"The Final Moment of the Golden Time to Return to a Drug-Free Nation"

Assemblyman Park Sang-gil's 5-Minute Free Speech at the 295th Plenary Session

Park Sang-gil, a member of the Gwangju Nam-gu Council, urged at the first plenary session of the 295th extraordinary meeting held on the 11th, "Our country is standing at the edge of the golden time to return to a drug-free nation," and emphasized, "We must focus not only on dealing with drug offenders but also on drug prevention and addiction treatment."

Park stated, "From January to February this year, the number of drug offenders in our country increased by 32.4% compared to the same period last year, and in Gwangju, it increased by 53% over the past five months," asserting, "Gwangju is not safe from drugs either."

He further emphasized, "Our country, which used to be a drug-free nation, has now become a place where drugs can be purchased within an hour for the price of a pizza."

In particular, he expressed strong concern about the rapidly spreading youth drug problem, noting, "The powerful opioid analgesic called 'Fentanyl,' known as a zombie drug, surged by 175% in 2022 compared to 2018," and added, "According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 10.4% of adolescents have experience using fentanyl patches."

Accordingly, for the sake of our future generations trapped in the drug snare, he proposed ▲ operating programs for drug addiction treatment at the Nam-gu Integrated Addiction Management Support Center ▲ attracting the establishment of a 'Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center' for the Gwangju-Jeonnam region to Nam-gu ▲ supporting budgets for training professional instructors for drug misuse prevention education and developing programs for adolescents.

Finally, Councilor Park urged, "Since drug addiction is a disease, quitting drugs should also be approached from a treatment perspective," and added, "The strength to stop drugs and recover must come from society."

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