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Actress Erika Sawajiri tests negative after admitting drug use

  (Kyodo News)
Tokyo
Thu, November 21, 2019 Published on Nov. 21, 2019 Published on 2019-11-21T12:54:08+07:00

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Actress Erika Sawajiri tests negative after admitting drug use This photo taken on April 16, 2013 shows Japanese actress Sawajiri Erika arriving at South Korea's main international airport for a visit to promote her new movie. (Starnews/AFP/File)

A

ctress Erika Sawajiri, arrested for allegedly possessing the synthetic drug MDMA, has tested negative in a urine test for MDMA and other illegal drugs, police said Wednesday.

After she was arrested last week, the 33-year-old told investigators that she obtained MDMA from an acquaintance a few weeks ago at a nightclub and admitted to taking the drug, also called Ecstasy.

MDMA usually goes out of a person's system within two to three days after taking it, and Sawajiri took the test on a voluntary basis on Saturday, the day she was arrested, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The police are trying to trace how she obtained drugs by analyzing data in a confiscated mobile phone, among other steps.

Sawajiri was quoted as telling investigators, "I first used illegal drugs more than 10 years ago, and I also used marijuana, LSD, and cocaine," according to the police.

The police searched her home in Tokyo on Saturday morning when she returned after a night out at a club in the Shibuya shopping and nightlife district, and found 0.09 gram of powder containing MDMA.

She did not have any illegal drugs in her possession when she came home.

MDMA is a popular street drug especially among young people.

Sawajiri was cast to play the role of 16th-century Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga's wife in public broadcaster NHK's historical drama series "Kirin ga Kuru" in 2020.

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