The purpose of this study is to explore the status quo of drug crimes and to explore countermeasures by focusing on adolescents, who are the priority policy target in responding to drug crimes. For the study, official statistics and media reports were analyzed, and eight field practitioners and three young drug offenders were interviewed in depth. In addition, the study reviewed and derived implications from the cases of drug crimes among adolescents, centered on the United States.

  Drug crimes among adolescents have increased by more than four times in the past five years. In 2022, it accounted for 2.6% (481 people) of the total number of drug offenders, but it is attracting social attention because of its large increase. In particular, it is necessary to be careful of the abuse of legal drugs, as the amount of preion drugs for adolescents has increased significantly. In summary of the opinions of field practitioners and young drug offenders, adolescents are prone to drug crimes due to a combination of factors such as the characteristics of the developmental stage of adolescence, social neglect, and changes in the social environment.

  When analyzing the contents reported in the media about drug crimes among adolescents, the topics of “adolescent drug investigation/arrest” and “adolescent drug prevention/rehabilitation” accounted for a high percentage, but prevention/rehabilitation articles tended to disappear faster than investigation/arrest articles. In summary of the results of the analysis of media reports, the characteristics of adolescent peer culture are explained by terms such as “word of mouth” and “friends of the same age”, the ease of drug crimes is explained by terms such as “cola drugs” and “gift certificates”, and “random chat”, “virtual account”, and “telegram” explain the change in the digital-based crime environment. Big data analysis also confirmed that adolescents have a low level of risk awareness of drug crimes, that daily-drugs are spreading, and that the risk of participating in drug trafficking is increasing.

  The government announced the Comprehensive Plan for Drug Control through the Drug Control Council, and each government department implemented various policies to respond to drug control. Among them, the main contents of the government's response to prevent drug crimes among adolescents are as follows: Strengthening punishment for drug crimes against adolescents and drug supply crimes by adolescents, Development and implementation of prevention education tailored to the characteristics of adolescents, Survey of drug use among adolescents, Establishment of a drug rehabilitation center specializing in drug rehabilitation for adolescents, Regulation of drug expressions, Monitoring of the preion of drug medicines, Campaigns.

    Although various opinions were derived from interviews with experts and young drug offenders, experts said that it is important to set a big context and a big framework from a more macroscopic perspective. It is necessary to have a central organization for efficient policy implementation to prevent duplication of resources or blind spots in the response to drug crimes among adolescents, and to emphasize the participation of education experts, especially in prevention education.

  The United States does not seem to have succeeded in the war on drugs at present, but it is a country that has pioneered various policies to prevent drug crimes. The adult drug courts implemented in the United States is uated as having achieved some success, but a systematic uation of the juvenile drug treatment courts, juvenile courts, and youth courts for adolescents yielded different results from the uation of the adult drug court. Recently, the relevance of adolescent mental health and drugs has been emphasized more, and new attempts are underway, such as the Emerging Adult Justice that based on the human development. It is also noteworthy that there are attempts to move adolescents away from the traditional judicial system.

  Based on the above research results, the following policy recommendations were derived. 1) It is required to concentrate the capacity of prevention education centered on education experts. 2) Integrated approach based on adolescent mental health should be made. 3) A treatment linkage system should be established in the early stages of detection and before legal disposition. 4) The establishment of a national drug research institute and a permanent central management agency should be promoted.