Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SPINOZA]

Do excuse the silly/controversial topic.

I've been having a debate recently with a friend of mine. She says that Opium-smoking (and perhaps by extension the abuse of Opium-derivatives morphine and Heroin) is likely to be rife in South Korea.

Bo11ocks, says I. Firstly, Korea has a low crime rate, and it quite simply follows from that in my opinion that there is very little drug addiction. Compare that to the U.S. and Europe (where drug addiction, heroin particularly, is an enormous social-economic problem and crime rates are high). Also, Opium, unless I'm much mistaken, isn't grown in Korea. It's not got the right climate (like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Thailand - where 90% of the world's morphine/heroin comes from).

So what's the deal with Opium in Korea? Does it have, as my daft friend implies completely without any basis in fact, a 'culture' of Opium-consumption?

[SuperFly]

Used to be that way, before the Americans told the Koreans to put a stop to it. Opium dens were everywhere.

[Ryst Helmut]

[winnie]

I was told by an older K-teacher here in my town that farmers are legally permitted to grow a small amount of it....for their own personal use.

Apparently, it helps them deal with the stresses associated with farming, he mentioned that it helps them to cope with all the pesticides they use or something. I was shocked to hear this.

[Butterfly]