The Netflix drama Suriname, which has recently become popular worldwide, depicts the activities of the National Intelligence Service and civilians in the South American country of Suriname to catch the Korean drug lord, Cho Bong-haeng. However, drugs are no longer a distant country or a story from a movie. Drug-related incidents and accidents occur every few days. Drugs have already infiltrated our daily lives. Our country, which used to pride itself on being a drug-free country, where has its reputation gone? A campsite in Jung-gu, Ulsan. A man is walking unsteadily. The man, barefoot and shirtless, falls into a flower bed, repeatedly collapses on the road, and eventually lies down. The dispatched police put the man in a patrol car. Just as the situation is being resolved and he is about to take a breather, an urgent request comes from a campsite about 300 meters away. A white SUV is moving with the backseat door open. It seems to have left the campsite entrance, but it soon falls into a nearby ditch. There are two men in the car, but their appearance and behavior are strange. According to the police investigation, the three of them are friends. On the outside, he was an ordinary person with nothing unusual about him. So why did he behave in such a strange way? The cause was drugs. He was administered a psychotropic drug called LSD. It only took about 10 minutes for the police to arrive and end the incident, but it was enough to shatter the peaceful daily lives of the campers. Not all drug-related incidents end like this. Last December, at the Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall parking lot. A passenger car crashed into a parking barrier and then crashed into the police vehicle. The car attempted to flee while repeatedly crashing into the dispatched police vehicle. The driver was a man in his 30s who had taken methamphetamine. The dangerous speeding while hallucinating only stopped after the police fired 11 live rounds. Over the past 10 years, drug crimes in our country have skyrocketed. The number of drug offenders has skyrocketed from about 9,000 in 2011 to about 8,000 in 2020. In particular, the proportion of young people in their 20s or younger has increased significantly. Last year, out of 6,153 drug offenders in Korea, 5,527 were under 20. That’s 1 in 3, more than doubling in just 4 years. Why are young people so addicted to drugs? A woman who started using drugs at the age of 20 and took them for 6 years said it was curiosity. Kim OO/ Woman in her 20s (voice disguised) When I turned 19 and turned 20, I wanted to go to a club first on January 1st. So I went to a club, and a man I had never seen before spoke to me while we were having fun. *I don’t know. When I asked what it was, he said it was something you smoke, and that it was marijuana. He said that it made you feel good when you smoke it, and he said it was good. I knew it was a drug, but I was curious, so I followed him and we ended up taking drugs together. After smoking marijuana, I tried LSD and liquid marijuana. When I take ecstasy, I feel good, so I like it because it goes well with music. So I tried ecstasy, molly, ketamine, and a variety of other things. I think I tried all kinds of pills, psychotropic drugs, and new drugs. I’m a woman, and he’s a man, and he probably wanted to have sex. So I think he gave me the drugs for free. When I stopped getting the free drugs, I started getting drugs on my own. And I got addicted to fentanyl, a psychotropic drug that you can get at the hospital. Kim OO/20s female (voice disguised) I got to know a lot of friends who were musicians. One of them was a friend who used fentanyl, and he told me. “Did he tell you how to get it?” Fentanyl is actually too expensive to buy through a dealer. You get a prescription from the hospital and buy it at the pharmacy. The doctor is the dealer, the pharmacy is the middleman, and we buy it. In the case of hospitals, there are hospitals that are really collapsing. I usually go to neighborhood hospitals, small hospitals, hospitals with older doctors, hospitals that have sizes like this. “Once you get it, it gets spread and everyone goes there together?” Yes. But they tend to share the hospital list. They pay money. And they often give it to me knowingly. As soon as you enter, the nurse asks, “Patch?” “Yes, that’s right.” And there were hospitals like this. The woman said that many of her friends were using drugs. Kim OO/ Woman in her 20s (voice altered) “Looking at your friends, are there a lot of people who use drugs?” Yes. There are a lot of them now, and the number is increasing. There are a lot of friends who didn’t use it before but are now using it. I just knew her, but she was an ordinary friend. She was an ordinary person who went to work, did what she wanted to do, but since she was an addict, she suddenly called me yesterday. She said that she had started using Philopon and was having withdrawals, and asked me how to overcome it. I was quite surprised. She was only 21 or 22 years old. Do you think she didn’t feel guilty or reluctant about using drugs? Kim OO/ Female in her 20s (voice altered) These days, teenagers and those in their 20s are not careful. They just party. Now, when you say medicine or drugs, it sounds cool or unique, so people tend to use it without any resistance, and it may be dangerous. People tend to do it a lot to feel better and have more fun. There is analysis that drug organizations may be giving out drugs for free at clubs and other places and then selling them at a high price to addicts. A man in his 40s who was imprisoned for methamphetamine use and was released last year said that even drug addicts see the current state of young people’s drug use as dangerous. The rapid increase in drug offenders among young people is closely related to the increased opportunities to live abroad and changes in the Internet environment. You can easily search for drug advertisements by simply entering the slang term for drugs on a search engine. Communication is done through Telegram, and transactions are made through virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Not only are the types and prices of drugs announced, but they also brazenly post photos of themselves holding drugs. The reporting team contacted one Telegram seller who is famous among those in their 20s. Although it was late, they responded right away as soon as they inquired about drug sales. Drug sales organizations are spread across the country. The representative example is the Telegram drug distribution organization 'Obang' that the prosecution and police arrested in December of last year. They organized and systematized the sales network by forming a mastermind who supplies and advertises drugs, certified dealers who sell drugs through Telegram in each region of the country, and droppers who actually deliver the drugs. There were over a thousand members who accessed their Telegram room alone. Lee Jae-in/Prosecutor, Incheon District Prosecutors' Office If we hear that an employee of a large corporation is there, don't we trust that we can buy products from that company? The certified dealer system has the advantage of being able to buy with confidence as a buyer and expand the supply chain as a seller, as the operator of a large Telegram drug group room guarantees it. The prosecution is also increasing the level of punishment. They applied the crime of forming a criminal group under the Criminal Act to the Obang sellers, not just the simple drug distribution charge. Lee Jae-in / Incheon District Prosecutors' Office After the police arrested the operator of Ohbang, we conducted a cooperative investigation and discovered that it was very similar to the previously sentenced so-called Dr. Bang sexual exploitation case. We confirmed that the rooms were divided into general rooms, citizen rooms, and VIP rooms, and that each member could be identified by a specific nickname, and that each role was divided. Each investigative agency is on high alert because of drugs. On the 30th of last month, in an underground parking lot in Incheon, the Coast Guard was chasing a man in his 50s. He was suspected of bringing drugs into the country from China via international passenger ships. The Coast Guard arrested the man on the 11th. The police, who have been cracking down on drugs since the beginning of this year, are even considering introducing undercover investigation methods to drug investigations. In fact, most of the drugs distributed in Korea come from overseas. Everything from industrial tools, canned goods, and household cooking utensils are drugs smuggled in. The place where this fierce battle between those trying to hide drugs and those trying to find them continues is the customs office. In particular, customs is a gateway to blocking drugs from entering the country. Last year, customs cracked down on a whopping 1,272 kg of smuggled drugs. Converted to monetary value, it exceeds 400 billion won. However, the reality is not easy. The Korea Customs Service has only 47 dedicated drug investigation personnel. Even after the adjustment of investigative authority, the number increased by 12 due to increased investigation work. Hyun Sam-gong/Korea Customs Service International Investigation Division Officer Drug detection is important, but the investigation stage that follows detection is more important. The process of catching the actual recipient is important. Accordingly, it has to go through all the criminal procedures such as undercover, stalking, arrest, and detention, so it is not a simple economic crime, but a serious crime, a criminal crime, and the case itself is difficult. The process of going through all the procedures one by one and connecting the actual recipient with the actual smuggling organization and detecting it is difficult, so it is currently classified as a difficult task even within the Korea Customs Service. Even at this moment, someone is falling for the temptation of drugs. It is time to establish systematic measures to prevent the spread of drugs, from customs to on-site crackdowns by prosecutors and police. Experts point out that we need to create a path for drug offenders who have paid their price to return to society in order to prevent second and third drug crimes. #Drugs #Telegram #Virtual currency #Fentanyl #Cannabis #LSD #Suriname #Current affairs tracking #KBS current affairs 22.09.25 8:10 PM KBS1TV [Current affairs tracking] Episode 20 - Issue tracking / Drug reporting that delves into everyday life Filmed by Jang Deok-su, Lee Sang-goo, Jo Young-cheon, VJ Cho Seon-gi, Edited by Kim Yong-tae