Teens Spread Dangerous Trend of Medication Overdose... Inside Pharmacies

[Anchor]

Recently, a troubling trend has been spreading among teenagers where they take excessive amounts of cold medicine or painkillers all at once and share their experiences online.

An increasing number of kids are becoming addicted after starting it for temporary hallucinations. We look into the reality behind this in Morning Zoom-In, reported by Je Hui-won.

[Reporter]

Seventeen-year-old A first laid hands on drugs three years ago when she was a middle school student.

Looking for a way to soothe her depression and anxiety, she learned through social media about overdosing—taking a large amount of cold medicine or sleeping pills all at once in what is called an "od party."

[A / Teenager with drug addiction experience: I think I started with about five pills at the very beginning. Asking for recommendations on strong drugs, or recommendations on ones with fewer side effects....]

Even while suffering from hallucinations and vomiting, she would turn to drugs again on restless nights.

[A / Teenager with drug addiction experience: (Now) I take about 10 to 20 pills. You feel dizzy, see hallucinations, hear auditory hallucinations, and your body gets ruined.]

Social media is full of posts by teenagers asking for recommendations on cold medicine combinations with strong hallucinogenic effects, as well as reviews sharing how long the effects last.

There are even reviews claiming that regular pharmacies automatically hand over large quantities of medicine without asking questions.

The problem is that, unlike alcohol and cigarettes, over-the-counter drugs carry no legal obligation to verify the purchaser's age.

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

There are even pharmacies that actively recommend products containing larger quantities.

[Pharmacy C: Shall I give you five? We also have larger ones with 12 pills. These are a bit cheaper.]

The barriers have lowered even further with the recent proliferation of warehouse-style pharmacies that sell over-the-counter medicines in larger quantities at cheaper prices.

[Ryu Jeong-hee / Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs: Changes in the body when using 10, 20, 30, or 40 pills are shared casually in a very specialized format. Starting with over-the-counter drugs that are easiest to get their hands on, they eventually learn about actual narcotic substances....]

Among all patients with pharmaceutical addiction, teenage patients have increased by nearly 40% over four years, and nearly 3,000 teenagers visited emergency rooms due to drug abuse last year alone.

(Video footage by Kim Hak-mo and Bae Moon-san | Video editing by Kim Yoon-sung | Design by Seo Seung-hyun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.