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Korea saw a 38 percent increase in the number of narcotics-related offenders last year, which rose from 7,711 people in 2006 to 10,649 in 2007, according to the latest white paper on such crimes published by the Supreme Public Prosecutor¡¯s Office. The number of narcotics-related offenders, which had been below the 8,000 level since reaching 7,546 people in 2003, has now surpassed 10,000. Those who were caught using or dealing in psychotropic drugs, such as methamphetamines, rose from 5,354 in 2005 to 8,521 last year, accounting for more than 80 percent.
Following a crackdown between 2001 and 2002, the production and distribution of methamphetamines in Korea declined drastically. But exports of those drugs from China and Southeast Asia are surging. Requiring simpler facilities and easier to manufacture than opium, methamphetamines have become the product of choice for international crime syndicates, and the overflow in output is pouring into Korea. In Korea, drug dealers can earn up to 100 times the price such drugs fetch in their countries of origin. That¡¯s why there is a surge in such drugs, which are even delivered through international mail. Last year alone, authorities discovered 135 cases of drug smuggling through the mail.
These days, methamphetamines are not administered using syringes, but have become much easier to consume by being packaged in the form of capsules and other pills. They are known as ¡°club drugs¡± on the night club and bar scenes and are spreading quickly among the younger crowd, including office workers, students and housewives. There is no need to elaborate on the destruction narcotics wreak on the lives of ordinary people, on their families and on society, as well as contributing to an increase in crime.
Korea is considered a ¡°narcotics clean¡± area, with less than 10 out of every 100,000 people being arrested for drug-related offenses. But such offenders, who numbered just six out of every 100,000 people in 2006, rose to seven last year, threatening that status. Recently, foreign crime syndicates have begun using Korea as a transit point in transporting drugs across borders. They have caught on to the fact that cargo inspections are relatively light in a country that is classified as a ¡°narcotics clean.¡±
At this rate, Korea may lose its status as a narcotics-clean area and become a ¡°narcotics-laundering area,¡± used by criminals to mask the origin or distribution routes of such illegal drugs. The only way to prevent this is to increase cooperation with the international community and to tighten controls at airports and ports. It is also time to look into the establishment of an independent entity to investigate drug-related crimes by integrating narcotics control functions which prosecutors, the police and customs officials are unwilling to relinquish.
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