Canada\u2019s move to officially legalize cannabis has been hailed as courageous and historic by advocates around the world. But of course, not everyone is excited about the prospect of federally legal cannabis, particularly those governments whose drug policies fall on the opposite side of the spectrum.<\/p>\n
It may not be too surprising that reactions to Canadian cannabis legalization, which officially took effect Oct. 17,\u00a0have been harshest in East Asia<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the region of the world with the most intolerant approach to marijuana. But many observers were shocked when some regional governments went so far as to threaten their own citizens with arrest if they toke half a world away in the Great White North.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n It was South Korea that had the most immediate, and most ominous, reaction to Canadian cannabis legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if South Koreans are in a region where marijuana is legal, it will be illegal for them to consume it,\u201d Seoul\u2019s embassy in Canada\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0in Korean as legalization set in. \u201cPlease take care not to commit an illegal act and be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n This threat would appear to be legally dubious. It\u2019s true that under South Korea\u2019s\u00a0notoriously harsh<\/a>\u00a0drug law, growing, possessing, transporting or consuming marijuana is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won \u2014 about $44,000 dollars. Still, even though consumption is covered by the law, the notion that South Korean authorities could prosecute for an activity that took place in another country seems a stretch.<\/p>\n There are about 23,000 South Korean exchange students in Canada, according to official government figures, as well as many more tourists at any given time.<\/p>\n Enforcement within South Korea has always been harsh \u2014 and has been getting harsher in recent years. According to the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>, authorities reported 8,887 drug arrests last year, up from 5,699 in 2014. South Korean cops booked 1,044 people on cannabis-related charges last year, a 49 percent increase from 2014. And that\u2019s with cannabis both scarce and expensive in the country.<\/p>\n Japan was the\u00a0next to follow<\/a>\u00a0with a similar threat. Tokyo\u2019s\u00a0consulate in Vancouver warned on its website that Japanese laws banning the possession and sale of marijuana may be applied to actions taken abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cJapanese residents and travellers should take ample care to stay away from marijuana, including food and beverages that include marijuana,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n The People\u2019s Republic of China\u00a0weighed in<\/a>\u00a0a few days later, although without going so far as to explicitly threaten arrest. Beijing\u2019s consulate in Toronto issued a statement\u00a0reading<\/a>: \u201cThe consulate would like to remind the Chinese citizens in the consular district, especially international students, in order to protect your own physical and mental health, please avoid contact or using marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Singapore\u00a0followed up<\/a>\u00a0the next week. On Oct. 26, the city-state\u2019s\u00a0Central Narcotics Bureau<\/a>\u00a0issued a statement warning that any citizen or permanent resident found to have used marijuana overseas would be treated as though he or she had used drugs in Singapore. The statement darkly warned of \u201cenforcement checks\u201d at the Singapore\u2019s ports of entry\u2014 invoking the specter of spot urine collection, with action taken against those who test positive for cannabis.<\/p>\n Singapore\u2019s authorities may also be concerned about a weakening of the prohibitionist dogma even within the Southeast Asian region. Although the statement didn\u2019t directly refer to any country, the Bureau said it was aware of \u201congoing discussions\u201d over the safety and legality of medical marijuana \u2014 a presumed reference to Malaysia, where officials have recently\u00a0broached the question<\/a>\u00a0in response to global outrage over the death sentence meted out to producer of medicinal cannabis oil.<\/p>\n Again hardly surprisingly, the most enthusiastic international reactions to Canada\u2019s move have come from opposition parties.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada shows the way. When will the UK end the catastrophic prohibition of cannabis?\u201d\u00a0tweeted Norman Lamb, a parliamentarian with Britain\u2019s\u00a0Liberal Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n Richard Di Natale, leader of Australia\u2019s\u00a0Green Party<\/a>, hailed Canada for taking a \u201ccommon sense step\u201d with legalization. \u201cIt is high time that Australia follows suit,\u201d he said in a tweet punctuated with a winking face emoji and a green heart, as\u00a0CTV<\/a>\u00a0noted.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0do you support Canadian cannabis legalization?<\/p>\n The post China, South Korea & Japan Warn Citizens Not to Consume Canadian Cannabis\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s move to officially legalize cannabis has been hailed as courageous and historic by advocates around the world. But of course, not everyone is excited about the prospect of federally legal cannabis, particularly those governments whose drug policies fall on the opposite side of the spectrum. It may not beContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,6335,50,696,4099,687,4552,6227,81,2275,3245],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30293,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30292\/revisions\/30293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}South Korea and Japan Threaten Arrests<\/h4>\n
China and Singapore Also Issue Warnings\u2028\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n
On The Other Hand\u2026<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: China, South Korea & Japan Warn Citizens Not to Consume Canadian Cannabis\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"