The Yonhap reports that the prosecution has released statistics on drug use in Korea and that the number of known drug users in Korea has passed the 10,000 mark, which according to the Yonhap, threatens Korea’s status as a “drug clean country.”
According to the prosecution, the number of known drug users in 2007 is 10,649, which is a 38% increase from the 2006 figure of 7,711. Out of that 8,521 were philopon users and 1,170 were marijuana users representing a 42 and 40 percent increase respectively. A prosecution official stated that “for the past four years the number of drug users was less than 7,000 enabling Korea to be ‘clean of drugs’. But with the number of users reaching the 10,000 mark, special measures need to be taken.”
Of course any report on drug use isn’t complete without the non-Korean element;
299 foreigners were arrested, and compared with 116 arrested in 2006, this represented a 150% increase. Thais and Chinese used philopon while those from English speaking countries such as the US, Canada, UK, and Australia used marijuana.
Analysis by the prosecution showed that drugs sold here were mostly smuggled from overseas, and that “new” drugs such as ecstasy and ketamin from China, US, Canada, and Germany is being sold through nightclubs in Itaewon and Kangnam. It also notes that the ”new” drugs are gaining widespread popularity among Korean youths.
There have been cases of people being arrested with more than 1kg(2.2lb) of drugs in their possession, and this shows that international drug organizations are increasingly using Korea as a transit point for laundering their drugs. With philopon becoming the main drug product of SE Asia resulting in a philopon surplus, the prosecution believes there will be an increase in philopon smuggling to Korea since it fetches a high price here.
There were 135 cases of people caught trying to smuggle drugs through international packages, which represented a 24% increase from the 2005 figure of 109. This shows that there is an increase in trading small amounts via the Internet and mail and that the drug consumer class is diversifying.
Here’s the link to the article.
23 Comments
“Big wad of money nuttin less than a twenty
Yo you want a five-oh the dope man gots plenty
To be a dope man boy you must qualify
Don’t get high off your own supply”
–Dopeman by NWA
First!
I thought the Philopon, AKA methamphetamine here was from North Korea. Maybe it isn’t politically correct to point that out. Methamphetamine has long been the drug of choice among the locals here.
Soju is losing it’s status as the number one way to slowly kill Koreans?!
Next we’ll find out that there are Koreans who sleep with the fan on and windows closed!
If they’re going to release a report in English can they please use English? Who the hell is going to know what “philopon” is? (It’s the Korean version of the Japanese trademark name Hiropon).
In Japan, where it is commonly smoked, they call it “shabu.” The smokable form of speed is known in English as “ice.”
Many yakuza in Japan are Zainichi or Korean-Japanese and they certainly have their hands in the shabu trade there. Perhaps there are links with North Korea but I doubt any meth or ice in South Korea comes from Jucheland.
Hard to believe there’s more meth than marijuana here, I thought it was always the inverse.
Methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1893 by chemist Nagayoshi Nagai. In 1919, crystallized methamphetamine was synthesized by Akira Ogata. Blame it on Japan.
to #5:
as #2 already referenced, it is also my experience that koreans in prison for drug-related offences are usually not in there for mary jane, but instead are there for philopon (or meth or ice or whatever the hell it’s variously called)
It is easy to see why meth is bigger here, actually. I’m sure people think it’ll help them get more studying done, get more work done, and lose weight. I’ll bet most Korean meth users aren’t using it as a recreational drug.
“Soju is losing it’s status as the number one way to slowly kill Koreans?!”
I classify soju as a soft drug of the hallucinogen class.
This country would be a lot more interesting if they criminalized soju and legalized pot. The later was actually legal here until 1976, when the dictator Park Chung Hee decided that it interefered with worker productivity.
There is a reason why Japanese pop culture rules so hard, and it ain’t because they’re getting bombed on industrial demon fire every night.
re: #7 “I’ll bet most Korean meth users aren’t using it as a recreational drug.”
actually, in my experience, most of those imprisoned for meth offences ARE using it recreationally.
#9 I stand corrected.
#10: i didn’t mean for it to sound as harsh or omniscient as it may have come across.
i was trying to imply, in a roundabout way, that there are a lot more koreans who like to enjoy their altered states in more ways than just drowning themselves in soju madness.
it’s just that the mainstream press, delusional nationalists, and uneducated gyopos will deny that the locals here can be just as narcotically-inclined as some of us foreign devils are…
In other words, the foreign peril is responsible for ~ 2.9% of the drug problem - assuming that arrest statistics more or less accurately mirror the total problem and that arrests rates for foreigners and locals are about the same. Which latter, I imagine, is false - more foreigners likely are arrested. In any event, media hysteria notwithstanding, Korea’s drug problem is 97.1% its very own, with its very own poster boy, Park Chunghees’s son. Odd, how the comparative perspective disappears from Korean media reports when it’s “inconvenient” - but then that’s “inevitable” isn’t it?
10000 drug addicts? Seems a bit low. I’m sure there are at least that many drug users in Seoul alone, not that I have first-hand knowledge of drug use in Korea. I guess it’s like the number of reported rapes and sexual assaults: you have to multiply it by at least 10 to come close to the real numbers.
#6 it is also my experience that koreans in prison for drug-related offences are usually not in there for mary jane, but instead are there for philopon
Are you saying you’ve experienced the slammer yourself? Sounds like Korea’s prisons aren’t that bad afterall.
re #14:
“Are you saying you’ve experienced the slammer yourself?”
affirmative
“Sounds like Korea’s prisons aren’t that bad afterall.”
i wouldn’t say that
#15
In your experience, how did you see drugs smuggled in? I would have thought it would be quite difficult in Korea to smuggle drugs into a prison, and especially to the extent where the smuggling would become regular and problematic. I visited a friend of mine who was jailed (ironically for smuggling marijuana), and I couldn’t have smuggled in a peanut. I was not allowed to buy him food, and our conversation was under tight control - we spoke through a closed window and he was accompanied by a prison guard. Granted, smuggling drugs to him may have been made more difficult due to the nature of the perpetrator’s offense.
hold on, there, a sec, boshintang, i never said i smuggled anything INTO prison, nor have i witnessed anything of the like being smuggled in.
all i ever meant to say was that most korean prisoners i know who are in korean prisons for drug-related offences are not there for smuggling anything nor are they there for marijuana-related offences. instead, most of them are there for taking pleasure in doing the drugs themselves–and the drug of choice was philophon, ice, meth, whatever you want to call it. of course, this is just my experience.
i can’t find anywhere above where i wrote about my, or having seen anybody else’s, smuggling any drugs into a prison.
and your description of how your visits to your friend are exactly the same as my experiences with prison visits. nobody in prison in this country for a drug-related charge is even allowed to have their family members or friends buy or bring them anything (such as socks, books, snacks, glasses, etc.) from outside the walls, although those prisoners behind bars for any OTHER offences are allowed to have approved personal items brought to them.
i agree that smuggling even so much as a peanut is damned near impossible. i’m sure there are ways to do it, though…
#17
Got it. I interpreted your comment differently about personal experience, I see you meant Koreans are in prison because of an offense relating to marijuana or meth, and your experience is related to people you know, not your experience in jail itself (although you say you’ve been there).
But anyway you’re right, there would be a way to smuggle drugs into Korean prisons, probably through prison guards themselves as it seems to be done in the US, but the prison guard in Korea would be risking more than a poke in the eye.
10,000 known cases
divided by 40,000,000 inhabitants
0.025 percent of the population
I would designate that as a fairly clean society
However, despite a relatively low number of foreigners in Korea we make up a larger ratio of the drug problem (nearly 3 percent) than we do the entire population (less than 1 percent)
The white envelope of persuasion paper still lets people look the other way.
#19,
3% of arrests does not equate 3% of the problem. I could well mean that the police is using racial profiling.
Carr quotes stats showing that rates of drug arrests are the same for locals and foreigners:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....ment-83976
#21
just pointing out some math
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[...] with the full 2007 statistics available I can more accurately compare foreigner drug use this past year compared to Korean drug use. Here [...]
[...] The rate of illegal drug use rises in Korea. Surprisingly, it’s not completely the foreigners fault, although you wouldn’t be able to tell by the tone of the article. My Mcdonalds napkin math tells me that although foreigners are a VERY small part of the problem, our rate of usage is still higher than our presence in the country. Foreigners make up 1 percent of the population, yet contribute to 3 percent of the drug arrests. Racial profiling? Maybe. [...]