"Highly recommended! Just add 1 to 2 drops."

This is the promotional text for the narcotic substance GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) recently posted on Instagram.

Commonly known as "mulppong" (liquid meth or date rape drug), GHB is classified as a psychotropic substance under domestic law.

Ingesting it can cause a person to lose consciousness and run the risk of memory loss.

Due to its colorless and odorless nature, GHB is often misused in sex crimes by secretly slipping it into drinks. Concerns are mounting that the reckless exposure of GHB advertisements on social media (SNS) is threatening public safety, particularly among teenagers.

Eyewitness accounts reporting "mulppong ads" on Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube have recently surfaced across various social platforms.

Looking at a captured image of an Instagram ad uploaded to Threads on the 15th, a drug labeled "GHB" is shown in a promotional video.

The video then shows a man pouring a suspicious liquid into a drink. After drinking it, a woman collapses, and the man is seen carrying her away.

The text in the video also raises concerns about its misuse in crimes, reading, "100% privacy guaranteed under your complete control" and "Perfect for dates, nightclubs, and bars."

Previously in May, an advertisement explicitly naming the product as "mulppong" appeared on YouTube.

Along with the phrase, "After taking it, you will fall into a coma, temporarily lose your memory, and feel no emotions at all," it promoted that the drug can even evade drug tests.

Netizens who came across these advertisements expressed concern, commenting, "Does it make any sense that such criminal advertisements are openly permitted?" and "Even kids who don't know any better could run into this."

An office worker in their 40s surnamed Park said, "I have seen ads for sex crime drugs a few times on Instagram and YouTube," adding, "I am deeply worried about the situation where teenagers are exposed to these illegal ads without restriction."

Under the current Narcotics Control Act (Article 3, Item 12), advertising narcotics and inducing their purchase are strictly prohibited.

Even if an actual transaction does not take place, the posting of the advertisement itself is punishable by up to 3 years in imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won.

Despite these penalty regulations, however, illegal online advertisements continue unabated.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) constantly monitors illegal online drug advertisements and posts, detecting about 50,000 cases last year and requesting blocks from the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) and platform operators. However, instances of evading crackdowns through clever loopholes continue.

An official from the MFDS explained, "Illegal distributors disguise themselves as normal apps or adult apps to post ads, and when blocked, they evade crackdowns by re-registering on other apps," adding, "Due to the nature of platforms where apps and markets with hard-to-pinpoint URLs constantly appear and disappear, government crackdowns alone have limitations."

Experts pointed out that the main reasons illegal drug ads are blatantly exposed are the platforms' recommendation algorithms and the limitations of monitoring overseas platforms.

They also emphasized that regulatory authorities need to take more active responses to prevent teenagers from being exposed to narcotics.

Oh Se-wook, a professor in the School of Media and Communication at Sun Moon University, explained, "If users repeatedly click on ads attached with 'drug' keywords out of curiosity, the platform learns from those signals without judging the content itself, allowing illegal ads to spread via algorithms." He added, "Once illegal ads are initially posted, it is difficult to correct them at the system level without artificial intervention."

Cho Sung-nam, former director of the Seoul Metropolitan Center for Addiction Management, stated, "Since GHB carries the risk of leading to addiction once exposed, thorough crackdowns are necessary to prevent teenagers from getting introduced to it."

He added, "Active cyber countermeasures are needed, such as intensively accepting reports on illegal ads," and "Not just platforms, but related agencies such as the MFDS, the KCSC, and the police cyber investigation unit must thoroughly crack down and prevent this."

In response, major platform operators stated that they are making efforts to block illegal advertisements through their own review systems.

Meta Korea stated, "Under our community advertising guidelines, the promotion of illegal products is prohibited, and all ads undergo a combination of automated systems and manual reviews before publication."

However, regarding the specific reasons why the illegal ads were exposed, the company added, "It is difficult to provide specific reasons," while noting that it "will continue technology and human reviews to protect the safety of the community."

A Google Korea official also said, "We are taking necessary measures such as removing ads that violate related policies and suspending advertiser accounts," adding, "We operate strict advertising policies with platform safety as our top priority."

(Photo: Capture of a post from Threads 'honsul_alcohol_story', Yonhap News)