C) Duty of the State for Prevention and Treatment of Drug Additions Article 12 of the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights stipulates that ‘the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’ is recognized. According to ICESCR General Comment No. 14 (2000), ‘the right to the highest attainable standard of health,’ states are particularly obliged to respect the right to health, preferably through legislative implementation, in relation to implementing promotional campaigns on alcoholism, smoking and drug addiction, and the failure to suppress the production, trafficking and consumption of drugs and other harmful substances is failure to take necessary measures by the state in order to protect the people within their jurisdiction from violations of the right to health by third parties. The international conventions on narcotics control,655) and the Narcotics Control Act, the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Prevention of Illegal Trafficking in Narcotics, the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and the Criminal Act stipulate the role of the state in drug control and treatment. These provisions stipulate the state’s responsibilities for early detection, treatment, education, follow-up care, rehabilitation and social integration in relation to drug abuse. Drugs not only damage one’s mind and body, but also make the other party and the entire society uneasy. It is also of concern that it is highly likely to be linked to violent crimes, such as sex crimes, violence, and murder. However, it is confirmed through international examples that drug addiction is a brain disease, in which drugs act on the brain and cause deterioration of the brain’s compensatory neural circuit and control function. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a policy focusing on treatment from the perspective that drug crimes are pathological phenomena caused by brain diseases, different from general criminal cases. However, the budget for drug addiction prevention and treatment is insufficient compared to other areas. The budget allocated for the treatment program is only about 400 mil. KRW,656) which is only enough for about 100 people to be hospitalized once and far less than the stop-smoking program (about 150 bil. KRW), gambling addiction (about 20 bil. KRW), 655) See Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961), Convention on psychotropic substances (1971), and the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988). 656) Joongang Ilbo, [Exclusive] 90% of hospitals designated for treatment of addicts are not accepting drug patients, Jul. 8, 2022,, 20,000 drug addicts, and budget to treat only 100, Oct. 29, 2022 265