South Korea is currently waging a war against drugs. Last year, the number of drug offenders apprehended reached 23,000, while online transactions and smuggling volumes intercepted overseas both hit record highs. One might think, "The government is doing a proper job cracking down," but a single statistic completely flips this atmosphere: the drug offender recidivism rate stands at 56.5%. Simply put, out of every ten people caught, nearly six return to drugs. Here is the most shocking story we heard first.

1. Getting High Immediately After Release from Prison
This is the story of a man in his 30s who used to be a fashion designer. He was caught taking ecstasy with friends at a club and spent 10 months in a detention center. Naturally, he thought, "Once this is over, I will never do it again." However, the reality was entirely different. The people he met inside the detention center were not there to quit drugs.

[Mr. A / Inmate Imprisoned for Drug Use: They talk about what drugs to take when they get out, saying things like you can easily get them over there, sharing that kind of information.]

They would boast about the feeling of taking drugs like it was a heroic tale, and many touched drugs again as soon as they were released.

[Mr. A / Inmate Imprisoned for Drug Use: An actual case I saw in there was someone who received information a week before release, made a purchase according to that information upon leaving, and came right back in just a week after getting out.]

Internal guidelines originally mandate separate housing for first-time offenders and repeat offenders, as well as users and dealers. However, the reality is that correctional facilities are so overcrowded that living together is not uncommon. Consequently, engaging in so-called celebratory drug use immediately upon release is entirely possible. Entering with the intention of quitting drugs only to learn about new distribution channels instead—can this truly break the cycle of substance abuse?

2. "Done Once Released from Prison, Done Once Discharged from Hospital"
What is the fundamental reason behind post-release drug use? It is the gap in management after release. Unless individuals voluntarily enter a rehabilitation facility, they are left neglected while suffering from the disease of drug addiction. Even if they use drugs again upon release, the mindset is that as long as they avoid detection by the judicial system, it is fine. Prison ends upon release, and the hospital ends upon discharge. Because the current system lacks coordinated linkage among criminal punishment, prison confinement, hospital rehabilitation, and the Together Step Center operated by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, people inevitably keep falling back into the temptation of drugs in between. While the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety are preparing the Together Step Center to link such management, it remains largely insufficient. While punishment and crackdowns are important, it seems necessary to shift the core of drug issue management toward treatment and rehabilitation to fill the management gaps.

3. Zero State-Operated Rehabilitation Facilities for Addicts?
Merely quitting drugs is not enough to return to society. Individuals must also redesign their futures and secure employment through vocational rehabilitation so they do not feel the need to touch drugs again. Therefore, residential rehabilitation facilities where social rehabilitation takes place are essential. Facilities that can serve as a bridge of recovery, connecting individuals back to society following criminal punishment, are needed. While people do not go to prison for alcohol addiction, they do go to prison for drug addiction. Yet, there are four addiction rehabilitation facilities operated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for alcoholics. Not a single state-operated addiction rehabilitation facility exists where former drug addicts can reside and focus solely on rehabilitation. Incheon Darak, introduced on the 8 O'Clock News, is a private communal living space, and such private drug rehabilitation facilities have dwindled down to just two locations in Incheon and Gimhae. Due to the Education Environments Protection Act, addiction rehabilitation facilities cannot be established within 200 meters of schools, making it difficult to build additional facilities in local communities. Because of these circumstances, Incheon Darak operates registered as a communal living facility, meaning it receives no subsidies as a drug rehabilitation facility.

4. What About Overseas?
The United States also once focused solely on intensifying punishment like South Korea, but as recidivism rates continued to rise, it created a system called drug courts starting in 1989, which now number around 4,000. Instead of mandating prison sentences for drug offenders, these courts require them to undergo treatment, with judges directly monitoring the treatment process.

[Steven O'Neill / Judge: If you skip (urinalysis) again according to the rules, I will prosecute you immediately.]
[Defendant: Yes, Your Honor. Thank you.]

The results were remarkable. The recidivism rate for those who completed the program dropped about threefold. Australia showed a similar outcome. The difference in recidivism rates between those who completed treatment and those who dropped out halfway was more than twofold.

5. "The Opposite of Addiction is Connection"
A new facility has opened at Seoul Eunpyeong Hospital: a drug management center connecting treatment and rehabilitation. One of the recovery support workers working there was formerly addicted to philopon and cannabis, and after undergoing rehabilitation at Incheon Darak for three years and six months, became someone who reaches out to hold the hands of other addicts.

[Lee Dong-jae / Recovery Support Worker: Through recovery, I think I filled my life with healthy new connections. It seems the opposite of addiction is connection.]

6. Prisons Must Become the Starting Point of Rehabilitation, Not Places to Learn Drug Habits
Cheongju Women's Prison operates a program called the Recovery Connection Course. Observing the classes directly, it was a space where participants learned how to manage drug urges, engaged in group counseling, and designed their futures.

[Participant B / Recovery Connection Course Participant: Approaching it by finding myself and exploring my inner self from the beginning made it really difficult at first.]

Participant B now has a dream of helping others who fell into drug addiction just like them.

[Participant B / Recovery Connection Course Participant: In fact, the end of a drug problem is prison, a mental hospital, or death. I thought to myself that I needed to live. I did not want to die.]

Furthermore, inmates participating in the Recovery Connection Course live separately in a dedicated recovery connection room. Living together allows them to rely on and encourage one another. The effects of the Recovery Connection Course were clear: participants who completed the program saw a 27% decrease in substance dependence and a 38% increase in their resolve to stay clean. Conversely, general inmates showed an increase in substance dependence and a decrease in their resolve to stay clean.

[Jeon Byeong-mi / Correctional Officer, Drug Offender Rehabilitation Division: They simply stay in prison doing nothing. There is no stimulus that makes them think, "I need to recover, I need to break free from this addiction."]

The problem is that far too few people can take this program. This year's nationwide target is 230 people, which accounts for only 8% of the drug-using offenders accommodated in prisons last year.

[Jeon Byeong-mi / Correctional Officer, Drug Offender Rehabilitation Division: The Recovery Connection Course must absolutely be maintained, and what I want in more prisons is for every prison with a drug offender rehabilitation division to run this course.]

It is time for a transformation so that prisons do not become places to learn drug habits, but rather the starting points for addiction rehabilitation. The government will continue to crack down heavily on drugs, which is absolutely necessary. However, one thing became clear while reporting this story: the battle against drugs does not end with apprehension; it truly concludes only when it leads to recovery. Is it not time for South Korea to shift its focus from asking, "How many people were caught?" to "How many people have returned to ordinary lives?"

(Reported by Lee Se-hyeon | Produced by Shin Hee-suk | Video by Choi Dae-woong | Video Editing by Ahn Jun-hyeok | Design by Yang Hye-min | Photo courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency | Produced by SBS Digital News)