Word: marijuana
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...found by an honest woman, who delivered it, with its contents intact, to a police station. Unfortunately for the young rikishi, as sumo wrestlers are known, the contents of his wallet included not only money and his alien registration card, but also a joint containing 0.368 grams of marijuana. On August 18, Wakanoho was arrested, and a search of his residence turned up a marijuana pipe. The sumo fraternity was scandalized by the first-ever arrest of one of its high-ranking number, and the 20-year-old Russian was banned for life from the sport...
...touch the ground with some body part other than the soles of their feet, is a uniquely Japanese tradition, steeped in shinto ritual and courtly decorum. The rikishi are required to live communally in "training stables," where all aspects of their lives, from nutrition to attire, are strictly regulated. Marijuana may not exactly be a performance-enhancing aid to the martial artist, but its recreational use certainly shatters the image of a cadre of professional fighters viewed as bearers of a centuries-old tradition deeply entwined with Japanese identity. Clearly, all is not well in the house of sumo...
...Even though he was released without charge, the Wakanoho's arrest shook the sport to its core. The rikishi escaped charges only because the amount of marijuana in his wallet was smaller than the threshold for legal punishment in Japan. At a news conference, Wakanoho cried, repeatedly apologized and asked for a reinstatement. But a sport whose rituals and conventions are so intimately tied with a traditional sense of Japanese identity is not so easily able to forgive the Russian's transgressions. He was told by the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) that reinstating him was impossible. On September 11, Wakanoho...
...have backfired. Hoping to demonstrate that his was an isolated case of substance abuse, the association conducted surprise urine tests on the 69 wrestlers of the top two divisions. These turned up positive tests in two more Russian rikishi, the brothers Roho, 28 and Hakurozan, 26. Both denied using marijuana - Roho appeared on television, saying "I have never seen or even touched the stuff," while Hakurozan promised that a further test would clear their names. Bad idea. In the second test, this time administrated by the only Japanese facility recognized by the World Anti-Doping Agency, samples from both brothers...
...never did. LSD is too strong to take. I write about it in the book. They take it once, and for years afterward, they have these flashbacks. Just driving over a bump in the road on a motorcycle can do it. I tried marijuana once...