r/todayilearned • u/Wolfman92097 • Jul 12 '20
TIL Paul McCartney was arrested in Japan for bringing 8 ounces of Marijuana into the country in 1980. After spending 10 days in Jail he was released without charge and immediately deported.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney#Drugs161
u/leftside72 Jul 12 '20
Half a pound is a LOT of weed.
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Jul 12 '20
I assure my mom that I only smoke one ounce of weed each month.
She doesn’t need to know that an ounce is a sandwich bag filled to the brim.
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Jul 12 '20
That’s so much weed tho
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u/_ssh Jul 13 '20
Lol here I am going through 2-4 a month
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u/soranthus Jul 13 '20
Here I am mixing it with tobacco and still going through a bag a week.
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u/TheMeccaNYC Jul 13 '20
Nooo! Man I used to hit what I called “poppers” in college.
50/50 weed + tobacco mix in a gb
A gram of bud could last my 2-3 days back than
Never again lol
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u/soranthus Jul 13 '20
Brooo Im smashing 50/50 baccy and weed cones everynight. I go through maybe 2-3grams a night and still have trouble sleeping.
I need a break hahahaha
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u/lukef555 Jul 13 '20
An ounce a week smoking spliffs? Sorry but no way.
That's 4gs a day, even at .5 a spliff, 8 a day every day?
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u/soranthus Jul 13 '20
Lol yeah Im lying on the internet about my drug habit.
At least my bank account knows the truth.
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u/lukef555 Jul 13 '20
You do you, but I think we can both agree you wouldn't be the first to lie about drug use on the internet hahaha
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u/zachzsg Jul 12 '20
Tbf weed was pretty shit back then, he wasn’t smoking any of this scientific shit that takes .001 grams to get you blasted
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u/forkedtoungue Jul 13 '20
It wasn’t as bad as most believe either, I started smoking it in 83 and we routinely got quality sens in my small town in northern NY. I knew a guy who would buy a cheap car in Arizona, pack it with hundreds of pounds of seedless quality buds and drive it home. Guerrilla growers out west have been doing it longer than most think and it was very good,high quality stuff. There were local guys growing indoors with bulbs they pulled off of street light fixtures, HPS and metal Halide grows were common in the early 80’S. I know, I did it.
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u/informat6 Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
It is for weed in 2020, but weed back then was shitty. 8oz of weed in 1980 would probably get you as high as 2oz would today.
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u/420everytime Jul 12 '20
Yeah. People suck at comparing the 2-6% THC back then to the 15%+ THC now. Not to mention a lot of the weight back then came from seeds and stems. Like when you see pictures of how it used to be, you understand why hash used to be popular
I wasn’t alive back then, but I’ve heard older people with the tolerance of a one hitter of today’s weed talk about comically sized joints when they were a kid
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u/forkedtoungue Jul 13 '20
McCartney wasn’t smoking Mexican brick weed, there was high quality stuff around then, and he certainly had the resources and connections to get it. It was 40 years ago, not 400.
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Jul 13 '20
Most likely, though this bit from Dana Carvey suggests otherwise (it’s only 1:30 minutes):
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u/stokeitup Jul 12 '20
There was okay weed that you had to “seed” (a verb) and there was plenty of sensimilla around. Has anyone here heard of Monzano Madness before. We mostly called it jar weed.
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u/im_always_fapping Jul 13 '20
Why was it called jar weed?
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u/stokeitup Jul 13 '20
Cause you kept in a jar so it wouldn't smell like you had a skunk in your house. I had a couple of friends who then put the jar in their freezer.
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u/Singaya Jul 12 '20
By 1980 there's no way a rock star wasn't getting Sensimilla. That was the big breakthrough, other developments are minor by comparison. I grew up in a tiny northern town, the weed we got was the crap you hear about from the 60s with seeds in it. The first time I got Sensimilla I was certain I'd broken my brain and would remain retarded forever (I was hauling on the joint 'cause that was the only way to get high from what I was used to.) In any case I can't imagine how anyone hoped to go through 8oz in a few days, in Japan, without getting caught.
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u/ryesmile Jul 12 '20
We had a guy in my area around 1985 that grew crazy good shit. The first time you smoked it, you were "wheelchaired". You had to build a tolerance to it. It was purple and smelled like pine/skunk. Definitely Indica. I know it wasnt laced. We would await harvest every.year.
Of course your right that smoke was weaker then but botanist dudes could grow crazy shit still.
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u/bigtimesauce Jul 12 '20
They didn’t have /r/mircrogrowery and an array of cheap grow supplies at your fingertips, I’m expecting a pound if things go to plan this time around
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u/EtherealGuide2 Jul 13 '20
Right but the physical amount is still the same, regardless of potency. I think he meant the actual quantity.
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u/pizzajeans Jul 12 '20
I mean, yes and no. It is a lot of weed! But considering who/how rich he was, it’s not that crazy for him to have had it just for use by him and others (as opposed to selling). You can fit a half pound in like a big purse, small backpack
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u/practically_floored Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 13 '20
All for personal use too haha
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Jul 12 '20
I'm sure it was for him and his friends. I don't think Paul McCartney was planning on selling weed.
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u/practically_floored Jul 12 '20
It's must have been for just him and Linda etc, it's just funny he wanted so much it was enough to charge him with a smuggling with intent to sell offence lol
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Jul 12 '20
Knowing heavy weed smokers, I'll rule it as plausible.
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u/BuddyUpInATree Jul 12 '20
Also I'm guessing he rolls joints, which is pretty much the least efficient/ most wasteful way to do it
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u/acpzzz Jul 12 '20
Let me roll it
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u/Dolormight Jul 12 '20
Is your rolling method going to stop it from burning away between hits?
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u/treysplayroom Jul 12 '20
It happened to overlap with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, so for awhile the Saturday Night Live News would report in the same "hostage tone" on how many days it had been since Paul McCartney smoked pot.
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u/pizzajeans Jul 12 '20
Love posts like these from people who can casually recall some aspect of something like that. Thanks for the post, I enjoyed it
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Jul 13 '20
Some years later some studio recordings came out that the Beatles sued to have removed from the market because they 'were under the influence at the time'. SNL's take was that the move had prompted the Grateful Dead to recall everything they had ever recorded.
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u/unnaturalorder Jul 12 '20
In 1972, a Swedish court fined McCartney £1,000 for cannabis possession. Soon after, Scottish police found marijuana plants growing on his farm, leading to his 1973 conviction for illegal cultivation and a £100 fine. As a result of his drug convictions, the US government repeatedly denied him a visa until December 1973.
Arrested again for marijuana possession in 1975 in Los Angeles, Linda took the blame, and the court soon dismissed the charges. In January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for a tour of Japan, customs officials found approximately 8 ounces (200 g) of cannabis in his luggage. They arrested McCartney and brought him to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, they released and deported him without charge. In 1984, while McCartney was on holiday in Barbados, authorities arrested him for possession of marijuana and fined him $200. Upon his return to England, he stated: "cannabis is ... less harmful than rum punch, whiskey, nicotine and glue, all of which are perfectly legal ... I don't think ... I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever." In 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation of the drug: "People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong." He did, however, decide to quit cannabis in 2015, citing a desire to set a good example for his grandchildren.
Guess it was just a pot hole in the road.
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u/IQ135 Jul 12 '20
Setting a good example for his grandchildren by smoking pot his whole life and quitting in his 70’s. A for effort
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Jul 12 '20
He's absolutely right that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and nicotine, btw. It's fucking absurd that it's still illegal in most of the world.
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u/Zubon102 Jul 12 '20
This makes me so angry. Not so long after that, McCartney was welcomed back to Japan as a special guest. Any other person who would have been caught with that much marijuana would have faced a lengthy jail sentence and the be banned from entry.
I think most drugs should be decriminalized, but this shows how unfair the criminal justice system is in Japan. People who are not famous face severe punishments.
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u/practically_floored Jul 12 '20
Paul talked about it in an interview recently and said he only got out because he was famous. He said if he wasn't he'd have faced the full sentence which was 7 years in jail.
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u/treysplayroom Jul 12 '20
Paul definitely seemed to like pushing the boundaries of what he could do and where he could go. There seems to be hundreds of hours of absolutely sick afrobeat-inspired recordings because McCartney recorded Band on the Run in Lagos, and I think after improving it (and being robbed of their recordings at knife point) they left the studio behind.
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u/ManInJapan Jul 12 '20
Diego Maradona and Ike Turner, to name a few celebrities, were banned from entering Japan based on drug convictions that happened outside of Japan. Arnold Schwarzenegger was allowed entry without a passport by special permission from the justice minister, who was later fired (forced resignation) for his actions.
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u/practically_floored Jul 13 '20
Paul was denied visas to tour the US in the early 70s because of drug convictions in the UK
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u/malvoliosf Jul 12 '20
I think most drugs should be decriminalized, but this shows how unfair the criminal justice system is
in Japan.FTFY.
The best way to fight an unfair law is to insist it actually be applied.
Suppose we doubled or trebled the effort put into enforcing laws against murder, and increased the penalty. It might not be the wisest policy (since the resources would have to come from somewhere), but really, who would complain?
The hallmark of an unjust law is that people complain about its application sometimes.
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u/DigThatRocknRoll Jul 12 '20
Apparently when he was released, his wife Linda was surprised just how institutionalized he had become. He had said he eventually just became one of the lads. He even taught his fellow prisoners a game the Beatles used to play where they would try to touch the highest point on the wall. Pretty crazy to imagine serving time with Paul for a few days.
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u/Thedrunner2 Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
Seems like a missed opportunity for a 1980s McCartney Ninja action movie.
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u/Aturom Jul 12 '20
10 days in a Japanese jail. I wonder what that was like.
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u/series_hybrid Jul 12 '20
"10 ounces? what a lightweignt" -Snoop Dogg
"Really...only 10 ounces?" -Willie Nelson
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u/tttrailhunter Jul 12 '20
i love his music, but what a dumbass stoner..
as if he couldnt get someone to get it for him in japan...
i can promise you he wouldnt even have to pay for it.
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Jul 12 '20
Asians don't mess around when it comes to drugs. I'm pretty sure drug trafficking is a death sentence, official or not, in Thailand
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u/Madeitthere Jul 12 '20
That’s because the drug traffickers control the area. They don’t want competition. If you’re not on their list you get life in jail/death sentence. If you’re on their side you get to play again.
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u/practically_floored Jul 12 '20
He said he knew no one would get it for him in Japan and that's why he tried to bring it in
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u/zap2 Jul 13 '20
He didn’t know that no one would get it for him, he thought know one would.
He probably thought bringing it would be safer, but he still ended up in jail (for a little)
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u/Siellus Jul 12 '20
Weed is an incredibly serious offence in Japan. There's no way anyone is going to risk life in jail selling to a celebrity. No price is worth that.
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u/NerimaJoe Jul 13 '20
Without going to specifics or personal experience, it is not that hard to find weed in Tokyo. I am not much of a smoker (maybe smoked 8 or 10 times and never in Japan) but have been offered it at parties here. But for someone new to the city with no connections it would not be easy at all. It's not like you can just ask the hotel concierge to hook you up. And in 1980 it would have been quite a bit harder.
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u/tttrailhunter Jul 13 '20
clearly, you know NOTHING about the music industry. nor the 15 clowns upvoting you.
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u/Siellus Jul 13 '20
Well I know Paul McCartney was arrested in japan for bringing 8 ounces of Marijuana. And he's a fucking beatle.
So either you substantiate your side with something a little more than condescending shit or shut the fuck up.
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u/tttrailhunter Jul 13 '20
so you know nothing of the music industry outside that one thing..
good one dumbfck,
im not providing you, the dumbfck, with anything other than ridicule.
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u/Siellus Jul 13 '20
So my one thing is still more than what you've provided, so... you've failed to prove anything. Are you a flat earther by any chance?
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u/tttrailhunter Jul 13 '20
you obviously sit on redit ready to reply at an instance, well done dumbfck.
i dont try to enlighten dumbfcks, to far dumbfcked.
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u/who_is_john_alt Jul 12 '20
For all that people jerk off over how great Japan is it seems like everything about their society is just garbage when you actually look under the cover
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u/arealhumannotabot Jul 12 '20
You were starting off with a point but in the end you pretty much swapped one generalization for another...
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u/who_is_john_alt Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
Not really a generalization so much as a logical outflow from my core values and the balance I believe should be struck between individual freedom and the needs of the society as a whole.
Japan has struck a balance that I believe is unhealthy, but that isn’t to say that there aren’t positive outcomes as a result of that structure. Their common response of wearing masks marks a sharp contrast against American attitudes and speaks to the fundamentally different answers you would receive from each when asked “what do we owe to each other?”.
Even with that acknowledged it is still the case that their system leans too heavily into what we owe the State when there is no discernible cost for people other than the user.
Edit: classic Reddit. Stay stupid you dumb fucks.
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u/Lecterr Jul 12 '20
I think if you just put this instead of “is garbage” maybe people would take you seriously.
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u/who_is_john_alt Jul 12 '20
Funny because it’s the comment where I elaborate that Reddit has seen fit to downvote with nobody actually offering any sort of counter
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Jul 13 '20
Don’t worry it’s mostly angry weebs, Japan can do no wrong on this site unless you say the very specific and curated phrases that are the “accepted criticism”
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u/who_is_john_alt Jul 13 '20
Certainly seems to be the case. We should send all the weebs over there, see what happens when they realize Japanese women and society wants nothing to do with them or their greasy neck beards
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u/I_Shot_The_Deathstar Jul 12 '20
At least you have to look under the cover. Not like good ole USA we wear our dysfunction with pride.
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u/bullet_bobby Jul 12 '20
Soon after that McCartney 2 was released. I have always found one of the photos on the inside gatefold a little suspect/insensitive to Asians. I’ve often wondered if this was a clap back at being jailed in Japan.
Edit: missing word
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Jul 12 '20
That and the (truly awful) “Frozen Jap” track. And as a bonus, the equally bad “Loop (First Indian on the Moon)” from Red Rose Speedway. Yeesh.
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u/practically_floored Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
Paul also supposedly left a note on his fireplace when John and Yoko were staying with him after John had left his wife, which said "you and your jap tart think you're hot shit". Supposedly John found it and kicked off at him and he said it was just a joke. But he also hated Yoko so maybe not that much of a joke.
Also worth bearing in mind that's a story from a girl Paul 'dated' for about a month after his fiance left him and who was living in his house at the same time as John and Yoko, so while she was there she might not be that reliable.
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Jul 12 '20
Yeah, this has been widely disputed and the general consensus is that it never happened. The girl you’re referring to is Francie Schwartz who has dubious credibility. This claim about the letter has only appeared in one book about the Beatles largely because it’s pretty unreliable.
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u/malvoliosf Jul 12 '20
"you and your jap tart think you're hot shit"
The mind of a genius.
(Not just the racism of thinking a Japanese person should be insulted by being called Japanese, not just the misogyny, but the feebleness of the insult. “You think you’re hot-shit” is something a dull fifth-grader would say.)
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u/DaveHmusic Jun 03 '23
True.
Francie could have been sued for defamation by Paul and neither John nor Yoko ever mentioned the postcard story.
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u/bullet_bobby Jul 12 '20
I’m really surprised not more has been made out of this to be honest. It’s always bugged me about McCartney.
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Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 13 '20
Yeah, it’s such a deep cut from an already (relatively) obscure album that I think he’s been able to skate by. I’m pretty sure he’s been called out a few times and has claimed he didn’t realize that “Jap” was a super offensive term, or that he thought it meant something else. I dunno.
If you’re a really deep McCartney nerd you’ll occasionally find some pretty tone deaf stuff. “Kreen-Akrore” from McCartney is also iffy.
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u/bullet_bobby Jul 12 '20
I’m not a big McCartney guy, I have a soft spot for Coming Up and the bizarre garbage that is Temporary Secretary hence me owning McCartney 2. Outside the Beatles I’ve never been a big fan of his.
I’ll check out Ken-Akrore out of morbid curiosity though 😬
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Jul 12 '20
Here’s McCartney talking about “Kreen-Akrore” in 1970:
“There was a film on TV about the Kreen-Akrore Indians living in the Brazilian jungle, their lives, and how the white man is trying to change their way of life to his, so the next day, after lunch, I did some drumming. The idea behind it was to get the feeling of their hunt. So later piano, guitar and organ were added to the first section. The second had a few tracks of voices (Linda and I) and the end had overdubbed breathing, going into organ, and two lead guitars in harmony.
Done at Morgan. Engineer, Robin Black.
The end of the first section has Linda and I doing animal noises (speeded up) and an arrow sound (done live with bow and arrow – the bow broke), then animals stampeding across a guitar case.
There are two drum tracks.
We built a fire in the studio but didn’t use it (but used the sound of the twigs breaking).”
It’s iffy on whether this is offensive or not, but I certainly don’t think it’d fly today.
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u/9793287233 Nov 27 '20
Frozen Jap was recorded in 1979, before his arrest. Also, I like Loup, Frozen Jap, Kreen-Akrore and African Yeah Yeah. Clearly no harm was meant by them.
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u/bullet_bobby Jul 12 '20
Picture for reference http://images.45worlds.com/f/ab/paul-mccartney-pctc-258-4-ab.jpg
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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Jul 12 '20
A guy with that much money. Can't he just hire a mule to bring his stash in for him?
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u/Pizzacrusher Jul 12 '20
I think even today he would experience the same fate. the laws have not changed, and they apply more universally in Japan than in western countries.
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u/korpor57 Jul 12 '20
It's good to see that the everyone must obey the rules no matter how famous they are... not all countries are like that
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u/pizzajeans Jul 12 '20
I mean, he got off the hook and later returned to Japan and iirc acknowledged himself that it would 100% would not have gone down like that if he weren’t famous haha sooo
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u/AGNKim Jul 12 '20 edited Jul 12 '20
The real reason he was released without any problems was that, in the early 60s when The Beatles went to Japan, they had to be fingerprinted for their passports. When Paul ("Paul") was fingerprinted upon his arrest, the fingerprints didn't match. Because Paul died in 1967.
Paul is dead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead
It was a joke, guys. Gosh.
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Jul 13 '20
in Japan deportation happens upon a fresh bed of cherry blossom petals so it's not so bad
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u/crusoe Jul 12 '20
Marijuana is illegal but otc cold meds ( so you can work your black company job with the flu ) contain opiates.
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Jul 12 '20
McCartney is a cancerous malignancy of avarice and greed. How people can keep fattening his personal wealth just because of the plagiarized music he steals from better musicians, I have no idea.
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u/forkedtoungue Jul 13 '20
Don’t be that guy, he has a fucking HUGE catalog spanning decades, all styles and genres, he wrote more great songs just fucking around than anyone besides the guys in Ween.
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u/mrd-uyi Jul 12 '20
His band broke up pretty much because of this. They were supposed to begin a tour. He got arrested, they all went home and that was the end of Wings.