Over the last year and the more recent four months especially, South Korea's drug scene has been rapidly gaining speed; not only are celebrities and public figures being investigated over illegal substance abuse, children are also being targeted as core victims by organized crime members smuggling methamphetamine. Numerous concerns have been raised regarding the sudden increase in drug trade and abuse of substances consumed or smuggled from abroad, or sold within the country as prescribed medication. The cases seem to suggest some flaws regarding the issue: some voice opinions that schools do not do enough to educate children on the topic, while others point out a loophole in the healthcare industry that enables the offenders. The underlying message, however, seems to be the rapid changes in technology and society that continue to outpace law enforcement and education systems. This phenomena, although advantageous for development, is also extremely dangerous if its side effects are left unaddressed.

Recently, an actor, a music producer, and a former president's grandson, among others, were indicted for drug abuse, and other celebrities were investigated over usage of marijuana abroad and driving under intoxication in South Korea. Although adult celebrities and even teenagers abusing drugs is not a new concept for Western media, for Korea, these cases are becoming too frequent compared to the past decade. The amount of drugs smuggled to Korea and seized by the police octupled over the last five years as of 2021 to 1,295.7 kg — the most recent and largest drug bust seizing 404 kg of methamphetamine smuggled from Mexico worth approximately 1.1 billion USD. We can expect these numbers to be larger in reality. The aforementioned producer allegedly purchased 20 g for 5,149 USD, while the per gram price of the total would be around 2,700 USD; this could infer a further tenfold dilution of meth by the drug dealers that may be circulating Korea today.

The number of teenagers alone who are hospitalized due to drug misuse has also octupled since 2013 to 481 cases in 2022. The most recent crime involved four suspects — arrested on April 7 just two days after the incidents were reported — giving out "concentration drinks" spiked with methamphetamine and ecstasy to students as part of a “giveaway tasting event” near hagwons. Their purpose was to later blackmail them and their parents, threatening to report them for drug abuse. One of the suspects, however, said they were hired online for a quick high-paying job, unaware of the full scale. In the context of other cases, this is becoming a recurring issue; Telegram and perhaps other encrypted messengers are now a common tool for drug trafficking while cryptocurrency enables the trade. But where do the drugs come from and just how easy is it to access them?

Using Russia as an example, this particular method of drug trading through Telegram is widespread and almost common knowledge, called simply "zakladka" or "klad" directly translating to "bookmark" or "treasure", respectively. After the buyers transfer Bitcoin or cash, the dealers message users in a chat room sending them locations and descriptions of where they hid the drugs. These messages are timed and deleted automatically after some time while the users have the option to message anonymously, ensuring a clean record — tracing these records becomes simply impossible due to the decentralized nature of crypto and encryption of Telegram. It is unknown if this exact method was adopted in Korea or was slightly altered; however, it is clear that its use spreads around the world. Korea itself found an 18-year-old who organized a drug cartel with a similar method in 2022. While the cartel peddled mostly methamphetamine and ecstasy, other drugs are traded within the country more predominantly: psychotropic medication, accounting for 55.4% of drug cases from 2019 to 2021. Although some of these drugs are usually prescribed for conditions regarding appetite stimulation or suppression, depression, or pain relief, they can be obtained in large numbers by either faking conditions or being diagnosed with the same legitimate condition at numerous hospitals.

In any case, the issue in Korea seems to be a matter of adaptation and outpacing the criminal underworld. The current obstacle to controlling the traffic is the wide availability of tools for the general user and the absence of similar technology for the government, law enforcement agencies, and healthcare systems. Perhaps a unified centralized medication prescription system could be implemented to tackle the scheme and prevent a portion of the drug crimes from happening so easily. Furthermore, the now outdated drug education in schools, according to some, must be changed as well — today, teenagers see far more from the media and decide to try for themselves even while aware of the risks from anti-drug classes … formed at a different time for then-different people. Korea, having been relatively free from drugs for decades, seems unprepared to tackle the exposure of its people to the influences of a globalized world today.