<Anchor>



These days, we are often delivering news that so-called'street drug offenders' have been arrested in taxis, on roads, and in residential alleys in broad daylight.



I was also more worried about situations other than when some were secretly taking medication, and whether drug crime actually increased, and if so, why, first, reporter Sungil Choi reports.



<Reporter> A



man and woman in a taxi leave one bag and get off.



[Male passenger: This is the person I just got on.

I left the clutch bag down...

.]



Dozens of phone calls and text messages poured out for nearly two hours asking for bags to be returned.



What was found in the bag were drugs and syringes.



When the police open the door and ask to get off, the car suddenly pops out.



A man caught in a riot, such as hitting a police car back and forth, but only after the police broke the window.



I tested positive for the drug.



The man caught trembling in the middle of a residential area during broad daylight during the Lunar New Year holidays turned out to be an incumbent firefighter who bought drugs online.



More than 12,200 drug offenders were caught nationwide last year.



This is an increase of 17% from a year ago, but recently, news of the so-called'street drug offender' arrest has been heard frequently.



The biggest reason for the increase in'street drug offenders' is accessibility to purchase.



As drugs are distributed online, such as Telegram and Twitter, the barriers to access to drugs have lowered.



[Kyung-soo Jeon/President of the Korean Society for Drug Crime: Through social media or online networks, they go out a lot without time and place.] The



actual

number of online drug offenders

increased by 23.6% from 2,100 in 2019 to 2,600 last year. .



Corona 19 also finds the cause.



[Chun Young-Hoon/Mental Health Medicine Specialist: As a way to find other thrilling pleasures despite the beginning of an isolated life, there is also an aspect that the channels purchased through Telegram or these apps are clearly increasing.]



But the media about street drug offenders There is also an analysis that is a kind of'social optical illusion' that appeared as the report caught so much interest.



(Video coverage: Lee Chan-soo, video editing: Hwang Ji-young, CG: Jang Seong-beom)