Comments on: Enlightening Foreigners, One Pothead English Teacher at a Time

By: jag

jag — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:50:46 +0000

Libertarianism.The ONLY legitimate ism.

By: Acropolis7

Acropolis7 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:03:10 +0000

What is South Korea going to do when the unite with their “Ice” smoking, Opium addicted Northern brethren?

By: exexpatPete

exexpatPete — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:16:32 +0000

For crying out loud, how many E2s have to get jailed/deported before they learn their lesson? I would WALK OUT of a place if I saw drug activity going on when I was in Korea - and I smoke weed all the time back here in Canada, so it’s not like I have a bias against the stuff.

Yes it’s illogical and unfairly administered, but Korea’s drug policy seems pretty relaxed compared to, say, Thailand or China, where you might pay the ultimate penalty. As far as I’ve seen they just bang you up in jail until you come up with a sufficiently large bribe and then they deport you with a big stamp that says “IDIOT SMOKED DRUGS IN KOREA - CANNOT RETURN FOR TWO YEARS AND ANY IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL READING THIS, TAKE NOTE”.

Let’s leave this discussion for Dave’s ESL and only revisit it if someone other than a teacher gets busted, eh?

By: Linkd

Linkd — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:31:12 +0000

Warm fuzzy tingles….

PS
All lurkers welcome! They don’t take up much space, and if they click on the occasional ad, they help pay for bandwidth.

By: yoosr

yoosr — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:18:12 +0000

Cmm, Robert Koehler … yes, the pix in my gravatar is indeed the Afghan girl. Her eyes in the National Geographic feature, 17 years ago, remain etched in my memory. Her eyes speak volumes of … It saddens me to see such eyes around, I am not surprised that her ageing process has accelerated way beyond someone of her age, elsewhere … I’ve been stopping by the Marmot’s Hole since 2003. I left Seoul in late 2003, and this has been my most enjoyable highlight of the day since - coming here to keep myself abreast of the city of ambiguities, paradoxes, ironies, comedies and tragedies. I have been lurking around silently for the most part of my reading pleasure here. Thank you for blogging

By: Benicio74

Benicio74 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:53:43 +0000

“so, is it illegal to merely have the chemicals in your body?”

Yes. It is the same as “possession” under Korean law.
However, the officer is required to have a warrant for your piss or blood. They count of foreigners not knowing that. I’m sure that if you refuse, they will just hold you until they get a warrant.
If you want to get more wacky, we can talk about the Korean company worker who smoked up in Amsterdam while on a business trip. He was arrested by the police in Korea because he blogged about his hash bar experience.
They are serious about nabbing drug takers here!

By: JohnT

JohnT — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:29:14 +0000

foreigners smokin dope in korea, koreans startin criminal gangs in america. that’s be a fair deal if ya ask me.

By: dogbert

dogbert — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:22:39 +0000

I wonder if the authorities kept a record of the people who attended their little informational session.

By: cmm

cmm — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:16:35 +0000

so, is it illegal to merely have the chemicals in your body?

By: Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog)

Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:06:14 +0000

They should have thrown a net over all those teachers who came and given ‘em a whiz quiz.