[Anchor]

To investigate actual drug use, the government has been collecting and analyzing domestic sewage since 2020. Notably, during the Halloween period last year, various types of club drugs were detected in sewage samples from nightlife districts in Seoul.

Reporter Han Sung-hee has the details.

[Reporter]

Police drug enforcement officers raid a club in Seoul.

After searching various spots, they discover a medicine bottle suspected of containing drugs.

When a Korea Customs Service official cuts open the leg of a baby crib, white powder spills out.

It is ketamine, commonly referred to as a "club drug."

Amid growing concerns over the spread of club drugs, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety collected and analyzed sewage samples from 10 locations near nightlife areas in Seoul during the Halloween period last year.

As a result, components of eight so-called "club drugs," including cocaine, ecstasy, and ketamine, were detected.

This is twice the number of types identified during ordinary weekends.

This was the first time the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety targeted the Halloween period to investigate drug components near nightlife districts.

When the ministry drastically expanded the number of target drugs from a maximum of 22 to 243 last year, the number of drugs identified in sewage nationwide reached 31, more than a fourfold increase from the 7 types recorded the previous year.

[Chae Gyu-han / Director General for Narcotics Safety, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: Looking at the types of drugs, synthetic cannabinoids, which produce effects similar to cannabis—in other words, synthetic cannabis—were detected the most at 21 types.]

Synthetic cannabis is a chemical substance designed to produce effects similar to marijuana, confirming that the global trend of increasing cheap synthetic drugs is also taking place in South Korea.

[Lee Bum-jin / Head of the Korea Anti-Drug Research Institute (Professor, Ajou University College of Pharmacy): As the synthesis process becomes simplified and material prices drop, psychotropic drugs are showing a widespread downward trend in prices. Naturally, lower prices increase the possibility of exposure to the general public...]

The number of drug offenders nationwide surged to 23,000 last year, continuing an upward trend.

(Video Editing: Ahn Yeo-jin)