Shion arrested for drugs

[Calico]

Let's just say that even if a college student is caught smoking weed, not only can they get expelled from their school but they can also be blacklisted from a majority of other school, thus wrecking not only their academic chances but also their future jobs as well since that's tied IN HEAVILY with where you went to school.

While I do not condone drug usage, I also think such a too strict mentality isn't much better either.

[noidea]

Originally Posted by Crystal_Ageha

^ Are you from the West, I suppose..? Or, the US? It's different in other parts of the world, specifically that part of Asia. They don't let drug abuse slide like some. :\ I personally think it's a good thing, that they're so strict.

Well, I'm from Germany and though drugs are forbidden here as well I think it should be allowed, because it's the decision of the people taking them and won't harm anyone aside them, smoking should be forbidden and taking drugs allowed IMO And I'm not saying this because I support drugs, because I don't, I just support freedom.

[Crystal_Ageha]

I think either they should ban both cigarettes and "real" drugs, or allow both. Because I believe they both can be extremely harmful, so if you're going to let people have a choice for one, you should certainly let them have a choice for the other, too. And either way, I believe you should completely keep them to yourself, as best you can unless it's brought up and you feel comfortable sharing, unless you have friends or family who are supportive of them as well. I don't think you should be open about doing any of those things, and I don't think they should be done in public.
However, like it seems is the case of Shion, if somebody randomly finds out that you enjoy any of these things, that's really none of their business and it should end at them finding out about it. Both the "abuser" and the person who found him/her out should avoid making any more out of it. Because chances are, that person who is exploiting the drug user knows nothing of the situation, so they don't have the right to bring them out about it. So I do feel bad about Shion... But of course, the way a lot of cultures work - specifically, in this case, Japan - no matter what your situation, drugs ruin your reputation, so you need to accept that and make a smart decision about it. And unfortunately, even though she does know better, she didn't make a smart decision; in this type of society, drugs are not allowed, so she should not have risked her fame, fortune and reputation for them. She should have sought help if she needed it, but it seems she didn't. So she's paying the price. :\

[hpg23]

Originally Posted by noidea

Is it really such a big problem to take drugs in japan? Something is seriously ****ed up...

Being a celebrity, is practically the worst you can do. There is almost no way turning back and they tend to be really dramatic with it; public apologies, websites closed and halting all of promotion.
There is usually a couple "big" scandals in Japan a year, and when you look at all the fuss and all the problem with them, its really funny, because if most of that stuff happened in the West it wouldn't be considered a scandal at all, and no one would give a damn. Many careers have been ruined because of things like these.
Let me see, in recent history, we've got:

-Erika Sawajiri, actress, singer and model who at her peak was HUGE, ruined her career with her bad attitude (like, she was mean to some journalists on a few ocassions). Later on, she travelled to Ibiza, Spain, supposedly to study, but it was later on rumoured and found that she had been using cocaine there, thus, she was dropped of her model agency, I believe, and no TV channels wanted her to star on it. She is almost forgotten now, and she was practically everywhere on 2005-2006.

-Noriko Sakai, singer, was recently charged for drug abuse too, and she practically lost her career, facing imprisoment.

-Narita Shoji, former Johnny idol, was arrested for marijuana posession this month.

-Koda Kumi, in one of the most famous cases, was suspended for months thanks to her infamous "rotten fluids" comment on the radio. All promotion for her then brand new album Kingdom was halted and her website was taken down. She even appeared on TV crying and apologizing, and before each show on Kingdom tour (which she tried to cancel) she also apologized to the audience. I remember seeing tabloid pictures of her looking fat and depressed, and many doubted she would go back, but she did, probably thanks to her success and her apoligizes.

-Ai Kago, Morning Musume member, got practically erased from showbusiness a couple years ago, when she was found dating a man twice her age.

-Uchi Hiroki and Kusano Hironori, members of the band NEWS, were also "punished" by Jonnhy because they were caught drinking underage.

-Ami Suzuki had a huge scandal that crashed her career, because her management was evading taxes. She went against them, breaking one of the golden rules of showbiz in Japan: never bit the hand that feeds you. She was only able to come back some time after, thanks to her re-debut with Avex, and with a lot less success than what she once had, when she was one of the tops.

-Tetsuya Komuro, famous producer of Namie Amuro on her beginnings was also involved in legal problems, when he tried to sell over 500 songs composed by him, but which were owned by Avex. This was one of the biggest scandals this year, and he found it almost impossible to come back.

and many more cases, and it's really hard to return, and if you do, usually the artist's popularity is sliced in two.


Anyway, I agree with you, I think that drugs should be allowed and controlled by the government... they could do something to ban its usage (maybe sell the harder drugs at indecently high prices), but I think that if something is forbidden, people tend more to consume it.

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by Calico

While I do not condone drug usage, I also think such a too strict mentality isn't much better either.

I agree.

Poor Shion. Honestly...I don't think they way they go about it is right.

Most of these celebrities just have problems...they need therapy, not for their lives to be over.


This brings up a rather controversial discussion about drugs...but honestly...drugs are pretty much already illegal all over the place...and having them "banned" as they are now, isn't helping, and neither, obviously, is them apprehending people who are doing drugs.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by noidea

the people taking them and won't harm anyone aside them, smoking should be forbidden and taking drugs allowed IMO And I'm not saying this because I support drugs, because I don't, I just support freedom.

Are you really serious? To say drugs don't harm anyone other than the person who uses it... I'm sorry to say, but it's a demonstration of great ignorance over the matter. Legal or illegal, drugs destroy families and can have devastating consequences, not only on the individual who does it. In society, things are deemed illegal if they cause harm to it. Drugs do that. If we were to support freedom just for the sake of supporting it, I'd pretty much say people should be free to kill other people. That would be "freedom" but it would be wrong. A world where everyone is free to do whatever the heck they want is not an ideal world, because someone's freedom can mean taking over somebody else's freedom and this is the reasons why laws exist, so, no, people shouldn't ever be free to do whatever they feel like doing, there's a limit to that.

The majority of drugs cause severe judgement and behavior impairment. When such people do that and go out driving vehicles, or they are carrying something that can cause ahrm to another person (a gun, a knife) they're more likely to commit an accident or a criminal act, because the drug will definitely impair their decisive capabilities. To say such a thing only affects the person who does them is seriously out of reality. A lot of the criminal who rob and kill here often do it after they drug themselves so that they can have the courage to commit the act. It's also a serious public health problem. we are already facing the ocnsequences of free alcohol and tobacco use, what to say if we were to let everything else free.

I'm glad Japan is strict with this matter and doesn't take it lightly. (though there are hypocritical things they do that I don't like, like the Ami suzuki and Koda Kumi matters). Other countries should definitely follow Japan's example when it comes to drugs

[nemesisyume]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

Legal or illegal, drugs destroy families and can have devastating consequences, not only on the individual who does it.

I agree a million %

bye bye to her career

[happiholic★]

This really sucks. I love her music. She made a really bad choice, even if she did them to deal with a problem. And that's if. But, at least she is honest.

[Yum!Fruit_Salad!]

Originally Posted by hpg23

-Ami Suzuki had a huge scandal that crashed her career, because she was evading taxes. She was only able to come back some time after, thanks to her re-debut with Avex, and with a lot less success than what she once had, when she was one of the tops.

Ami wasn't the one who was evading taxes, it was her management. They lied about how much money they earned and didn't pay her royalities fully. What screwed Ami was that she was going against her superior (didn't matter she was doing the right thing). It's because of that no record company wanted to sign her.

[noidea]

Drugs discussion:
If someone commits a serious crime while on drugs, he or she would probably have done so anyway sooner or later, so should we forbid everything that may increase aggressiveness as well(which would mean millions of songs, movies, books and games)? That's just the same. If the person doesn't have problem anyway there won't be anything criminal happening. Forbidding something because it has bad effect on some people is a wide generalization, like forbidding nuts because some people are allergic to it. A psychologic test before you are allowed to take drugs would be an idea, but aside that I don't see a problem with it. Everybody smoking within a short range of a person not smoking harms somebody, way worse than what could happen when drugs are allowed, nothings done against that.

And as far as I know, the allowed drugs in the netherlands(I think it was that country...) are not a big problem at all.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by noidea

Drugs discussion:
If someone commits a serious crime while on drugs, he or she would probably have done so anyway sooner or later, so should we forbid everything that may increase aggressiveness as well(which would mean millions of songs, movies, books and games)? That's just the same.

A game or a movie doesn't cut away the anxiety or the judgment someone has because it doesn't directly messes with brain chemicals. Drugs do that. I can't believe you even compare both. It's completely different to say you read a book and get influenced by it (the book can't be necessarily blamed) with something you took that directly messed with your attention, decision and judgement capability to influence you directlyto do something terrible. Also, drugs can directly cause hallucinations and dellusions in a state called delirium which can lead to a psychoaggressive and harmful state in which the person can either suicide themselves or kill someone. TV and games can't do that. Your examples can't be compared at all.

Originally Posted by noidea

And as far as I know, the allowed drugs in the netherlands(I think it was that country...) are not a big problem at all.

That's not what I have been reading about over the news to be honest. I've heard netherlands is starting to face a lot of problems and consequences because of that, because, because of the leniency, it is sort of becoming a resort to attract people to prostitution (which is openly allowed in some places there) and drugs, generating a "tourism" directed to that, which is starting to run out of control.

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

Are you really serious? To say drugs don't harm anyone other than the person who uses it... I'm sorry to say, but it's a demonstration of great ignorance over the matter. Legal or illegal, drugs destroy families and can have devastating consequences, not only on the individual who does it. In society, things are deemed illegal if they cause harm to it. Drugs do that. If we were to support freedom just for the sake of supporting it, I'd pretty much say people should be free to kill other people. That would be "freedom" but it would be wrong. A world where everyone is free to do whatever the heck they want is not an ideal world, because someone's freedom can mean taking over somebody else's freedom and this is the reasons why laws exist, so, no, people shouldn't ever be free to do whatever they feel like doing, there's a limit to that.

The majority of drugs cause severe judgement and behavior impairment. When such people do that and go out driving vehicles, or they are carrying something that can cause ahrm to another person (a gun, a knife) they're more likely to commit an accident or a criminal act, because the drug will definitely impair their decisive capabilities. To say such a thing only affects the person who does them is seriously out of reality. A lot of the criminal who rob and kill here often do it after they drug themselves so that they can have the courage to commit the act. It's also a serious public health problem. we are already facing the ocnsequences of free alcohol and tobacco use, what to say if we were to let everything else free.

I'm glad Japan is strict with this matter and doesn't take it lightly. (though there are hypocritical things they do that I don't like, like the Ami suzuki and Koda Kumi matters). Other countries should definitely follow Japan's example when it comes to drugs

I completely agree with you! Drugs don't just affect one person, believe me I know from personal experience -_-;........

Originally Posted by noidea

And as far as I know, the allowed drugs in the netherlands(I think it was that country...) are not a big problem at all.

Actually I heard they are having problems with that and are considering pulling in the reins a bit more... So yeah, the Netherlands isn't a prime example right now lol.

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by hpg23

-One Morning Musume member, (I forgot the name), got practically erased from showbusiness a couple years ago, simply because she was caught smoking and dating a boy.

This "boy" was a man about twice her age. It would've made news anywhere. Of course I agree with you that the particular rules applied to this kind of idol are very strict, howeverthe issues concerning Ai Kago were much more complicated. The outcome was due to other issues as well of which there's a lot of speculation. The plagiarism scandal, boyfriend of ayaya etc never resulted in something similar even if they're not totally different.

Originally Posted by hpg23

-Ami Suzuki had a huge scandal that crashed her career, because she was evading taxes. She was only able to come back some time after, thanks to her re-debut with Avex, and with a lot less success than what she once had, when she was one of the tops.

like metioned above she was dropped because she went against her own company, a problem a lot of people face in other industries as well (loyalty issues). I agree the whole case was a big tragedy.


Some of the posts in this thread are really disturbing, but most've been said already.

Some officials have proposed to distribute heroin to addicts in order to halt the black market. I think this is a really bad idea because a lot of the addicts also sell drugs and offer it to users of other kind of illegal drugs. Heroin is a drug that is highly addictive and abusers often have to use higher dosis every time to achieve the same amount of pleasure. Giving it out for free would do nothing to make the black market smaller but rather boost availability. It would also mean that the governement directly or indirectly would contribute to the continued farming of these kind of crops which is utterly absurd for so many reasons IMO.

[Paparazzi]

noidea is making some really, really ignorant comments in this thread.

it's actually almost impressive how arrogant noidea's argument is.

i'm sorry, but you're completely off-base.

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

that's really unfortunate

i wonder what made her turn to drugs. granted we have no idea is she was addicted or not, or a casual user or what. but still, it's sad. I didn't listen to her, but I saw her singles and such at stores quite often.

[Yoake]

thanks for sharing. I really can't understand people who take drugs. For me the only one drug that are so good is chocolate XD

[hpg23]

Originally Posted by *Petit*

This "boy" was a man about twice her age. It would've made news anywhere. Of course I agree with you that the particular rules applied to this kind of idol are very strict, howeverthe issues concerning Ai Kago were much more complicated. The outcome was due to other issues as well of which there's a lot of speculation. The plagiarism scandal, boyfriend of ayaya etc never resulted in something similar even if they're not totally different.




like metioned above she was dropped because she went against her own company, a problem a lot of people face in other industries as well (loyalty issues). I agree the whole case was a big tragedy.


Some of the posts in this thread are really disturbing, but most've been said already.

Originally Posted by Yum!Fruit_Salad!

Ami wasn't the one who was evading taxes, it was her management. They lied about how much money they earned and didn't pay her royalities fully. What screwed Ami was that she was going against her superior (didn't matter she was doing the right thing). It's because of that no record company wanted to sign her.

Ooops, sorry, my bad, I will edit my post. Thank you ^O^

[~Inori~]

R&B singer Shion (26) was sentenced on Monday in her trial on charges of drug possession and use. A Yokohama district court judge handed her a 1-year sentence, suspended for 3 years.

Shion was arrested in December after police discovered a small amount of ketamine in her home, and she admitted to using the drug. According to testimony given in court, Shion had been experiencing health problems with her throat, negatively affecting her singing voice. Worried about the possibility of her career ending, she started using the drug in response to her anxiety. It appears that she even considered suicide after the release of her third album in October.

Shion debuted in 2008 and ranked 9th on the sales charts with her first album. In October, her third album ranked 7th. She had already announced at the end of October that she was going on hiatus for health reasons.

Source

For those, like me, that have no clue on what a suspended sentence.

"A sentence given after the formal conviction of a crime that the convicted person is not required to serve."

So unless she screws up she won't have to serve any jail time. I hope she'll be alright and will be able to resume her career.

[jean-baptiste]

to say drugs don't affect anyone but the user...
that's a very ignorant thing to say, don't you think?
forget it... i don't even wanna get into it...

[happiholic★]

Originally Posted by ~Inori~

Source

For those, like me, that have no clue on what a suspended sentence.

"A sentence given after the formal conviction of a crime that the convicted person is not required to serve."

So unless she screws up she won't have to serve any jail time. I hope she'll be alright and will be able to resume her career.

I hope so too, but people were saying that in Japan, when a singer becomes involved with the police their career is over