Illegal aliens are also known to sell amphetamines as front men for yakuza, so some of the cannabis sold by Iranians may be from the yakuza-triad connection too. There has not been a single bust involving marijuana brought in on boats yet, so until more large scale smugglers get busted the only ones who really know will be the smugglers. However the US federal drug police DEA has already given demonstrations to their Japanese counterparts on how to board smuggling vessels and how to retrieve drugs dumped overboard. Domestic cultivation Not all cannabis smokers in Japan pay high prices. Many people come from as far as Tokyo to harvest this wild hemp and every year some are caught by the police at road blocks while doing so.
Many rural users grow their own, effectively for free and many share their harvests with friends.
Sowing and harvesting often take place during hiking trips. Hemp seeds are imported from the Netherlands, from Canada and from most marijuana growing countries. Hemp and marijuana grow well, from Okinawa to Hokkaido. There's plenty of rainfall and the cooler climate of the mountains is no problem, as marijuana also thrives in the mountains of Colombia, Mexico, Nepal and Switzerland. People grow it on wooded hillsides, in abandoned fields, hidden in bamboo or goldenrod.