Crime & Courts

Yamanashi Gakuin University Wrestler Seriously Injured After Eating Alleged Cannabis Cookies; No Illegal Substances Found by Police

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Yamanashi Prefectural Police

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:40 JST, July 6, 2025

A Yamanashi Gakuin University wrestler in May ate cookies believed to contain a cannabis ingredient and jumped from the second floor of a dormitory in Kofu, suffering serious injuries including a fractured skull, according to the university and other sources.

The university has banned the injured athlete, who is in his teens, and three other wrestlers who purchased the cookies from participating in official competitions for a certain period of time.

According to the university and investigative officials, the three wrestlers purchased the cookies online. In early May, one of the buyers invited over the student who would become injured, and the two ate the cookies together. Roughly three hours after eating the cookies, the youth jumped from the dormitory of the university’s wrestling club. He tried to climb back to the same floor and jump again but was restrained by people in the area.

During questioning by the university, the student who purchased the cookies said they had become interested in the product “after seeing celebrities with it on social media.” The site selling the cookies claimed they contained a “cannabinoid,” an ingredient found in cannabis, describing it as an “euphoric ingredient” while simultaneously calling the product “legal.”

A Yamanashi prefectural police investigation detected no illegal substances in the cookies. Nevertheless, the narcotics control division of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry cautioned: “Even if the products are marketed as legal, consuming them sometimes causes people to lose consciousness and require emergency transportation. Ingesting them casually is dangerous.”

Yamanashi Gakuin’s wrestling team won the team title at last year’s All Japan University Wrestling Championship and fields athletes in both the World Championships and the Asian Championships. An Olympic medalist is counted among the school’s alumni.