5

Sweden Is Almost 100 Percent Anti-Drug

You'd think that a nation constantly on the brink of cabin fever whose skies occasionally light up like a Led Zeppelin laser show would be into mind-altering substances. But for some reason, when it comes to drugs, Sweden doesn't need to take anything to be paranoid as hell.

Chad Blakley, lightsoverlapland.comEven your nature looks like it's on LSD! Get it together, Sweden.

Despite having the reputation as perhaps the most progressive and egalitarian nation on the planet (and being a stoner's throw away from Amsterdam), the Swedish stigma toward recreational drugs is unrivaled in the West. In a recent poll, more than 90 percent of Swedes were found to be in favor of keeping all drugs illegal. And yes, that includes pot -- the smoking of which can even land you in jail long after the effects have worn off. Drug use is so stigmatized that simply admitting to it invites dirty looks and disgust from most Swedes, and there's sadly very little you can offer them to chill out.

Weirdly for a country that's so big on schooling, Sweden's drug paranoia seems to come from a lack of education. Overall, it lags decades behind on drug research and policy. As a result, their outdated war on drugs has seen drug usage skyrocket and drug deaths per capita spiking to four times as high as the European average. At this rate, it'll be 2420 before Sweden is finally 420-friendly.

Related: 5 Shocking Laws Modern Countries Had Until A Few Years Ago

4

The UK Is Terrified Of Porn

The British are notorious sticklers for the rules. For everything, there is a proper way to do it -- how to address the queen, how to add cream to scones, how to nut a chav in the bollocks, and so forth. And now there's also a right way and a wrong way to watch porn, thanks to the Digital Economy Bill of 2017.

Aka the "Boner-killer Decree of 2017."

3

In Japan, Racism Is Basically Legal

In 2015, a record 15 million people visited Japan to see what kind of culture could birth both samurai and Hello Kitty. That's impressive, especially for a place that openly hates foreigners.

Despite having a great tourist industry and a national birth rate lower than a panda enclosure, Japan has the kind of anti-immigration monoculture policies that would make any Western fascist orange with envy. Tattoos are associated with criminals, so places like hot springs often have a policy banning people with ink. However, that also includes foreigners with dumb Simpsons tattoos -- or worse, those who have them for religious reasons.

Ybelieb"Hit the bricks, tourist."

2

In Italy, Fascist Mobs Are Still In Vogue

While other former Axis powers have managed to leave their fascist pasts mostly behind them (looking at you, Japan), it seems that Italy wants to start rallying like it's 1939 again. Acquiescing to a cherished racist tradition that dates back to Mussolini's Blackshirts, Italy officially legalized vigilante organizations in 2009. Today, Italian mobs roam the streets of most big cities, carefully and legally stalking immigrants and Roma, harassing and even attacking them for the slightest thing. As a result, in the five years after the law was passed, hate crimes against non-ethnic Italians skyrocketed.

Despite the rise in anti-immigration hate crimes, the government sees no problem with these roaming gangs of angry xenophobes, possibly for fear they'll lose the coveted truncheon-wielding voter bloc. In fact, the government seems keen on avoiding any comparison of their new vigilante groups with the WWII ones, saying the thought of Blackshirts returning "disgusts" them. On an unrelated note, they would really like it if everyone could overlook the Italian National Guard, one of the biggest sanctioned vigilante groups in Italy, with their snazzy uniform of "khaki shirts, black ties and black armbands bearing a red symbol."

Lettera 43Some looks never go out of style.

1

In Russia, First-Time Domestic Abusers Get A Pass

In 1963, Russia sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Terror, extreme pressure, dying of asphyxiation ... Tereshkova escaped all those things by fleeing Russian soil. But it isn't the '60s anymore -- Russian women no longer go to space, and it's also no longer illegal to beat them or their kids.

In 2018, the Russian government finally responded to the country's long-running domestic violence problem, one that on average kills a woman every 40 minutes (around 14,000 per year). Unfortunately, that response was to give abusive husbands a Get Out of Jail Free Card. According to an amended law, as long as an abused woman or child isn't battered to point of hospitalization (the threshold for abuse only starts at broken bones), a first-time offender will not face any jail time. For second-time offenders, the punishment is a fine as low as 5 rubles (80 cents American), meaning a man could beat his wife within an inch of consciousness twice and only have to pay whatever loose change he fishes out of the couch cushions.

HasbroIn Russia, it's normally the woman getting kicked.

Under the new "slapping law," if a man refuses to pay the fine, the court will take it from his joint account, meaning that women often have to pay for their own beatings. Even women who fled to shelters were tracked down by the courts in order to force them to pay their abusive husbands' fines. Suddenly, enlisting as a mail-order bride to be sold off to some awkward schlub from Vermont seems like a logical and reasonable choice.

Endorsed by Putin, the reforms were spearheaded by ultra-conservatives and the Orthodox Church to prevent families from breaking up over something as silly as "a slap." And it's definitely working! Despite domestic violence shooting through the roof, actual legal claims have gone down drastically, because now only about one in ten cases even gets reported. It's much more economical for everyone involved.

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