'Marijuana wax' seized in raid in Kanagawa

Aug 26, 2017 | News On Japan

Aug 26, 2017 (tokyoreporter.com) - A 33-year-old man has been arrested for the alleged possession of marijuana and a special form of the same banned drug at his residence in Isehara City, reports the Mainichi Shimbun.

On July 11, officers from the Yokohama branch of the Kanto Narcotics Control Department raided the residence of Yasuhiko Fujita and seized 1.47 kilograms of dried cannabis packed in 24 bags and 0.7 grams of so-called "marijuana wax," a concentrated and more potent form of the drug.

The contraband has an estimated value of 20 million yen, the department said.

Officers also seized 74 marijuana plants from the residence. Fujita was re-arrested on August 1 over the alleged cultivation of the plants. He was prosecuted at the Yokohama District Court on August 21.

Marijuana wax

In producing marijuana wax, the buds of the plant are packed into a tube and heated with butane torch, a process that extracts tetrahydrocannabinol, or the hallucinatory element, into a concentrated form. The result is a wax-like substance that is said to be 50 times more potent than regular marijuana.

"I made [the wax] from marijuana I cultivated," Fujita told police.

According to the department, the seizure is the 14th on record and the first for the Yokohama branch. A representative of the department says since last year "there has been a rapid surge" in the presence of marijuana wax.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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