[2020 National Audit] "Appetite Suppressants Bought on Danggeun Market Used as Drug Substitutes"

Food and Drug Safety Ministry National Audit: Rep. Kim Seong-ju Points Out
Illegal Online Transactions Rampant via SNS and Secondhand Trading Apps
MFDS "Strengthening Monitoring and Management System for Drug Transactions"

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seong-ju of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee is showing 'Dietamin,' which he purchased himself, during the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety audit on the 13th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] "I tried buying appetite suppressants directly through a secondhand trading application. This is a prescription drug used as a substitute for methamphetamine among meth addicts, but I was able to purchase it without a doctor's prescription."

At the National Assembly audit of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety held on the 13th, Kim Sung-joo, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, showed the drug, saying he recently purchased Dietamin easily through the 'Danggeun Market' app. Originally, this is a psychotropic drug that should be purchased with a doctor's prescription, but on the internet, it is colloquially called a diet pill and is frequently traded between individuals.

In addition to this drug, illegal trading situations were identified where prescription drugs such as ovulation inducers or breast cancer treatments were sold through social networking services (SNS) with claims that side effects could be reduced when taken with steroids. Although the number of illegal drug sales advertisements detected online has been increasing year by year, according to Representative Kim, there are not many cases that actually lead to punishment.

You can find places to purchase pharmaceuticals with a simple search on a portal site. The photo is a screenshot of the search results.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Representative Kim's office, the number of detected illegal online drug sales advertisements increased from 22,443 cases in 2015 to 37,343 cases last year. This year, 16,816 cases were detected up to July. Recently, the number of detections of abortion-inducing drugs and steroids has increased significantly. Abortion-inducing drugs were detected 12 times in 2015, but 2,365 times last year. Steroids also increased more than tenfold from 468 cases to 4,975 cases during the same period. Illegal sales of erectile dysfunction treatments, stimulants, and skin treatments also remained frequent.

In particular, as transactions through private channels such as SNS and secondhand trading platforms have increased, crackdowns have become more difficult. Representative Kim said, "A market for trading drugs online has formed, and transactions are taking place without awareness of legality or risks," adding, "There is a serious situation where hypertension treatments that may increase the risk of skin cancer are being distributed for free without any guidance."

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has been disclosing related products after apprehending illegal distributors and sellers of anabolic steroids in April last year.

Number of Illegal Trade Detections Increased by 66% in 5 Years,
But Less Than 1% Lead to Investigation Requests or Punishment,
Secondhand Trading App Danggeun Market Recently Blocked Drug Transactions

Kim Jae-hyun, CEO of Danggeun Market, a secondhand trading app based on residential areas, appeared as a witness at the audit and acknowledged these issues, stating that they have recently made improvements. Currently, drug transactions are not possible. CEO Kim said, "From the early days of the service, we filtered drug transactions through reporting and sanction functions, but recently, as users increased and manpower was insufficient, it was inadequate," adding, "We have technically improved it to now block it at the source to prevent illegal drug transactions."

Even if illegal trading situations are found, follow-up actions by investigative agencies must support punishment, but the low number of investigation requests was also pointed out as a problem. Although tens of thousands of cases are detected every year, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety requested investigations for only 13 cases last year and 44 cases in 2018. This is less than 1% of the total detected cases. Last year and this year, 5,477 cases of illegal steroid sales advertisements were detected or blocked, but only 10 cases were sent to the prosecution during this period.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety explained that even if illegal trading situations are found, investigation requests are rare because the operator must be a domestic resident and identified through concrete evidence to request an investigation, making it difficult to lead to investigation or punishment. Lee Ui-kyung, head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, said, "We will thoroughly monitor secondhand drug trading and strengthen management and supervision by blocking access if problems arise," adding, "We will also improve conditions so that operators can manage autonomously by providing relevant laws and strengthening rights."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.