Name: "Arrested for Weed in Japan" with Enson Inoue (from Joe Rogan Experience #316)
Uploaded: 2014-05-17T20:33:34.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video '"Arrested for Weed in Japan" with Enson Inoue (from Joe Rogan Experience #316)' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2014-05-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video '"Arrested for Weed in Japan" with Enson Inoue (from Joe Rogan Experience #316)' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2014-05-17. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan Experience
You took a long time off. You took like six years off and then came back again
in 2010 for one fight.
Well, yeah, I came back for that only because I got put in jail. I got put in
prison and, you know, it was funny because after I got out of prison, it was on
national TV, it was in all the newspapers, magazines.
Funny how I start fading out of the media, all of a sudden I get arrested. I'm
like a hot thing in the media again.
You know, it's like. That's a shocker. So that's why you fought the media, man.
But anyway, you know, when I got out, you know, when I would go to bars and
stuff, people would say, oh, some people would say like, oh, I see me on TV.
And I'm like, fuck. I'm thinking to myself, is that the one with me handcuffed
fucking police or was it an old fight? Yeah. I'm like, oh, God, I hated that.
You know, so I figured, you know, the only way to make it up to my fans, let
them know that I'm back.
You know, we get drug tested in Japan. We get marijuana is a big thing now in
Japan.
We get tested for marijuana. If you have any marijuana in your blood in Japan,
you're not going to be able to fight.
What did you get arrested for? Marijuana.
What happened? Well, I had 16 grams in my car.
I had like 20 joints. I had, we're going to have a little party in Roppongi and
it was on the way down.
And they do a lot of inspections just randomly. They walk around.
And in Japan, it's kind of unconstitutional where they don't need a reason to
search you.
They'll come right up to your car and say, I want to check in your car.
And it's like, I was stoned. And I had a, I had a joint. I mean, a, a roach
right on the dashboard.
And I was like, and you know, when you're still, and you think you're getting
sneaky with it, it's like so bad.
It's like, ah, what, what roach?
And I put it in my pocket and they're, they're following me the whole time.
Like it's in their pocket. And I'm like, so I put, put my phone in the pocket,
pull it behind my phone.
I said, nothing in my pocket. This is behind your phone.
So what, how, like, what is it like? Is it like being caught with cocaine or
heroin in America?
Yeah, it was like a drug's a drug in Japan. Yeah.
So it doesn't matter. We eat anything.
Yeah. So I, um, I was facing some bad time, you know, because, uh, I was a
famous figure and they wanted to make an example of me.
So, wow. What was the worst case scenario?
Uh, I think it was five years.
Oh, fuck.
Yeah. So I was facing that. Um, it all depended on what came up in my house and
my gym when they did the search the next day.
Wow. And what came up?
Nothing. Nothing came up.
So that saved you?
Yeah.
Wow.
I was kind of baffled.
I was like, shit, nothing came up. Someone stole my fucking weed. Yeah. So, you
know, nothing came up. So, um, it was then the, the interrogation came to
finding out where I got my stuff.
Oh, yeah. And, you know, so when, in Japan, if you throw everything to a
foreign person, they'll drop it. They won't want to go find someone in America.
I told them it was a student from Guam.
Oh.
And just, they asked me for a name and I said, Tony. I knew like three Tonys in
Guam. So keep it real, Tony. And we had like two days of questioning. I mean,
you're talking interrogation for like eight hours straight, just interrogation.
And late, like the third day, they said, so happened, caught me off guard, man.
And they asked me, what's Tony's last name? And this freaking ridiculous, the
first name that popped in my head was Montana.
And right when I said, so right when I said Montana, I was thinking, oh, fuck,
if these guys watch Scarface, man, I was thinking, I'm screwed, you know, I'm
screwed. Because they'll start the interrogation all over if I get caught in a
lie.
Right, right, right.
So he just, I saw him write it down in Japanese, Montana. And then he just jotted
it down. And I was like, fuck.
He didn't know Scarface? Does Scarface get translated into Japanese?
I know, I don't know.
It's not that popular?
I don't think it's that popular there, yeah.
That's fucking hilarious.
So Tony Montana gave me my marijuana, you know.
That story is worth the trip in.
How long was your, how long was the ordeal from getting arrested to getting
cleared?
28 days.
Oh, man.
Which isn't a big deal if you know it's going to be 28 days.
But you're sitting in there and you don't know what's going to happen to you.
And you don't know what's going on in the outside world because you're shut off.
And you're wondering if you're going to spend five years.
It's kind of, 28 days is a long, 28 days.
Wow.
So you went from there and you said, fuck it, I'm going to take on another
fight?
Well, I went in there and it was good for me, actually.
I mean, I always think back and think, okay, I should have done this.
I should have done this if I didn't put the roast in that.
And I keep thinking that and I catch myself and think, wait a minute.
This is probably one of the best things that happened to you.
Because the biggest thing that happened to me in that was I learned how
important my freedom was.
I mean, everyone takes it for granted every day, wake up, oh, what are you
going to do today?
And it's like, shit, I got nothing to do.
It's freaking overcast, a shitty day.
What am I going to do?
It's like, oh, damn, it's a shitty day, you know.
But, man, just the fact that you can choose to stay at home, you can choose to
eat McDonald's,
or you can choose to just hang out, or you can choose to be bored, you know.
Freedom.
That freedom is awesome.
So it was something that really made me realize how important freedom was.
Yeah, a lot of people take it for granted.
You know, dealing with a situation like that, especially over something like
weed,
where it's so nonsensical and crazy, they could take away your freedom for
fucking years.
Yeah, the thing about that is I served the time, went to the court.
I got three years probation where I couldn't leave Japan for three years.
I didn't even get to go to my grandmother's funeral.
And I figured, okay, I got to be good these three years, and I'm going to start
up again.
And then next thing I know, I got a letter from the immigration telling me that
I just lost my green card
because of infringement, and I got to leave Japan.
Whoa.
And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute.
I've been here for 20 years.
My whole life is here.
I bought a house there.
I got gyms here.
I can't leave Japan.
So I called them up, and they had this real generic answer.
Okay, if you're contesting it, you're going to start an investigation.
You have to come down to the immigration center, and blah, blah, blah.
I went down.
It was an eight-month investigation.
I mean, it was ridiculous.
Eight months.
I had to go down there numerous times and just, like, all day interrogations.
And it would start from the beginning, the name of your mom and dad, what do
they do?
I'm like, what the fuck does that have to do in anything, you know?
And I'm just going along with the role, and it's like the next week I go in for
another interrogation,
they start all over again, a whole new investigator.
I'm like, what the fuck's going on?
I just told the other guy, you know?
And it got to a point, it was so bad that I got so frustrated in there.
As much as I needed to be in Japan, I looked at the guy, I said, you know what?
I love Japan.
I made this place my home.
And if fucking Japan doesn't want me, I don't want to fucking be here.
I told him straight up like that.
And I was like, I said, oh, shit, I just screwed myself, man.
But I thought, you know, it got so frustrating.
I said, you know, I serve my time, man.
And I'm trying to do, I'm doing good things for Japan, you know?
And you guys are going to try and kick me out.
If you guys don't want me, you know what?
I don't want to fucking be here if they don't want me here, you know?
So, you know, the interrogation went on, and there was one guy that was a fan
of mine
when he was interrogating me.
And then he kind of did something illegal where he told me that between these
two red markers,
he said, look at those two papers, he said, and he flipped it open.
He said, this is all petitions coming in for you not to get kicked out of Japan.
And I saw the papers like this thick.
I was like, oh, shit, that's a lot.
He said, yeah, you got like 4,000 in there already.
And the petition in Japan isn't just names.
You got to leave your name, your phone number, your address, and everything,
you know?
So it's not a bullshit where you can just get people to sign their names.
Just write some fake email address.
Yeah, so they're writing this 4,000.
And every time we get an interrogation, I see that between those two red
markers,
it's getting thicker and thicker.
And I come to find at the end, it came out to be 9,000.
In eight months, 9,000 people sent in that they don't want me kicked out of
Japan.
And immigration is there to protect Japan from dangerous, so-called dangerous
foreigners.
When there are people that they're supposed to be protecting,
it's sending in 9,000 letters saying they don't want this guy kicked out.
So that was the overwhelming thing that kept you in there?
I could have been deborted, yeah.