2) ‘War on Drugs’ and the Rehabilitation and Treatment of Drug Addicts A) The Pan-Governmental ‘War on Drugs,’ and Questions on Its Direction From October 2022, the government announced that it would establish comprehensive measures that include drug crime prevention and crackdown, treatment and rehabilitation, education and publicity at the pan-governmental level, led by the Prime Minister's Office. In addition, it implemented the establishment of a joint investigation team of the prosecution and the police, strengthening crackdowns, and upgrading the status of the Narcotics Countermeasures Council. The Office of the President and the government agencies emphasized this as a major national task, calling it the “war on drugs.”643) Usually, when a country's Drug Index644) announced by the UN is higher than 20, the society is considered unable to control drugs,645) and in Korea, this index has exceeded 20 since 2015, reaching 31 in 2021. The number of drug offenders in Korea has been approx. 10,000 people since the time of the foreign exchange crisis. After recording 11,916 in 2015, the number has exceeded 16,000 since 2019. The number of drug offenders caught between Jan. and Jul. is estimated to exceed 10,575 in 2022, a record high, and the number of drug offenders who have not been caught will exceed 400,000 and as many as 1 million.646) The Supreme Prosecutor's Office cites the environment where ordinary people who have never encountered drugs can purchase drugs relatively easily from domestic and foreign drug suppliers using the Internet (Dark Web) and social media as the main reason for the increase in drug offenders compared to a few years ago.647) One of the most noteworthy things about the recent drug problem is that 56.8% of the drug offenders are in their 20s and 30s. Most of them are accused of misuse of psychotropic drugs, and this trend is similar internationally. In the US, the misuse and abuse of counterfeit drugs 643) Joongang Ilbo, [Exclusive] Yoon Administration’s War on Drugs, Oct. 3, 2022. 644) Number of drug offenders arrested per 100,000 population 645) Drugs (or narcotics) refers to substances that affect the central nervous system of humans and excessively or inhibit the central nervous system, and are physically and mentally dependent and are designated and managed according to relevant laws and regulations. Narcotics, psychotropic drugs, and cannabis are sometimes used interchangeably as narcotics, but the correct term is “narcotics,” and narcotics are a type of narcotics. 646) Donga Ilbo Report, ‘War on Drug’ should not stop at a slogan, Oct. 26, 2022, Lee, Beom-jin, Professor of Pharmacology at Aju University 647) Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, White Paper on Narcotics Crimes, 2021, May 5, 2022 262