危険ドラッグ 摘発の徹底で流通を阻止せよ

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Distribution of dangerous drugs must be stemmed by thorough detection
危険ドラッグ　摘発の徹底で流通を阻止せよ

The control of illegal drugs must be tightened further, by seizing this occasion of the reclassification of the drugs.
　名称変更を機に、違法なドラッグの規制をさらに強めたい。

“Quasi-legal drugs,” whose abusers have caused a succession of incidents and accidents recently, have been renamed “dangerous drugs.”
　乱用者による事件・事故が相次ぐ「脱法ドラッグ」の名称が「危険ドラッグ」に改められた。

The designation “quasi-legal” may encourage people to casually use the drugs because they think they are not breaking the law. Based on this concern, the National Police Agency and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry publicly solicited suggestions for a new designation for the drugs.
　「脱法」では、法規制が及ばないとの誤ったメッセージを与えかねず、安易な使用を誘発する恐れがある。そうした判断から、警察庁と厚生労働省が公募した。

We can understand that the government intended to emphasize the danger of taking these drugs. But doubt remains as to whether the new name can sufficiently convey the message that the drugs may contain illegal substances. The government needs to make both the danger and the illegality of taking these drugs widely known.
　危険性を強調しようという狙いはわかるが、違法性が十分に伝わる名称なのか、という疑問は残る。政府は、危険性と違法性をともに周知する必要がある。

An estimated 400,000 people around the country have used these dangerous drugs.
　危険ドラッグに手を出したことのある人は、全国で４０万人に上るとされる。

When the health ministry investigated these cases, more than 40 percent of the users showed symptoms of hallucinations and delusions, whereas similar symptoms were seen among 30 percent of the stimulant drug users investigated. And nearly 60 percent of abusers of dangerous drugs also showed signs of dependency.
厚労省が乱用者を対象に調査したところ、４割以上に幻覚や妄想の症状が出ていた。覚醒剤の３割を上回っている。依存症状が生じた人も６割近かった。

It is apparent that these dangerous drugs are extremely harmful to the body. There has been a sharp rise in the number of cases in which people with acute poisoning after taking the drugs were taken to hospitals by ambulance.
　極めて有害であることは明らかである。急性中毒症状で救急搬送されるケースも急増している。

It is reasonable that the government has compiled emergency measures to prevent the spread of these dangerous drugs.
　蔓延まんえんを阻止するため、政府が緊急対策をまとめたのは当然だ。

The central pillars of the measures include cooperation between police and regional welfare bureaus in making general, on-site investigations into sales outlets of these drugs, said to be operating at about 250 spots in the nation. To correct the situation in which people can obtain dangerous drugs easily, it is essential to tighten control on sales outlets.
　警察や地方厚生局が連携し、約２５０か所とされる販売店への一斉立ち入り検査を行うことなどが対策の柱だ。危険薬物を容易に入手できる状況を改めるには、販売店の規制強化が欠かせない。

Control of sales crucial

Based on the lesson that the arrests of sellers of dangerous drugs were usually one step behind the problem, the government, in the emergency measures, is authorized to control those dangerous drugs as “unapproved drug products,” sales of which are banned by the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, even before they are defined as designated illegal drugs.
　摘発が後手に回った教訓から、緊急対策では、違法な指定薬物に分類される前でも、薬事法で販売を禁じる「無承認医薬品」として取り締まることも打ち出した。

With regard to those products that are suspected to contain such designated drugs, the government can order, under the measures, the sellers of the products to analyze the drug’s components and suspend sales until the analysis results become known. Violators of the order will be punished.
　指定薬物を含む疑いのある商品については、販売業者に成分検査を命じ、結果が出るまで販売を停止させる。命令に従わなければ、業者に罰則を科す。

We hope the government will reinforce its surveillance of those business operators who are shifting their sales method to mobile sales from vehicles and orders via the Internet.
　移動販売やインターネットを介した注文販売に移行しつつある業者の監視を強めてほしい。

It is also important to grasp the real state of affairs of illegal manufacturing of drugs and their sales channels. Factories manufacturing such drugs have been discovered in Okinawa and Ishikawa prefectures. Substances used for the drugs are suspected to have been imported from China. Strengthening the checking systems at customs offices will be necessary to prevent such substances from being brought into Japan.
　密造・販売ルートの実態把握も重要だ。沖縄、石川両県では製造工場が摘発された。原料の薬物は中国から輸入された疑いがある。日本への流入を水際で阻止するため、税関でのチェック体制を強化する必要があろう。

Some local governments are regulating, with their own ordinances, drugs that are not defined as illegal under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law but may cause harm to the body.
　薬事法上は違法とされていない商品であっても、身体に危害を及ぼす恐れがあれば、条例で独自に規制している自治体もある。

The Wakayama prefectural government has made such drugs subject to monitoring and control even if they are labeled as incense or aroma products and makes it mandatory for the sales outlet to notify the prefectural government of their sales. The Osaka prefectural government has included in its ordinance a provision authorizing an on-site investigation of sales shops by police officers. The Tokyo metropolitan government also plans to revise its ordinance to establish a similar provision.
　和歌山県は、お香やアロマと表示した商品でも監視製品に指定し、扱う店に届け出を義務付けている。大阪府は、警察官の店舗への立ち入り調査権限を条例に盛り込んだ。東京都も条例を改正し、同様の規定を設ける方針だ。

Local governments should assume a large role in supplementing the efforts made by the central government.
　政府の取り組みを補完する上で、自治体の役割は大きい。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 29, 2014)