Enson Inoue has been out on bail since November 14th after spending nearly a month in Japanese prison for marijuana possession.
After his release, Inoue spoke of being a changed man and felt that it gave him a new perspective on life. For Inoue, the original twenty-six days in prison could be a cake walk compared to what he may be facing.
The 41-year-old PRIDE and Shooto veteran’s marijuana possession trial began on December 17th. During questioning, Inoue testified he has been using marijuana two or three times a week for about two or three years.
ADCC is reporting:
At the Tokyo District Court, Inoue admitted to the facts presented in the indictment. The prosecutor stated, “Even though as a kakutouka he was in a position to teach his disciple he was using an illegal drug,” he then presented a recommended sentence of 10 years in prison. The defense meanwhile asked for a lenient sentence at the conclusion of the trial.
The Japanese authorities evidently take marijuana use very seriously as evidenced by the fact a prosecutor would recommend a ten year* sentence for simple marijuana possession.
If Inoue even gets a quarter of the sentence that the prosecutor is asking, it would seem incredibly harsh. The ruling will be announced on December 26th.
*If you notice in the ADCC article it says the prosecutor is recommending ten years. However, if you look at the title it says ten months, so there is a discrepancy in the report.
Wow, either way 10 months or 10 years is pretty harsh for posession. Anyone know how much he was caught with?
The Japanese MMA fans, promoters and regulators (if they have any) are all too happy to watch a bunch of guys who are obviously on steroids beat the crap out of each other, but when it comes to those fighters using banned drugs to manage their pain outside of the ring it’s unacceptable.
In an era where more people die from legal prescription drugs than illicit ones we should probably be more open to traditional remedies. Given the trend of fighters and opiate painkiller addictions we should probably also think of relaxing the list of prohibited substances for fighters to no longer include marijuana use for chronic pain. Who seriously thinks it is a performance enhancer??
If I remember corrrectly it was like a couple of grams he was caught with…not much at all, not even enough for resale.