Don’t take cookies from strangers.

In Japan, where strict anti-drug laws remain in place, you might find products that claim to give similar sensations to illegal substances but use ingredients allowed by law. Especially, in the harder-to-regulate realm of the Internet, products that claim to give “legal highs” are sold, but who knows what’s really inside them?

Last May, a university student in Yamanashi Prefecture found this out the hard way, having ordered some cookies online that claimed to be made with “mood-enhancing ingredients.” Shortly after eating some with an acquaintance, he jumped from the second floor of his dormitory. He was hurt in the fall but none of his injuries are life-threatening.

The student was given a drug test by the Yamanashi Prefectural Police at the time but he was found to have no illegal substances in his system. The cookies he ate were also examined and also found to be free of illegal narcotics. However, the details of the case would strongly suggest that eating the cookies was the main factor influencing his decision to jump.

According to the drug-control division of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, products sold online may claim to contain legal ingredients but actually hide illegal substances without listing them. The ministry is also finding and testing these products and adding any new substances they find, such as synthetic cannabinoids, to their list of restricted ingredients, but say it’s difficult to keep up with the rate that new products come out.

Readers of the news online were intrigued by how the cookies could pass known drug tests but still make a guy jump out a window.

“Maybe it’s a placebo effect.”
“Sometimes just taking supplements gets me all antsy and wanting to move around.”
“What kind of cookies are these? I want to know so I can avoid them.”
“There are cookies that make you think you can fly?”
“A cookie can do that?”
“At least no one was hurt.”
“His parents must be proud for him to go off to university and do this.”
“If there really are no illegal ingredients then I guess it’s buyer beware. It’s like those extremely spicy chips.”
“If you have to go out of your way to say your product is legal, it’s pretty suspicious.”
“It’s just like the Yosuke Kubozuka incident.”

Yosuke Kubozuka is a musician and actor who fell from the ninth floor of a building in 2004 and miraculously survived. He says he has no memory of the incident and no idea why he would have fallen, adding that he never had suicidal thoughts and did not use drugs. The official explanation is that he slipped while trying to take down some decorations, but there is still uncertainty about what really happened.

Kubozuka’s case reminds us that anything is possible, but it still seems like something was seriously up with this student’s snack. So, if you want to enjoy some cookies, only buy them from a trusted store or better yet, bake your own cookies using ingredients you’ve purchased from the supermarket. It’s fun and way better than putting your life in the hands of some shady online vendor.

Source: Yomiuri Online,  Twitter/@tsuisoku777
Featured image: Pakutaso
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