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agentX
Joined: 12 Oct 2007
Location: Jeolla province
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 Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:34 pm Post subject: New Drug Test Rules starting next month |
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From the Donga English Section http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2011012611528
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Under the revised law, a would-be teacher should get tested for immunity with a drug diagnosis reagent authorized by the Korea Food and Drug Administration. If the test is positive, he or she must undergo another test using a mass spectrometer.
The ministry will test for methamphetamine, cocaine, opium and marijuana. If the second test is positive, issuance or extension of a visa will be denied.
A Justice Ministry official said, �A number of English instructors took drugs while teaching, and we wanted to prevent this in advance.� |
Taking drugs WHILE teaching? That's pretty bold if someone actually did that.
"Hang on kids. Read page 4 while I snort this coke right quick *sssnnnnooorrrttt* WHEW! That's da shizzle rite derr!" 
Besides, it seems Korean celebrities are more into drugs than English instructors these days.
The article also does not quite make sense. IF you test positive you take a second test. Well, IF you test negative, do you still have to take another test? That part is not so clear.
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The government also raised the bar for medical centers that conduct drug testing. Only those that can independently conduct drug testing or issue a pre-employment medical examination document by outsourcing the test will be qualified among public and private medical centers.
The government will allow medical institutions that pass screening by the ministry to conduct drug testing. |
And how I am supposed to know which hospital does the test properly? Are they going to hand my boss a note that says "take your employee here", or are they going to hang signs outside hospitals that say "DRUG TEST! GET YOUR DRUG TEST HERE!" with a cartoon character holding out a cup full of pee like they running a lemonade stand? |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| That article is too garbled to make any sense at all. Testing for immunity? |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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Wasn't someone on here posting about them doing random drug tests on existing teachers?
I could have sworn someone said about a month ago their coteacher got a letter from the MOE that said they will be testing teachers. This was back around Christmas. But it was only one city.
As for the teachers taking drugs while teaching, it has happened a couple of times. But the media also sensationalizes it. I'm pretty sure its quite often that most Koreans do this as well, but it doesn't make the news. It's just one of the prices you pay to living in a bubble here. They have at least been talking about the celebrities getting caught in the news a lot. So famous people and NETs are treated equally in terms of media exposure related to drug use. We are in good company.
Easy solution: don't do drugs. |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
Easy solution: don't do drugs. |
Or find a better place to work |
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Riker
Joined: 28 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't use drugs, so I really don't care. |
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hondaicivic
Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Location: Daegu, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| ThingsComeAround wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
Easy solution: don't do drugs. |
Or find a better place to work |
How about the middle east? Let's go there and do drugs, and hit on muslim women!  |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Riker wrote: |
| I don't use drugs, so I really don't care. |
While many would agree with you, I see a problem with this statement.
I'd like to ask the Ministry official, where does it end?
When does the gov say "Let's make it easier for non drug-abusing foreigners to stay?" Never. And you are attached to the stigma of being a drug user, whether or not you really use drugs, because you are a foreigner. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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We all have AIDS too....
I can see the value in a drug test if the purpose is to keep drug abusers from working with children. (Effective or not, drug use is wrong or not - it is our employer's perogative to test teachers, if you don't like get a different job) But if it is just aimed at forgeiners, it is not going to be effective in keeping drug users away from children.
Are Korean teachers required to take a drug test? If not, what's the point of testing only one teacher in the entire school? Especially, the one teacher that sticks out like a sore thumb. |
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earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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I don't care either because I don't do drugs. My things is Boddy's or Guiness preferably in a pub with authentic wooden panelling.
But seriously, show all the Korean rules and media articles/politicians' rants about foreign English teachers supposedly swarming with disease and with bloodstreams allegedly full of drugs outside Korea and the society comes across as being utterly xenophobic.
I've told people who work for Govt depts in the UK (including Immigration) and media/business groups about how we are tested for HIV and drugs and translated articles from 'normal' media here to show them.
The response is always disbelief that a) Such a disproportionate amount of bureaucracy and time is going on people mostly given year to year visas and invited in to teach b) There is so much virulence directed towards people invited into work on those very limited visas, c) The open xenophobia/underlying racist assumptions are presented as normal in a country that has provided the head of the UN and wants to be 'internationalised'.
It never ceases to surprise me how much Korea wants to be taken seriously as a country by 'western' countries yet can't see that others see all this as whacky  as well as backwards.
Even more so when non Koreans learn about the culture of paid sex as normal even when men are married. Also the unwillingness to face what seems to be a fair proportion of bisexual Korean men judging by men picking up other men in convenience stores and toilets with an observable frequency, the lack of HIV and other public health education on serious diseases like TB which should have been eradicated by now given Koreans are the carriers and the cultural acceptance of coughing/sneezing in others' faces, spitting everywhere, etc.
Yet there is paranoia about HIV coming from foreign teachers on limited visas, and the caricature of foreign teachers as being degenerates on drugs honestly looks like propaganda from the Korean 50s.  Koreans should know themselves that their laws make it difficult to obtain illegal drugs and those who take the risks to obtain them are far more likely to be privileged Koreans. |
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hondaicivic
Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Location: Daegu, South Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| earthquakez wrote: |
I don't care either because I don't do drugs. My things is Boddy's or Guiness preferably in a pub with authentic wooden panelling.
But seriously, show all the Korean rules and media articles/politicians' rants about foreign English teachers supposedly swarming with disease and with bloodstreams allegedly full of drugs outside Korea and the society comes across as being utterly xenophobic.
I've told people who work for Govt depts in the UK (including Immigration) and media/business groups about how we are tested for HIV and drugs and translated articles from 'normal' media here to show them.
The response is always disbelief that a) Such a disproportionate amount of bureaucracy and time is going on people mostly given year to year visas and invited in to teach b) There is so much virulence directed towards people invited into work on those very limited visas, c) The open xenophobia/underlying racist assumptions are presented as normal in a country that has provided the head of the UN and wants to be 'internationalised'.
It never ceases to surprise me how much Korea wants to be taken seriously as a country by 'western' countries yet can't see that others see all this as whacky as well as backwards.
Even more so when non Koreans learn about the culture of paid sex as normal even when men are married. Also the unwillingness to face what seems to be a fair proportion of bisexual Korean men judging by men picking up other men in convenience stores and toilets with an observable frequency, the lack of HIV and other public health education on serious diseases like TB which should have been eradicated by now given Koreans are the carriers and the cultural acceptance of coughing/sneezing in others' faces, spitting everywhere, etc.
Yet there is paranoia about HIV coming from foreign teachers on limited visas, and the caricature of foreign teachers as being degenerates on drugs honestly looks like propaganda from the Korean 50s. Koreans should know themselves that their laws make it difficult to obtain illegal drugs and those who take the risks to obtain them are far more likely to be privileged Koreans. |
Just get with the program man. Do you do drugs? If not, you have nothing to worry about. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| Easy solution: don't do drugs. |
Better, and even easier, solution: Korean government actually follow Korean law. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| Easy solution: don't do drugs. |
Better, and even easier, solution: Korean government actually follow Korean law. |
I'm not an expert on Korean law. Care to elaborate? (This wasn't meant as snarky...I'm just curious what law you're referring to.)
Last edited by jrwhite82 on Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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i'll admit i take drugs while teaching...
...for my cholesterol ,
maybe thats what they are talking about |
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earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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| hondaicivic wrote: |
Just get with the program man. Do you do drugs? If not, you have nothing to worry about. |
True.  I suppose it just grates on me being thought of in the same league as some stupid Canadian woman who sent herself hash or whatever it was through the post or the other foreign English teachers (I bet not that many and certainly not to the extent the media blabs on about) who have taken drugs in Korea.
And obviously the HIV test grates in a country where social norms mean Koreans aren't getting the kind of public health education they need because the powers that be would rather focus on disease coming from outside Korea rather than see Koreans themselves as a source. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:54 pm Post subject: |
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| jrwhite82 wrote: |
| I'm not an expert on Korean law. Care to elaborate? (This wasn't meant as snarky...I'm just curious what law you're referring to.) |
The South Korean constitution prohibits unreasonable search and requires law enforcement to have an actual reason to suspect someone of a crime before said officials can stop someone. Merely looking foreign or even being foreign does not constitute a crime.
Now, if the employment contract already has a requirement to submit to testing for illicit substances, that's a completely different story. I just checked my contract (a standard EPIK one) and there is no such provision. |
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