When in Rome ... Do As Your Fellow Koreans Do

I was perusing the Joongang Daily on the subway and came across an article about a 38 year old Korean office worker that smoked pot on a business trip to Amsterdam and wrote about the experience on his personal blog. Apparently, under Korean criminal law, there is a principle of "personal" and "territorial" law which allows for punishment to Korean nationals who violate Korean criminal law though the offending conduct is not criminal in the visited territory. While I do not know the law in the Netherlands, my recollection is that it is not legal to smoke to pot but just tolerated and bans against it, to an extent, is not enforced (hence the numerous cafes that sell pot).

Regardless, this office worker was arrested by the police after an investigation into Internet drug trading found his blog. I'm sure this type of person is not their main target but he is apparently can be put in prison for 5 years or be fined up to KRW 50 million (approximately US $52,000).

I've heard some horror stories about people getting caught for pot use. Though I wouldn't say drug use is rampant in Korea there are quite a few people who smoke out and use ecstacy. If you go to the clubs in Hongdae, it's not hard to get ecstacy though as you would imagine prohibitively expensive. In this month's GQ magazine, there is a story of a foreign English teacher that spent five years in jail for trying to smuggle in hash via the mail. It's really not worth it in Korea to subject yourself to this as, unlike the US, you will not get a misdemeanor or warning should you get caught.

When in Seoul, do are the Seoulites to and inebriate yourself silly. There is a reason why Korea is one of the top three consumers of whiskey in the world.

-Pat in Seoul