‘Candies’ and ‘cold drinks’: Korea’s chat apps flooded with covert drug invites

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‘Candies’ and ‘cold drinks’: Korea’s chat apps flooded with covert drug invites

Published: 13 Feb. 2024, 06:00

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

"Anyone up for a cold drink?"

A netizen, who identified himself as a 37-year-old man, posted on a random chat app on Monday. Drug users often refer to methamphetamines, commonly known as philopon in Korea, as cold drinks or alcohol.

Online posts asking for those willing to have "a glass of drink together with ice," apparently suggesting using the drugs together, were easily found on the application.

Such mobile applications, which have been criticized for being the hidden platform of illegal sex crimes, have now become a channel for drug trafficking.

A man was handed down a suspended sentence of 14 months in prison for injecting meth with syringes with two women whom he met through a random chat app in March 2022.

The man used drugs with the women separately at a motel in Jongno District, downtown Seoul, and the other woman’s home in Incheon.

These apps are also used by television figures.

Don Spike, a composer and television personality convicted of illegal drug use, told the police that he used drugs with nightclub workers whom he met through a chat app.

The Supreme Court upheld a two-year prison sentence for the composer last year.

A 28-year-old woman, who is facing trial at Suwon District Court, experienced drugs for the first time through a random chat app. The woman’s acquaintance uploaded posts asking for "candies," referring to ecstasy, on multiple random chats in March last year.

A man who saw the post contacted the acquaintance, in which the 28-year-old woman and her acquaintance ended up receiving philopon instead from the man at a motel. Police busted her after the man was caught in a different location using drugs.

"I didn't know why the man was offering ecstasy, which is even harder to find than meth, for free until I met him," the 28-year-old said.

According to the man, the man asked for sexual intercourse in return.

"Nothing happened after I refused his request, but I realized that most men offering drugs through the app approach women with such intentions."

Police often go on these apps to go after drug offenders. In September 2022, a man started talking to a woman who was looking for zolpidem on a chat app.

On the same day, he met the woman in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, and handed her 10 tablets of Stilnox, a sleep-inducing pill made of zolpidem. However, the woman who was looking for such drugs was the police.

According to the police, the man had also planned to request sexual intercourse for offering drugs. The man was given a suspended sentence by a district court last year.

Random chat apps do not require any personal information to register, but only an individual’s phone number.

There are also no strict ways for app operators to restrict inappropriate posts and filter chats.

"There is a need to at least require personal authentication for users to register on the app to prevent crime," an attorney from Gangnam LLC told the JoongAng Ilbo.

Lee Yun-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University, stressed the need for efforts by app operators to implement technologies such as AI to filter jargon referring to drugs and strengthen monitoring.

BY LEE BO-RAM [[email protected]]