North Korea is experiencing something of a meth “epidemic” at the moment. Kim Seok-hyang, the man who wrote a report titled, ‘A New Face of North Korean Drug Use: Upsurge in Methamphetamine Abuse Across the Northern Areas of North Korea’, said:

Almost every adult in that area (of North Korea) has experienced using [crystal meth] and not just once.

He estimates that 40% to 50% of North Korean adults are seriously addicted to the drug.

And this is not North Korea’s first drug epidemic. The 1900s and 1910s saw the country plagued by opium abuse. But the poppy fields soon dried up, and gave way to underground “home-kitchens” where meth is cooked up using ingredients from the local hardware store. The addicts claim that meth is not addictive, and you can kick the habit by sleeping it off over the course of three to four days.

Some people are even smoking the stuff before attempting to escape the country. A 25-Year old North Korean escapee told of how he “inhaled ten hits” before crossing the frozen Tumen River to get into China.

I felt really focused, all I could think was go, go, go. I didn’t sleep for two days after that

He said it was easy to score in his hometown of Hamhung, in the South Hamgyung Province, and he and his friends would do it before dinner to buzz all night. A North Korean meth-fuelled dinner party… Now that would be interesting.

[Source : Wall Street Journal]