stay within the law
イタチごっこの様相を呈している脱法ドラッグ（unregulated herbal mixtures）の取り締まりですが、業者はあの手この手を駆使した文言で、違法とはならないようにしているようです。take great pains to stay within the law...。見事に彼らの「努力」を表しています。しかしながら、そんな努力がこの国をどんどんおかしな方向へと誘っていることもまた事実です。（EnDough）
Quasi-legal herbs get more scrutiny
By MIZUHO AOKI
Staff writer
As concerns mount over the growing use of quasi-legal herbs as narcotics, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has started monitoring Internet sales of the herbal mixture — but to limited effect as vendors take great pains to stay within the law.
The health ministry began the monitoring in June and has found a few dozen websites selling the herbs with phrases that may violate the law, official Shigeki Iso told The Japan Times on Tuesday.
Called "dappo herb," such herbal mixtures are laced with unregulated substances whose chemical components differ only slightly from those found in illegal cannabis or stimulants.
A few sites with problematic descriptive phraseology were confirmed to be violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, Iso said.
Sellers of the unregulated herbal mixtures are not allowed to suggest what kind of effects their products will have if ingested, but it is believed users in many cases buy them to smoke to obtain a euphoric high.
If the sellers merely describe their products as "incense" or "aroma" with no mention of possible ingestive effects, the ministry can't restrict their sales, Iso said.
The ministry has asked municipalities where sellers are operating to tell the vendors to delete any mention of their products' ingestive effects from their sites, he said, adding the ministry is currently scrutinizing the remaining websites.
How effective the new measure will be is questionable.
