TOKYO (TR) – One year after a fatal car crash caused by a driver under the influence of quasi-legal substances, Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday issued warnings to shops in Shinjuku Ward regarding the sale of so-called “dangerous drugs” (or kiken doragu), reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 25).
A total of 18 officers entered two shops located in the Kabukicho red-light district to warn about the sale of products containing banned substances.
Previously described by the term dappo (or law-evading), dangerous drugs are sold in packets as a combination of chemicals whose structures are often able to exploit legal loopholes and organic material.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, there were 215 shops selling such drugs at the end of March of last year. The shops in Kabukicho are the only two remaining nationwide.
One of the two shops uses a system in which customers are presented a catalog and the requested materials are delivered from a separate location. While issuing the warning to employees at the shop, police seized a copy of the catalog.
Traffic accidents caused by drivers under the influence of such drugs have caught the attention of the public in recent years. On June 24 of last year, restaurant employee Keiji Nagura drove a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians in Toshima Ward’s Ikebukuro district, killing one person and leaving six others injured. Nagura told police that he had utilized a law-evading substance prior to the incident.
