The Government Takes a Stand Against Youth Drug Abuse... Expanding Drug Addiction Prevention Education Hours

Announcement on the Progress of Blocking Youth Access to Narcotics

As drug-related crimes among adolescents have surged recently, the government is strengthening student safety education to prevent drug addiction, including narcotics.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Education held the 4th Social Relations Ministers' Meeting at the government Sejong Complex and announced the "Youth Narcotics Access Blockage Promotion Status," which includes these measures.

According to the Ministry of Education, the proportion of teenagers and people in their twenties among all drug offenders increased 2.4 times in five years, from 15.8% in 2017 to 34.2% in 2022. In particular, the number of offenders in their teens surged by 304%.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education decided to enhance the effectiveness of prevention education. They plan to revise the official notice related to strengthening student safety education for drug addiction prevention, including narcotics, by expanding school education hours by August. The required hours for drug addiction prevention education within the "Drug and Cyber Addiction Prevention Education (10 sessions)" will likely be specified by grade level: 5 sessions for kindergarten and elementary school, 6 sessions for middle school, and 7 sessions for high school. However, considering that student safety education has already been established and implemented this year, the new measures will be applied starting from the 2024 academic year, with a recommendation to expand drug addiction prevention education within the current 10-session "Drug and Cyber Addiction Prevention Education" during the second semester.

Prevention education for out-of-school youth will also be strengthened at out-of-school youth support centers. Furthermore, education targets will be segmented into students, teachers, and parents to continuously develop and distribute content tailored to their perspectives. Experiential educational materials using new technologies such as virtual reality will be developed to enhance the effectiveness of prevention education. Specifically, these include experiences such as "My appearance 10 years after drug addiction" and "Adverse reaction experience from virtual narcotics administration."

Additionally, in July, an addiction rehabilitation center will be newly established in Daejeon, in addition to the existing centers in Seoul and Busan, with plans to expand to 17 centers nationwide by next year. Treatment and rehabilitation infrastructure will also be expanded by developing and introducing youth-tailored addiction rehabilitation programs through agreements with rehabilitation institutions in the United States.

Meanwhile, at the meeting, social-related ministries prepared the "1st Basic Plan for Preventing Solitary Deaths" to resolve social isolation and create a tightly connected society. They also established and announced the "Plan to Resolve Waiting Lists for Elementary After-School Care and Operation Direction for Increased 'Neulbom' Schools in the Second Semester" to stably operate elementary after-school and care programs.

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