"I Can't Stop" Despite Hallucinations and Vomiting... Trend Among Teens

[Anchor]

The practice of taking massive amounts of common cold medicine or painkillers easily purchased at pharmacies is spreading like a game among teenagers. An increasing number of teens are starting out of curiosity for temporary hallucinogenic effects, leading to drug addiction.

Reporter Je Hui-won takes an in-depth look at the reality.

[Reporter]

A, a 17-year-old, first touched drugs three years ago when she was a middle school student.

Looking for a way to soothe her feelings of depression and anxiety, she learned through social media about taking large amounts of cold medicine or sleeping pills at once, known as an overdose, or an "OD party."

[Teenager A / Experienced Drug Addiction : I think it started with five pills at first. Asking to recommend stronger pills, or pills with fewer side effects....]

Even while suffering from hallucinations and vomiting, she would look for drugs again on anxious nights.

[Teenager A / Experienced Drug Addiction : (Now) I take about 10 to 20 pills. It makes you dizzy, or you see hallucinations, or hear auditory hallucinations, and it ruins your body.]

Social media is full of reviews from teenagers sharing everything from posts asking for cold medicine combinations with strong hallucinogenic effects to sharing how long the effects last.

There are even reviews saying that regular pharmacies automatically pack and hand over large quantities of medicine without being asked.

The problem is that, unlike alcohol or cigarettes, over-the-counter drugs have no obligation to verify the buyer's age.

[Pharmacy B : (Can I buy 10?) 20? (10.) 17,000 won. Wait a moment.]

Some pharmacies even recommend products with larger quantities.

[Pharmacy C : Should I give you five? There is also a larger package of 12. This is a bit cheaper.]

Our reporting team visited five pharmacies and purchased multi-symptom cold medicine and sleep aids all at once.

We were able to purchase this much in just 30 minutes.

Not a single place asked about the purpose of taking the medication or warned of the risks of abuse.

The barrier has become even lower with the recent rise in warehouse-style pharmacies that sell over-the-counter drugs cheaper and in larger quantities.

[Ryu Jeong-hee / Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs : In a very specialized form, what kind of changes happen to the body when using 10, 20, 30, or 40 pills are shared casually. From over-the-counter drugs that are handled most easily, they really learn up to narcotic substances....]

Among all drug addiction patients, teenage patients increased by nearly 40 percent over four years, and nearly 3,000 teenagers visited emergency rooms due to drug abuse over the past year.

(Photo: Kim Hak-mo, Bae Moon-san | Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung | Design: Seo Seung-hyun)

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[Anchor]

Now, let's talk more with reporter Je Hui-won, who covered this story.

Q. How serious is teenage drug overdose?

[Reporter Je Hui-won : Earlier, I shared statistics showing that teenagers visiting hospitals due to drug abuse are surging, but cases not captured in official statistics are believed to be much higher. There were about 5,000 members in just one community where they share each other's reviews like a sort of play culture via social media. In particular, the proportion of female students was about four times higher than male students, and among the teenagers who visited the emergency room last year, about 400 were under the age of 14, showing that the age group first encountering OD and overdoses is getting younger.]

Q. How are massive teenage drug purchases regulated?

[Reporter Je Hui-won : The drugs teenagers look for are common multi-symptom cold medicines or painkillers that can be easily bought around us. Experts warn that taking large amounts of these drugs continuously can cause brain damage, and even induce convulsions, delirium, and impaired consciousness. Furthermore, research results show that teenagers with a history of drug abuse have a risk of attempting suicide more than four times higher than those who do not.]

Q. What measures are needed to prevent teenage drug abuse?

[Reporter Je Hui-won : The mother of an addicted teenager we met during reporting said she even went around dozens of neighborhood pharmacies handing out pictures of her daughter asking them not to sell drugs, but she could not stop her daughter from buying drugs again. In Japan, where a similar problem occurred, the law was changed to sell only one pack of over-the-counter drugs problematic for teenagers, and a bill was proposed last June in our country as well to ban the sale of over-the-counter drugs exceeding the appropriate dosage to teenagers and mandate pharmacist counseling, but it has been stalled in the National Assembly for four months.]

(Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.