By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Korea’s time-honored claim as a ``drug-free’’ country is no longer true as the number of drug offenders passed 10,000 last year on growing demand from locals and foreign nationals here. Diverse and hidden distribution channels, ubiquitous Internet access and a growing influx of foreign laborers from states lenient on drug consumption have combined to boost illegal drug use. However, police are cutting back on manpower and organizations handling drug-related crimes.
Besides the rising number of offenders, drugs are spreading to a wider range of people from delinquent youngsters with sufficient funds and gangsters to office workers, small vendors and even housewives.
The Busan Police Agency recently rounded up nine merchants at a traditional market in the nation’s largest port city. They were poor merchants making ends meet by running food carts at the market. During questioning, they confessed they took drugs ``out of curiosity and to relieve stress.’’
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office dealt with a total of 10,649 cases of illegal drug consumption in 2007, up 38 percent from a year earlier. Under international standards, a country with less than 10,000 drug offenders a year is seen as being a ``drug-free’’ country.
Of them, those in their 40s accounted for 37 percent, up 11 percent from 2001. Those aged over 50 also showed a notable increase to 11 percent in 2007.
A growing number of white-collar workers especially at financial and services firms are adding their names to the list of drug users.
Police said the number of white-color workers arrested on charges of drug consumption was 850 last year. The number of housewives using drugs is also showing rapid growth, they said.
``It’s getting easier for Koreans to buy drugs with more sophisticated distribution channels through the Internet and door-to-door delivery. They have allowed both elderly people and those once unfamiliar with illegal substances to get drugs more easily, an investigator said.
Lax immigration inspection is also blamed for the steep gains in drug trafficking among foreign nationals here. The government has eased immigration inspection rules for foreign visitors. For instance, the Ministry of Justice removed medical checks for marijuana for E-2 visa applicants in April as part of efforts to ``streamline’’ the visa process.
According to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, a total of 298 foreigners from 28 countries were indicted on charges of drug consumption last year, up 156 percent from the previous year’s 116 from 19 states. During the first half of this year, it has already caught more than 170 foreign drug users.
``Chinese and Thai drug offenders are rising rapidly,’’ a prosecutor said. The Chinese accounted for 20 percent of those arrested in 2007, followed by Thais at 17.4 percent and Americans with 15 percent.
``Those from China, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, who work at factories in Gyeonggi Province, are emerging as major drug consumers,’’ an official from Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said. ``They also operate a complex web of distribution channels, through which illegal substances are handed over to foreign colleagues and locals.’’
Types of drugs used is also becoming more diverse, with new drugs such as `Yaba,’ a tablet containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine, being traded, police said. They believe this new type of drug is being circulated at nightclubs.
Despite growing concerns about the increase in drug use, authorities appear to be playing down the dangers associated with this. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency disbanded seven of nine drug squads in the city in July.
Several crime-prone spots in Seoul, including districts around Hongik University in northwestern Seoul and Itaewon have been exposed to greater risks of crime caused by drug addiction in the aftermath of the closure of drug investigation teams at Mapo and Yongsan police stations, which covered the two locations.
``The reduction of drug crackdown squads was inevitable to cope with other crimes,’’ a police officer said.
Min Tae-yoo, a senior prosecutor charged with drug investigation at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, said ``Most drug specialists will target ports and airports across the country to block drug smuggling routes. Still, it’s hard to root out major drug suppliers based in China due to a lack of cooperation from the Chinese authorities.’’