[Politics Show] "I used to blunt my wife's head to catch the devil... I was addicted to methamphetamine"

- Drugs, if you don't respond now, it will spread tremendously

- Serious drugs for medical use...

Even if you take 300 pills a day

- The problem is that addiction leads to the second violent crime

- A 20-year-old schoolboy, drugged and killed his mother and aunt

- Taking drugs is easy... Changing your values ​​is more important

- Addiction to drugs is a disease...

Prevent repeat offenders through treatment

■ Broadcast: SBS Kim Tae-hyun's political show (FM 103.5 MHz 7:00 ~ 9:00)

■ Date: October 18, 2022 (Tuesday)

■ Host: Kim Tae-hyun Attorney

■ Appearance: Seong-nam Cho, Director of National Law Hospital

▷ Kim Tae-hyun : Balanced current affairs It is an inner view time to listen to the deep story in the third part of Kim Tae-hyun's political show.

Drug crime has reached a dangerous level, and reports like this have been continuing recently.

Some say that Korea was originally a drug-cleaning country, but has now become a major drug-consuming country.

Let's listen to what is prepared first and then come.

(Report omitted) So today, we have prepared a time to learn about the actual situation of drug addiction and how to deal with it.

The person we invited today is someone who has been on the road of drug therapy for over 30 years.

Cho Seong-nam, director of the National Law Hospital, is here.

hello.

▶ Seongnam Jo: Hello.

nice to meet you

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Director, first of all, please introduce what the National Law Hospital does.

▶ Seongnam Cho: It is a mental hospital under the Ministry of Justice.

It started as a treatment center in the past.

Last year, the Medical Protection Act was amended and the name was changed to the National Justice Hospital.

When we say detention center, we keep thinking of it as a detention center or a detention center, so we are a hospital certified by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

So, to emphasize that it is an institution that treats, the name was completely changed to the National Justice Hospital.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: So, for example, not only drug addicts, but among those who are imprisoned in detention centers or prisons, there are people who are mentally or physically handicapped or weak physically and mentally in need of treatment.

Are you saying that this is an institution that treats those people?

▶ Seongnam Jo: This is where people who have been sentenced to treatment in the court come in.

So three kinds of people are sentenced.

A person who has committed a crime in a state of infirmity or loss due to a mental illness, followed by a crime due to addiction or a sex crime due to a sexual disorder.

This is where three kinds of people come to be sentenced.

It has 1200 beds.

As we are currently expanding 400 beds, it will be operated with 1600 beds next year.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: I see.

The reason we are here today, Director, is because it is known that the Director has been in charge of drug treatment for 30 years.

We had the head of the department to find out about the actual situation of drug addiction and we had heard about it in news reports earlier, but the reality is that Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok is buying drugs for the price of a pizza on social media at home. .

Because the director feels it with his skin, drug addicts, these people have increased a lot more than before. Do you feel this through your skin?

▶ Seongnam Cho: I think it is spreading a lot right now.

In the past, I had to get medicines through people.

Now, if you access it through SNS, the Internet, or through Telegram, it comes to you by courier or throwing method, so if you put it anywhere, it will come to you.

So, young people are making good use of social media and the Internet.

So, as we get older, we do everything with computers and smartphones.

Therefore, it is easily distributed and it is spreading more than you think because it is an era where you can get all kinds of illegal drugs and all drugs with just 50,000 won or 100,000 won.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: I don't know if I can tell you a personal story, but I'm dealing with a drug case right now.

It's the defendant.

But I was also very surprised, it was so easy.

If you look at our Netflix drama <Exemplary Family> and the movie <Self-Execution>, there is a huge organization of drug distribution and it is difficult to buy and obtain through the point organization. Save it, and I can save it.

Because looking at the case log, the method is so easy.

▶ Seongnam Jo: So, there are many people who see such a method on the news and pretend it is real, and then become it.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: It seemed like it.

Dark Web, Telegram, and Bitcoin have become a system that even people like me can buy right away, so maybe this is why.

▶ Seongnam Cho: And they talk very easily in their chats and meetings.

So it spreads rapidly.

In the old days, talking itself was taboo, but it happened secretly only with each other, but now we talk a lot publicly through chat sites, so it's easy to find out.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: It is not a drug-cleaning country, but a major drug-consuming country, I said that before in the opening.

Is that expression correct?

▶ Seongnam Cho: It was too late.

There's a drug index, all over the world.

It displays the number of drug offenders per 100,000 population, and if it exceeds 20, it is out of the safe zone and classified as a country requiring control.

In 1999, there were already over 10,000 people in our country, drug offenders.

It has been out of the comfort zone since 23 years ago.

But at that time, 10,000 people came and went, so the government didn't pay much attention to it, but recently, when it exceeds 18,000 and 16,000 people, the drug index goes up to 32 and 36, so it's a big deal, and now it's a problem It seems like it, but actually there were a lot of problems from 23 years ago.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: But as I said before, SNS and Bitcoin came out, so it's easier to find drugs than before.

Then, is the increase in drug offenders the same all over the world, or is it only in Korea that the increase is particularly fast?

▶ Seongnam Cho: It is spreading all over the world, but it has already spread a lot in Europe and the United States.

In the United States alone, statistics in 2018 estimate that 53 million people were using illegal drugs.

There are no national statistics.

But that's the way it's going.

And Korea is an internet powerhouse.

And it is the leader in smartphones.

So, there is a high possibility that it will spread rapidly among young people, and it will spread like a developed country in about 10 years if it is not done properly now.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: You say that the number of teenagers increases a lot?

▶ Seongnam Cho: 450 teenagers were arrested last year.

This is an increase of over 45% compared to the previous year.

This year has already passed.

So, it is important that the youth, especially the teenagers, are rapidly increasing, and the main age group was 40s four years ago.

But from last year, the majority are in their 20s.

most of them

▷Kim Tae-hyun: It came down.

▶ Seongnam Cho: The 20s are the most popular age group, followed by the 10s, which is rapidly increasing.

This is the biggest problem.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: He also said something like this.

What we talked about now is that we buy overseas through social media, and I mentioned this.

Abuse of that is also a problem, is this right?

▶ Seongnam Cho: Actually, when we talk about illegal drugs, we are afraid of possessing them because it is illegal, but we tend to look at them easily because we think that medical drugs are safe because they are prescribed by doctors.

But now, the rapidly increasing number of drugs for medical use is addiction.

I ran the Addiction Brain Center at Gangnam Eulji Hospital.

Looking back at that time, I had mainly seen patients with illegal drugs before, but there are also many patients who are addicted to sleeping pills.

most of them

What surprised me the most was taking 300 pills a day, sleeping pills like zolpidem.

I can't imagine.

Ordinary people will die.

However, this person started with 1 pill, but there are a lot of people who usually take 20 to 30 pills each.

However, this person could not sleep even after eating 20 to 30 tablets, and he ate and ate this again and again between nightmares and nightmares. After waking up, all 300 tablets were gone.

In that way, there are so many that you can't even imagine.

Then, aren't there stimulants that are prescribed as diet pills?

It is also an antipsychotic drug.

Stimulants can help you start a diet because you can't sleep and you don't feel hungry when you take them, so I prescribe this as well, but there are guidelines, but most of them don't follow them.

I'm just giving you a handful.

And then the narcotic painkillers you're talking about, that's a lot.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: I'm really novice, but let me ask you a ignorant question.

Why are drugs bad?

▶ Seongnam Cho: There is a good thing that drugs secrete excessive dopamine and make you feel better than usual, but this is momentary, and it not only destroys the brain and deteriorates health, but also has a huge impact on the family and society. I give

People, patients often say that I bought it with my own money and put it in my body and did not cause any harm to others.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Actually, there were people who argued that drug crime was not a crime in criminal policy.

▶ Seongnam Cho: But that is a wrong idea.

Your body is not yours.

Because it's my parents, my friends, and my body, it's not something I can take care of, and if I break down, it's not just me that's ruined, it's the whole family.

Even in China, the country has a history of bankruptcy, so talking about drugs makes me shiver.

The ripple effect is so great that people don't even think about it.

So, the most problematic thing when educating teenagers on drug prevention is that if you tell them one good thing about drugs, they won't listen to you even if you tell them 100 kinds of harm.

Is there something like that because one thing just came in and I was curious about it?

▷Kim Tae-hyun: He said he felt better in a moment, something like this?

▶ Seongnam Jo: That's right.

So I am very careful about promoting it, and many of my patients have learned from the media.

When I heard that bond was effective as a teenager, I said, "Really? Shall we give it a try?"

There are people like this, and as I said before, I can easily find SNS, so I said, "Shall we try it?"

There are people who try it out and try it.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Are there many cases where drug crimes lead to violent cases?

For example, committing a crime in a hallucinatory state.

▶ Seongnam Cho: I joined the drug addict in 1988 when I first joined the treatment center.

I saw it for the first time then.

At that time, due to drug addiction, he received treatment and probation only if a crime occurred in a psychotic state.

The first person I saw was a methamphetamine who murdered his 6-month-old daughter, and also murdered her wife.

I see too many of those things.

▷Kim Tae-Hyun: So, is it something like committing a crime in a state of hallucinations?

▶ Seongnam Jo: So, the person who killed his wife said that he had to save his wife because he saw the devil in his head, and that he had to catch the devil, and hit her head with a blunt to catch the devil, to save his wife.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: From my point of view, in a state of hallucination.

▶ Seongnam Cho: There are a lot of terrible cases where the wife dies, because it becomes a psychotic state.

And although she is still under treatment, she took LSD for the first time in Daejeon 5 years ago, and became mentally ill.

When he was 20, he didn't know anything and was a model student, Bon.

However, he was excited about the decision to study abroad in the United States, but his friend said it was good, so he didn't know it was bad and he just took it.

I give it again and eat it again.

By the way, he took it for the first time, and after overdosing he went into a psychotic state.

So this is called Kagra Syndrome, among the symptoms.

There is a famous delusion that the family is not the real family and that someone came in disguised as a family member to kill you.

I got that delusion, so I'm at home and my aunt came over to play, and it's fake.

Someone came in disguised as her aunt to kill her self.

You see, Mom and Dad are fake too.

It's a big deal.

So, he went first to live and brought a kitchen knife and did it.

It's terrifying to see such a horrific event happen all at once.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Drugs.

Momentary pleasure ruins everything.

▶ Seongnam Cho: Our brain has a reward circuit.

There is also an increase in dopamine, which makes you feel better.

So you feel pleasure or joy or pleasure or happiness.

However, narcotics act to increase dopamine excessively.

That's why it feels more stimulating than usual, so once you taste it, you can't forget it.

And I keep repeating it over and over again to repeat it, but if I do it over and over again, my tolerance will come up, so the amount has to increase.

Dopamine also increases in the prefrontal cortex.

Then, an increase in dopamine in the prefrontal cortex leads to psychosis.

So narcotics are drugs that increase dopamine, which ultimately leads to psychosis.

I'm talking about going on a tightrope.

It feels good if you ride it well, but if you miss it, you fall off if you take one wrong step.

And from then on, every time I take the drug, I get a mental illness.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Because of that, it's hard to quit narcotics and it's addictive, because you can't forget instantaneous pleasure?

Or the drug itself has that characteristic...

▶ Seongnam Cho: A person who has never tasted meat accidentally tasted meat once, and it is delicious.

I can't forget it.

Those intense experiences are stored in your brain, so whenever you remember them, you crave them.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Then, eventually, the body is destroyed.

▶ Seongnam Jo: That's right.

So, the more you do it, the more resistance you get, so the amount increases, the damage increases, and the pleasure decreases.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: If drug addicts stop taking drugs, what will they be like?

▶ Seongnam Cho: It depends a bit on the drug.

We divide drugs into two broad categories.

There are stimulants that stimulate the brain and there are inhibitors that paralyze the brain.

Stimulants wake you up, so you can't sleep and feel better when you feel less tired.

However, if the inhibitor is suddenly stopped, the physical withdrawal symptoms are very severe.

The pain gets worse and there is a rebound, so I tend to repeat it again because it is physically difficult, and if I don't take stimulants, I get depressed.

There is no more fun and there is no joy in life.

So I repeat it again to find it.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Then the withdrawal phenomenon is strong, so it must be very addictive.

Can treatment cure it?

▶ Seongnam Cho: Of course.

So, drug treatment may seem difficult, but it is very easy, in fact.

You can't do it.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: But because it is difficult, it is addictive.

▶ Seongnam Cho: So, it is easy to stop taking the drug, but it is difficult to maintain it.

Because I don't remember it.

It lasts a lifetime.

It recurs every time I think of it, so I manage it so it doesn't happen again.

It's easy to think that we have to stop taking drugs when we think of treatment, but it's useless if we don't improve our lives by quitting evil.

So, of course, you have to stop taking drugs and change your values ​​in order to maintain the state of quitting.

For example, no matter how good you like it, ordinary people don't do it because it's illegal.

But these people are okay no matter how illegal it is, so it's okay to secretly do it once or twice, because of this thought.

As long as those values ​​don't change, even if they are arrested, how can they not be caught this time?

That is, only when the values ​​are changed to sound values ​​will the therapeutic effect appear and have meaning.

▷Kim Tae-Hyun: Then, does the treatment and supervision system treated at the legal hospital even change such values?

▶ Seongnam Cho: The focus is on that.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Simply stop taking the drug, make sure that withdrawal doesn't happen, and leave these things behind.

▶ Seongnam Cho: It is detoxification treatment, but it is a preparation stage for full-scale treatment.

How do you treat a drunken person?

Once it is detoxified and my mind comes back, I can properly treat it so that it doesn't happen again.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: There is one minute left, but I will wrap this up for the last time.

Of course, we need to reduce the number of drug addicts, so what kind of system and support do we need?

▶ Seongnam Cho: Addiction is a disease.

You can't prevent addiction by imprisoning this.

Only treatment can prevent recidivism.

There are many treatment systems in Korea, but they are not being used well.

Even the prosecution and the police do not see addiction as a disease, so they keep imprisoned, so they learn and come out.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: Isn't it a matter of being locked up in Seoul Detention Center or there?

▶ Seongnam Cho: That's right.

Right now, our hospital has 100 beds to treat poisoned patients, but now there are only 20.

I don't send treatment.

They tend to see it as a crime and not as a disease.

All over the world, addiction is a disease, so treatment has gone all the way to preventing recidivism.

Our country is just getting started.

▷Kim Tae-hyun: I see.

I'm running out of time.

I'd love to hear more.

Next time I get a chance, I'll try again.

Today's inner review session with the director of the National Law Hospital Cho Seong-nam will end here.

Master, thank you for coming out today.

▶ Seongnam Jo: Thank you.

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