Drug Dealers Expanding In Japan

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Big pharmacies to create megachains
Two drugstore titans are out for the same prize--one trillion yen in annual group sales--by establishing nationwide networks in the fast-growing market. Aeon Co. brings 1,700 group outlets into the game against Matsumotokiyoshi Co.'s 1,100 stores. Their combined 2 trillion yen ambitions are the equivalent of about 45 percent of the overall domestic market in fiscal 2005... The drugstore market was worth about 4.5 trillion yen, sharply up from about 2.7 trillion yen five years earlier...more...

Matsumotokiyoshi's website is matsukiyo.co.jp while matsumotokiyoshi.com appears to be a blog run by Kiyoshi Matsumoto.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Morphine-filled safe stolen from drug store

A safe containing 100 tablets of morphine has been stolen from a drugstore here, police said Friday. An alarm system went off at a drugstore in the Chuo district of Itami at around 1 a.m. on Friday, local police said. Alerted by the security company that monitors the alarm system, officers rushed to the scene and found the shutter and door to the store had been destroyed. A safe containing 100 tablets of morphine, worth about 73,000 yen, was stolen from the store. Morphine is used mainly as a painkiller for cancer patients, and use of the drug is strictly regulated by the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law. A large dosage of morphine could cause hallucinations, experts said.

You might not notice the hallucinations. Symptoms of a morphine overdose:

Muscle spasticity, Difficulty breathing, Pinpoint pupils, Bluish-colored fingernails and lips, Spasms of the stomach or intestinal tract, Nausea, Vomiting, Constipation, Weak pulse, Palpitations, Drowsiness, Coma.

[Greji]

You might not notice the hallucinations. Symptoms of a morphine overdose:

Muscle spasticity, Difficulty breathing, Pinpoint pupils, Bluish-colored fingernails and lips, Spasms of the stomach or intestinal tract, Nausea, Vomiting, Constipation, Weak pulse, Palpitations, Drowsiness, Coma.

You just described the condition of everyone of my pub mates!

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Crisscross: Aeon sold drugs without prescription in 17 prefectures

Major supermarket chain operator Aeon Co said Friday that its pharmacies, including those operated by group companies, sold the tranquilizer Atarax P and four other drugs without prescription in 17 prefectures. Aeon says it has received no health-related complaints so far. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is calling on the people who purchased the drugs to stop taking them while confirming the amount of drugs illegally sold so far.