"Cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, whatever you want," Shukan Jitsuwa hears one say.

Should a passerby be interested, the pusher, or pusshaa in English-inspired Japanese, directs him or her to a nearby back street where the transaction takes place. If the tout is not carrying any of his wares at the time, he tells his customer to be at a designated spot for the exchange.

Such scenes of drug dealers and drug-consuming denizens have become all too common on the streets of Roppongi, according to Shukan Jitsuwa. The district, it says, has become a "lawless zone for drugs," where a wide range of narcotics, from amphetamines to harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin, are easily available.

"Cocaine and heroin are 5,000 yen a pack, and Ecstasy is 3,000 yen a tab," a tout tells the magazine's reporter...

Among the legal narcotics doing the rounds in Roppongi is ketamine hydrochloride, originally used as an anesthetic for animals.

"It gives a buzz similar to cocaine," says an unnamed source involved in Roppongi's club scene. "There has been a sudden increase in the number of young people who take ketamine and then dance all night. They feel safe because even if they're caught with it, they can't be arrested."

djgizmoe wrote:After three years clubbing and DJing in and around Nagoya (as well as in Osaka and Tokyo on occasion), I wasn't once approached by a pusher.