earticle

영어

A drug can be defined as a substance other than food which may affect the constitution or function of a living thing through its chemical properties. In this sense, it may be possible to place organic solvents like bond, gas or thinner and narcotics like marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine or heroine under the category of drugs. These drugs are characteristic of having positive medicinal as well as side effects upon human being including but not limited to excitement, hallucinatory image, auditory hallucination, relaxation, sleeping, anorexia, nerve stability, schizophrenia, anaesthesia, brain damage, narcissism, etc. Abuse of drugs, however, would result in direct and indirect impact upon the society, family and industry as a whole by ruining of families, unemployment, loss of manpower, and catastrophic damage of physical and mental health of all people. Strong cling to drugs could also cause devastation of personality by abandoning relationship with family members and friends and even jobs, hobbies and culture and would eventually make addicts unsociable. Furthermore, abuse of drugs could be a cause for more serious phenomenon of social pathology such as drastic increase of inhuman violent crimes, crimes without specific motives, frequent burglary and theft to raise the money to buy drugs with. In contrast with the global trend to enforce the regulations for drug-related crimes, the Korean judiciary authorities keep on dealing leniently with offenders, especially when they are first timers, by only charging the fine not exceeding 50 million Won. To put use of drugs under control, it seems more effective to install and operate facilities which are dedicated to providing supports for drug addicts to get free from the cycle of crimes and return to the society. In sum, it would be extremely important to study the measures needed to prevent occurrence of drug-related crimes because the issue of addiction can not　rely on legal punishments alone. The legal system that imposes heavy penalty upon drug-related crimes may be effective to a certain extent in terms of crime prevention but has limit in itself. It is therefore most imperative to respond in a more active way to prevention of drug-related crimes by introducing the educational programs for drug addiction, by training experts who can treat drug addicts, not to speak of working out preventive measures from the perspective of criminal legislation and socio-cultural aspects as well.