It seems that the giant fighters of this ancient and noble sport discipline have a particular passion for the cannabis plant, just like us.  Two fighters, Roho and Hakurozan, nickname of the two russian brothers Soslan e Batraz Boradzov (28 and 26 years old) have been found positive to cannabis. But the police didn’t found any trace of cannabis in their apartments, and the two strongly denied the results of the tests. The japanise law consider a crime eve the possession of a small amount for personal use. Another sumo star was suspended from the federation last week, after that a test shows that he used cannabis. We all hope that these bans are temporary, it is too stupid to break the career of someone just because of a joint. Simply too stupid.

There are many people coming from the mountain area of Kashmir that every day reach Mumbai with cannabis cultivated in their backyard. The big city represents a fast way to get money out of it. Even the police is aware of it, as an officer says that they have filed three to four cases against Kashmiris this year. 6 months ago, a man has been catched with 21 kg of hashish. Some other man, a repeated offender risks even the death sentence. According to the official UN records, cannabis herb seizures made in Asia account for 5 % of the world total. And in the meantime, Mumbai gets high.

Singapore is well know in the world as a fast growing Asian miracle. A little country that in a few decades became an important actor in the international scene, at economical, medical, social and sometimes legal. We says legal because the system of laws, that are the toughest in the world, especially about drugs but not only: if  our memory is not failing, you can be imprisoned in SIngapore as turist we you bring into the country bubblegum, yes ladys and gentlemen, not the famous strain of weed, the bubblegum that we buy for 1 euro per package and we chew. With this premises, nobody would expect to find any drug user in the country.Instaed the scene is really active. High-flying foreign bankers and other expatriates use ecstasy and snort cocaine and smoke marijuana. They risk up to 10 years of jail, and a fine up to 20.000 USD. But the real risk is for their suppliers. In Singapore, anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, 500 grams of cannabis or 250 grams of methamphetamines faces a mandatory death sentence by hanging. Singapore defends its position by saying it needs tough laws to deter drug traffickers. We believe that it’s all another lie. If you care for someone, why would you send him to jail for 10 years, once you have admitted that he has a problem? If you are going to visit Singapore, please take the maximum care and go there clean and stay clean.

Canadian troops are operating since a few years in Afghanistan. They have a problem with cannabis, that is now replacing opium field. The Weird part is the don’t have a problem because cannabis is a drug. They have a problem with the plant. The tall cannabis plants grow higher than their vehicles, and talibans use them to  prepare ambushes against them. So they try to burn a few field,even with the help of some diesel fuel but, nothing to do, the plants were really wet. With one exception. “A few plants at the edge of the forest were slightly drier and brown. They caught fire and burnt for a while,” said Gen. Rick Hillier. “Unfortunately, they had one of our rifle sections of 10 men slightly down-wind from that. We couldn’t keep up with the orders for munchies.”

One of the chief of the scottish police, has recently declared that “Organised criminals have turned Scotland into a cannabis greenhouse”.  According to his information, criminal organizations from the far east run a net of greenhouses in the whole country. These grenhouses produces marijuana for the value of 1 billion euro per year. The greenhouses are manned by illegal immigrants, that work there 24 hours a day. Many of them are farmers imported with violence from Vietnam. In the past year, more than 30.000 plants worth 40 million euro have been seized, but that’s just the top of the iceberg. The quality of the weed is extremely high, however you can’t  find this weed in Scotland. Almost everything is made to be exported in UK or in Europe.

In Afghanistan, the northen province of  Balkh is pointed out as an example of success in eradicating the opium poppies. In this land, that is located between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, almost 30.000 acres of  land were full of opium poppies till 2 years ago. Then the decision to eradicate, and now, after 2 years, the province have been declared “poppies free” along with other 12. But this is not all the truth. How this result have been accomplished? The answer is really simple. Most farmers have simply switched crop, passing from the poppies to cannabis plants. Balkh province includes the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, famous in the past for the production of marijuana and hashish of the highest quality. many farmers that now grow cannabis, they say that is a going back to the traditions of their fathers and grandfathers, that decades ago grew the cannabis plant in these same places.