Nearly 500 Teenage Drug Offenders... Easier Access Through Online Sales

#The Incheon District Court sentenced Mr. A, who was indicted last September for violating the Narcotics Control Act (psychotropic substances, marijuana), to 8 months in prison with a 2-year probation. Mr. A, who was 18 years old at the time of drug use, obtained drugs in early February last year through a dealer he met online. He bought one pill of so-called 'Ecstasy' (MDMA) from the dealer for 120,000 KRW and took it, and in mid-February, he also purchased and used MDMA again.

As online sales have made access to drugs easier, the number of juvenile drug offenders, who should be protected from harmful substances, is rapidly increasing. The number of drug offenders under 19 years old caught has steadily increased over the past five years, approaching 500 last year.

According to the '2022 Narcotics Crime White Paper' by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 17th, 481 drug offenders under 19 years old were caught last year. This accounts for 2.6% of the total 18,395 drug offenders caught that year. The number of teenage drug offenders last year was the highest recorded in the past five years. The proportion is also increasing. The number of drug offenders under 19 caught was 143 (1.1%) in 2018, 239 (1.5%) in 2019, 313 (1.7%) in 2020, and 450 (2.8%) in 2021.

This is analyzed to be because easier access to drugs through websites, SNS, and other platforms has led many curious teenagers to try drugs. It has become an environment where drugs can be easily obtained with just a few clicks on a mobile phone and anonymous communication. Professor Yoon Heung-hee of Hansung University’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Studies said, "Due to COVID-19, with no outdoor activities, cases of accessing drugs by searching slang terms on the internet have increased," adding, "Exposure through the media or curiosity about drug crime news involving celebrities also has a significant influence."

Because narcotics are highly addictive, trying them out of curiosity can lead to situations that are difficult to escape from, making it dangerous. Last year, there were 6,436 repeat offenders of narcotics across all age groups, with a recidivism rate of 35.0%. Among them, 4,924 (76.5%) had prior offenses involving the same type of narcotics, 422 (8.6%) had prior offenses involving different types of narcotics, and 1,090 (22.1%) had multiple offense histories. This shows a tendency for those who fall into one type of drug to try others. In fact, Mr. B, who was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison by the Gwangju District Court last November for violating the Narcotics Control Act (psychotropic substances, marijuana), had a prior record of a second imprisonment for the same type of crime. Before adulthood, Mr. B had also received several juvenile protection orders for violating the Act on the Control of Harmful Chemical Substances (inhalation of hallucinogens).

Experts warn that drugs approached out of curiosity by teenagers can completely change their entire lives. Lim Sang-hyun, director of the Darc Center in Gyeonggi Province, said, "Using drugs is equivalent to killing oneself," adding, "Death does not only mean ending life but also becoming unable to perform any daily activities." He emphasized, "You should not even be curious about drugs."

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