Establishing Media Reporting Standards to Prevent Copycat Crimes
Preparing Amendments to Block Illegal Internet Trade Advertisements
"Efforts to Arrest Drug Offenders Including Expanded Police Special Promotions"
The government and the ruling party have decided to swiftly advance legislation mandating the inquiry of prescription histories to block duplicate prescriptions of medical narcotics.
On the 21st, Yoo Sang-beom, the chief spokesperson of the People Power Party, told reporters immediately after the party-government meeting on comprehensive narcotics management measures that they have prepared a bill to amend the "Narcotics Control Act" containing such provisions, adding, "We expect the opposition party to actively cooperate as this is for the safety of the people."
Earlier, the government reviewed a plan at a recent Cabinet meeting to gradually mandate prescription history inquiries starting with drugs with high abuse concerns, such as fentanyl, a narcotic analgesic.
At the meeting, the government requested the party to support the budget necessary for securing investigation and crackdown organizations and introducing advanced narcotics detection equipment, and the party agreed to actively support during the budget review process. Chief spokesperson Yoo said, "On the 18th, the People Power Party received a report on the achievements and future plans of narcotics management discussed at the Cabinet meeting and requested the government to actively promote each policy."
Additionally, the party and government discussed amendments to the law regarding media reporting standards to prevent copycat crimes and blocking illegal online narcotics trade advertisements.
Attending the meeting from the party were Kim Ki-hyun, the party leader, and Park Dae-chul, the chairman of the Policy Committee; from the government were Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, Cho Kyu-hong, Minister of Health and Welfare, and Bang Moon-gyu, Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
Minister Han said at the meeting, "We must use all means to block this, and it is a situation where that is possible," adding, "The investigative agencies' goal is to respond intensively at this stage before reaching an irreversible situation."
The Ministry of Justice plans to restore the prosecution's narcotics investigation function by establishing a "Narcotics and Organized Crime Division" (tentative name) within the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Minister Han emphasized, "We will respond swiftly and organically at each stage?monitoring narcotics inflow, distribution crackdown, and judicial processing?centered on the special investigation headquarters and thoroughly recover criminal proceeds. To take the narcotics issue more seriously and control it firmly, we have promptly restored the Narcotics and Organized Crime Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Previously, the anti-corruption and current anti-corruption strong division were combined, but we believe these two are not suitable to be together, so we separated this part to focus our response."
Minister Cho said, "Drug addiction treatment is difficult, and aside from support for safety management and treatment costs, there is little other support, causing medical institutions and personnel to avoid treatment," adding, "We will improve treatment conditions by paying national psychiatric hospital doctors private-sector level salaries and establish a rehabilitation institution linkage system to enable social rehabilitation."
Spokesperson Yoo reported, "The police will also expand the special promotion quota from 15 to 50 officers, especially granting special promotions to police officers with significant achievements in smuggling and trafficking cases, intensifying efforts to apprehend narcotics offenders."
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