This photo, taken April 7, 2023, shows drugs confiscated by the prosecutors office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of teenage drug offenders more than octupled in South Korea last year compared with about a decade earlier, a minor opposition party said Friday.
Teenagers apprehended for using drugs totaled 481 last year, jumping more than eight times from 58 in 2013, the Justice Party said, citing data obtained from the homepage of the Supreme Prosecutors Office.
Of the 481 teenage drug offenders, 291 were aged between 15 and 18. The figure is 5.3 times higher than 55 in 2016, when the government began to compile age-specific data, the opposition party said.
The number of drug offenders aged under 15 soared to 41 last year from an average of six a year during the 2016-21 period.
The find comes amid heightened concerns over drug-related crimes involving minors after a new type of scam recently occurred at a major hagwon district in Seoul’s southern Gangnam area, where high school students were duped into tasting a drink containing drugs.
“The education and judicial authorities need to share the teenage drug offenders’ information under close cooperation and have teenagers gain easy access to drug prevention education,” Rep. Song Kyong-won of the Justice Party said.
(Yonhap)
