The only country in the world where a famous star is caught with marijuana and it becomes a nationwide scandal is Japan,” he said. The law that makes a big deal out of a mere marijuana charge and sends the offender to jail needs to be changed as soon as possible.” The article reads. The Mainichi Shimbun’s September 14, 1977, page 5, “Reporter’s Eye,” began with the headline, “A Mere Marijuana Causes a Whale of a Whale of a Whale…. The Metropolitan Police Department at the time stated, “Regular use of marijuana leads to chronic addiction and premature dementia,” while the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Narcotics Division stated, “If you smoke marijuana, you become frantic, provocative and violent…There are reports of deaths due to acute poisoning…The symptoms of chronic poisoning include various psychiatric abnormalities. The symptoms of chronic addiction include a variety of psychiatric abnormalities and a decline in the level of personality due to long-term regular use. The Mainichi Shimbun wrote, “It would have been similar to the case that no one would say that bananas are forbidden just because they make you feel funny when you dry a banana peel, light it on fire, and smoke it.” It also says, “It would have been similar to the case where no one said bananas were forbidden because they made you feel funny when you smoked them with their peels dry. It would have been similar to the case that no one would say that pine needles should be banned just because they make you feel funny when you dry them, light them on fire, and smoke them. He raises the issue of marijuana from a defensive standpoint.