TOKYO (TR) – In announcing the bust of two teenagers for the possession of marijuana, Tokyo Metropolitan Police revealed that the number of arrests of minors for crimes related to the drug is on the rise, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Nov. 30).
On Thursday morning, police searched the residence of Keibun Taniguchi, a 24-year-old company employee living in Hino City, and found a bag of marijuana. He was subsequently arrested for possession of the drug, an accusation he acknowledges.
Taniguchi became a person of interest for police after an investigation into two students who were previously arrested for marijuana-related crimes. According to police, Taniguchi provided an 18-year-old male music student with 1 gram of marijuana for 6,000 yen at a residence in the capital on June 6.
The youth then passed on one half of the amount to a second-year high school student (16), who was arrested for possession of marijuana on September 13. The other student was accused of supplying him with the drug.
Getting higher
Youths in the capital are increasingly being arrested for marijuana-related crimes, police said. Over the first six months of this year, police have arrested 156 minors for violations of the Cannabis Control Law, a figure that is up by a factor of six over the same period four years ago, according to TBS News (Nov. 30).
