ILLEGAL DRUGS IN KOREA

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Yesterday was the United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In Korea, drugs used to be monopolized by a handful of people, but now illegal drugs have penetrated deep into our society, producing more than 10,000 drug-related offenders on an annual basis. Now, statistics show that the use of traditional narcotics like methamphetamine has declined in recent days, while the number of prescription drug addicts has spiked. Here are the details

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​March 1988, a methamphetamine user held a person hostage at a hotel in downtown Busan. South Korea has been plagued by crimes associated with illegal drugs since the late 1980s. As tougher crackdowns on narcotics blocked methamphetamine export to Japan, dealers began selling the potent stimulant domestically. Roughly three decades later, drug trafficking inside the nation has grown exponentially. Seized narcotics that used to amount to only tens of kilograms capped 400 kilograms last year and drug-related offenders exceeded 10,000 people.

[Soundbite] (DRUG ADDICT (STAND-IN)) : "People use a lot of ecstasy in nightclubs. Many empty syringes are found in the rooms. I think many people secretly use drugs."

The bigger problem now is prescription drugs. Sleeping aids, weight loss pills, and other psychotropic drugs can cause severe dependency and symptoms akin to narcotic use when taken in large amounts. In fact, statistics on drug addict counseling showed, while the use of methamphetamine and other traditional narcotics declined, prescription drug addiction cases have increased.

[Soundbite] (PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICT(STAND-IN)) : "The more serious problem is sleeping pills, because it's easy to get prescriptions. I can get a month's worth of pills and take them all at once because I can't help it. They can't punish me for taking prescription drugs."

As narcotics become readily available through online services like social media sites, the average age of drug abusers is getting lower.