The 2022 Crime White Paper released in April by the Institute of Justice, a research arm of the Ministry of Justice, sheds light on the unique nature of drug crimes in Korea.

In 2021, 16,153 people were arrested in Korea for drug crimes and those who were caught for possessing, using, selling or distributing psychostimulants accounted for the lion’s share at 10,631, followed by abusers of cannabis (3,777) and opioids (1,745).

In Korea, drugs are classified into three categories: opioids, psychostimulants and cannabis.

People in their twenties account for 31.4 percent of the offenders, becoming the age group with the highest rate of drug crimes.

Data also shows that people in their 60s or older dominate the category of opioid-related crimes at 56.7 percent, followed by teens who account for 11.2 percent. In all other age groups, psychostimulant-related offenses topped the list with double-digit rates.

There is a distinct difference between elderly and teen offenders in their motives and uses of opioids.

Many of the senior citizens who were arrested did not know what they did is illegal.

“Most of the opioids those elderly people consume are opium poppies,” Kim Hee-jun, a partner lawyer at LKB & Partners based in Seoul’s southern district of Seocho, told The Korea Times. “They were caught cultivating opium poppies to use them as medicine for chronic pains.”

People living in rural areas or remote islands have limited access to medical services and some of them cultivate opium poppies in their backyards to treat chronic pains, according to Kim.

Those senior citizens, mostly farmers, do not know that cultivating or using opium poppies are illegal.

Around this time every year, the Coast Guard cracks down on farmers who illegally cultivate opium poppies in their backyards. The annual crackdown takes place from mid-April to late July, since those plants are grown and harvested during that time period. If caught, offenders are fined 50 million ($37,000) or face up to a five-year prison term.

The stories of teenage offenders are different.

They know that trafficking of controlled substances without doctors’ prescriptions is illegal. Compared to offenders in other age groups who were arrested for using or distributing mostly psychostimulants, nearly half of teens were arrested for abusing opioids.

The government views the juvenile drug offenses as being very serious. Recently, health authorities unveiled a range of measures aimed at curtailing medical drug overdoses among teens. There are several reasons that prompted law enforcement officials to focus on juvenile drug offenses, although people in their twenties top the drug offense cases.

Juvenile drug offenses have been growing the fastest in recent past years. In 2017, the number of teenage drug offenders stood at 119. But the figure surged four times in 2022 to 481.

Cho Seok-yeon, a professor at Shinhan University, said policy measures are focused on teenage offenders, maybe because the government wants to “remove the root cause of the problem.”

“If people are educated since childhood about the harm and dangers of drug overdose, they will be discouraged from using or overdosing controlled substances,” he said.

On top of the “early warning system” to curtail drug crimes, there seems to be another reason that pushed the government to prioritise drug offenses committed by teens.

The portfolio of drugs teenagers are consuming could be one reason. Among teens, the consumption of highly-potent opioids, such as synthetic opioid fentanyl, is increasing. Nearly half of juvenile offenders in 2021 were arrested for possessing, using or trafficking opioids.

Fentanyl and heroin are the leading contributors to opioid overdose deaths in the United States.

If proper measures are not taken to curtail opioid abuse among teenagers, some experts say things will go out of control like the opioid crisis America is currently going through.

The government’s policy targets doctor shopping and the excessive prescription of medical drugs to teenage patients.

On May 10, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced a plan to raid pill mills. Its press release said the authorities would conduct investigations for two weeks until May 26, on 60 clinics believed to have excessively prescribed medical drugs to teenagers.

The ministry is scrutinising the overprescribing of four prescription drugs. The four are phentermine, which is used to suppress appetite; fentanyl patches; zolpidem; and medicine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

All of the drugs have the high risks of addiction and dependence along with serious side effects.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and used as a pain medicine for terminally-ill patients, such as cancer patients. It is a major contributor to fatal overdoses in the United States.

Recently, phentermine has emerged as a policy headache for health authorities after its abuse, overdose and side effects have been extensively reported by media outlets in recent years.

The appetite suppressant is prescribed to obese patients whose body mass index (MBI) is 30 or higher, or those who have underlying medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes and their BMI is 27 or higher. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety advises patients to not take the pills more than four weeks.

In 2021, over 240 million phentermine pills were prescribed to 1.28 million of patients. Rep. Han Jeoung-ae of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) voiced concerns about the excessive prescriptions of the pills. Citing data from the drug ministry, she said one patient was prescribed more than 9,000 pills after visiting physicians 18 times. The DPK lawmaker unveiled a list of 20 clinics that were believed to have overprescribed the pills, urging the health authorities to take appropriate measures to stop overprescribing phentermine.

Jeffrey A. Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and founder of Velley Surgical Clinics Ltd in Arizona, said phentermine overdose will result in several health problems.

“Phentermine is a stimulant, like amphetamine, and in rare cases, can cause a fatal overdose,” he said in an email interview with The Korea Times. “Fatal overdoses are not common. Overdoses usually are associated with a rapid heart rate, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, dangerously high blood pressure that may even cause nosebleeds, and even hallucinations.”

He added that the high blood pressure and heart rhythm disturbances can cause a stroke or heart attack and death.

Singer is cautious about the possible fallout of the Korean government’s restrictions on prescription drugs, noting that it could trigger patients to seek illicit drugs in the black market.

“If policymakers in the Republic of Korea severely restrict phentermine prescribing, it will undoubtedly have the same effect that severely restricting pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) had in the US Pseudoephedrine was commonly used to make methamphetamine in clandestine labs throughout the country,” he said.

He was referring to the negative fallout of the US Congress’ “Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act in 2005.” The enactment of the law prompted people to find much more efficient ways to make methamphetamine, which resulted in methamphetamine-related overdose deaths which are at record high levels, according to Singer.

“Prohibition never works to stop people from getting and using a substance when there is a population that wants to use it,” he said. “It just fuels a black market. And when a person obtains a drug in a black market, they cannot be sure of its dose, if it is pure or if it is counterfeit. In the US, much of the methamphetamine sold on the black market is laced with fentanyl or counterfeit and that is increasing methamphetamine-related deaths.”

This reporter contacted the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety multiple times to get their comments on the addressed problems, but none of the officials were available for comment.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/05/113_351267.html

Category: Korea