College student’s European vacation comes to an unhappy ending in Hiroshima.

Marijuana has long been considered an appetite stimulant, so it’s not surprising that those who partake in the drug would want to have something to munch on handy. Still, it’s a little odd that food keeps being a factor in marijuana-related arrests in Japan.

Just last week there was the ramen chef in Osaka who was busted after police officers found a stash of marijuana in his restaurant. Now comes the story of a college student in Hiroshima who was caught attempting to sneak marijuana into the country as she returned home from an overseas trip, utilizing what can only be called the “pot dog” strategy.

On September 19, Risa Yorizane, a 21-year-old college student and Hiroshima City resident, boarded a flight in Shanghai bound for Hiroshima Airport, the final stretch of her journey home after a vacation in Europe. However, after arriving customs officials asked her to present her bags for inspection, and inside Yorizane’s luggage they discovered a hot dog bun. Nestled inside the bun, though, was not a wiener, but a plastic bag containing approximately 0.97 grams (0.03 ounces) of marijuana.

Yorizane was taken into custody and formally arrested by the Hiroshima Prefectural Police on September 20, with reports of the incident only recently being released. While she doesn’t deny ownership of the baked goods and contraband, she says she had no intention of smuggling the drugs into Japan, and merely forgot that she had the drugs in her luggage. The excuse is unlikely to earn her much clemency from Japan’s notoriously tough-on-drugs legal system, and the failure of her ruse probably means that hot dogs are unlikely to replace anuses as smugglers’ go-to hiding spot, the less-than-perfect success rate of the latter notwithstanding.

Source: Nikkan Sports
Top image: Pakutaso