Legal highs (or “dangerous drugs”; kiken doraggu) have featured prominently in the Japanese media after a number of people have died or had serious accidents after having taken them.
Now, an 18 year old girl has died after taking legal highs with her 32 year old boyfriend, a sober reminder of why these drugs are called “dangerous drugs” in Japanese. What’s more, the boyfriend now faces prosecution for death through negligence because his girlfriend was a minor under Japanese law, making him her guardian.
This article was the most talked about article on mixi News earlier today, with comments showing a zero-tolerance approach to all drug-taking, even legal highs. Most netizens take a hard line with both the man and the girl who lost her life, saying they have no sympathy for either of them.
From mixi News:
Girl Dies After Using Legal High, Man Arrested For Causing Death Through Negligence — Shizuoka Prefectural Police
On January 21, the No.1 Investigative Division of Shizuoka Prefectural Police arrested construction worker Kayama Kazuhito (32, of Enoo, Fuji City) on suspicion of causing death through negligence while acting as a guardian for having allowed the girl he was dating to die without taking appropriate measures to help her despite her suffering acute drug intoxication after taking a dangerous legal high. Kayama partially denied the charges, saying “It wasn’t because I was frightened of being found taking drugs that I didn’t report the death”.
At around 12:40am on December 30, 2013, the suspect took the legal high with the girl he was dating at a hotel in Numazu City. The girl was 18 years old at the time. Although the girl became agitated, Kayama is accused of not allowing the girl to seek medical treatment from a doctor, causing her to die from multiple organ failure.
According to police, the pair used a legal high purchased by Kayama known as “Aroma Liquid”. At 4:30am on the same day, Kayama took the girl to hospital after she did not respond to his calls.
Comments from mixi News:
[NB mixi comments do not use netizen names or identifiers]
Shouldn’t they try a high-impact commercial like that one they used to have in the old days that went, “Are you going to quit amphetamines? Or are you going to quit being alive..?”
Even though they’re always saying on TV that you shouldn’t take legal highs because they’re dangerous, there are still people who do. If you use legal highs it’s your own responsibility. And if you die, well, you reap what you sow, kids.
If you get involved in drugs this is an obvious outcome. I have no sympathy. They need to reflect on treating parents so badly when they were kind enough to bring them up in the world. And the man, well, they should do him for murder and throw him in the slammer.
What did the girl see in that man, I wonder. There are plenty of decent men in this world who wouldn’t suggest doing stuff like that.
They should just make an island somewhere that is just for using legal highs, and leave the ones who want to use the drugs there.
Would have been better if the guy had died, too ( ´△｀)
I listened to a speech by someone who was in DRAC (simply put, it’s a place where drug addicts get rehab). They said that you never really know what goes into legal highs and neither do the people who sell them. It’s just a “poison”. Never use them, not even just the once.
Multiple organ failure, huh….that’s not just a dangerous drug. That’s a deadly drug. I wrote this on a different news article somewhere, but those half-arsed crims doing these bad things should straighten themselves out and get back into society.
The dead can’t talk. We’ll never know what led to the girl using those drugs. Did she use them knowingly or was she deceived? There’s no way of going back on such a serious outcome as someone dying. I hope that this news might result in one less person using these drugs.
A scumbag who can only get an underage girl to go out with him despite the fact he’s 32 should just die. To watch over him and give him food is just a waste of tax money.
Don’t waste young lives. There’s no such thing as a pleasure that you can get so easily. Because the best kind of pleasure is the one that comes after you’ve overcome hardship.
If people are going to die then there’s nothing for it but to thoroughly crack down on these legal highs, and it’s also to give young people the right guidance so that they learn not to use them. And most of the time they are used with criminal intent, not because the person taking it has agreed to take it.
This video is really scary but I want everyone to watch it. This is what will happen to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNtygc8wvsQ&. Never get involved in drugs.
If she used them herself → she got what was coming to her. If she was threatened, forced or deceived into taking them → murder. But then, corpses don’t talk, do they?
These legal highs are truly dangerous, more so than amphetamines and marijuana. I’ve seen videos and stuff, and it wouldn’t strike me as strange if someone were to die when they’re in that state. It doesn’t seem like you’d feel very good, either. Japan will be in danger if they don’t thoroughly crack down on these drugs.
Fools die young!!
Would have been better if the guy had died too.
I have no sympathy for and can have no sympathy for the girl, and as for the man, I hope they prosecute him immediately.
