Word: scrip
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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...have a prescription, written by one of the kindly docs employed by the offshore pharmacies. They asked you a few questions when you logged on, and dashed off a cyber "scrip" on the spot. Does that make your case any stronger, if, say, a customs agent opens your package of opiates en route from Mexico? Maybe, says Palumbo, and maybe not. "The Controlled Substance Act in the U.S. says a prescription must be written for a legitimate medical purpose, but the feds generally don't go after patients ordering drugs for themselves." Of course, he adds, if you're caught...
...malaise. Joblessness, bankruptcy, crime and suicide, once rare in Japan, are now just average headlines. In the recession-ravaged hot-springs resort town of Yufuin, citizens are hedging their futures by resorting to barter trade. Taxi rides, sake and even hospital bills can be paid for with a local scrip called the yufu. What backs it? Locals do odd jobs in return for yufu. "Our wealth is slipping away," moans Eisuke Sakakibara, a former Vice Minister in the once all-powerful Ministry of Finance...
...Yufuin you can get a taxi ride, buy a bottle of sake, eat lunch, book a train ticket and supplement your wardrobe using a self-generated scrip the townspeople call yufu. "The yen isn't very stable anyway, is it?" says Ryuji Urata, a 38-year-old liquor-store owner who came up with the scheme two years ago. "So instead of being subject to what the national government does, we have our own strong currency...
...Still, the scrip has value because villagers agree that it does. The system is a form of barter. Residents belong to a club with more than 100 members. Each offers a service provided in exchange for yufu. One woman teaches people how to wear kimonos. An unemployed man gives haircuts. Several townsfolk sell rides in their cars. "In Japan, if you do this kind of favor for someone, people won't accept money," says Urata. "But they'll accept yufu...