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa has a extremely concentrated U.S. military presence with 13 bases with almost 30,000 active-duty personnel.
At instances, the bottom has been a supply of stress with the shut ally of the U.S. The American authorities in 2018 agreed to compensate the family of a Japanese girl killed by a U.S. navy employee. Extra just lately, the Japanese authorities has criticized U.S. authorities after COVID-19 unfold quickly on the bases.
Newsweek has reached out to the Marine Corps for remark.
