On July 6, a source from Onsung, North Hamkyung Province, reported, “As Onsung residents’ addiction to drugs has become more serious, drug addiction among elementary school students has also increased. According to his explanation, children tend to copy their parents behavior.
It has been widely known that when children have diarrhea or colitis, parents tend to boil opium for use as a substitute painkiller. However, as methamphetamine has become more common, it has become another alternative for painkiller.
In addition, after seeing that their parents using methamphetamine, children have also started touching it and getting addicted to it, according to the source.
The source explained that around 60 percent of households in Onsung are addicted to drugs. A family can typically buy one gram at a time. The price is around 100 Yuan (around 15.5 dollars), for low-quality methamphetamine. High-quality methamphetamine is delivered to South Korea through China.
100 Yuan is approximate 40,000 won in North Korea, which is worth around 22 grams of rice (around 1,800 won per kilo). However, since addicted people tend to consider drugs more important than rice, they consume drugs even though they cannot afford to have three meals a day.
The source said, “It has become normal for people to carry a straw in order to suck methamphetamine. Even the elementary school students have one.”
Another source came from Onsung early in July explained that, “In a neighborhood, everybody knows who is addicted among the adults. A person can also tell which kids are addicted bylookingatthekid’s eyes.” However, no one accuses the adults or scolds such children.
He noted that, “In the situation where there is no freedom in North Korea, people want to feel a short pleasure even with addiction to drugs and children copy adults without knowing if their actions are right or wrong. And all the people neglect themselves and this situation.”
