South Korea is well known for being the most restrictive country when it comes to the regulation of drugs, especially marijuana. There are a ton of articles that cover the arrest of several celebrities who used marijuana for recreational use, and the public reaction has always been strict. Even though recent research, including Scientific Reports, suggests that its harmful effects are not as severe as cigarettes or alcohol, recreationally smoking marijuana has been something that has never been allowed for Koreans inside and outside of the border. Despite the bad reputation of marijuana in the country, however, last November, the National Assembly officially approved its uses for medical purposes, being the first to legalize in East Asia.

Cannabis research was started last year as Cannabis Medical, the affiliated company of Osung Advanced Materials, partnered with KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) researching and developing. The project is a three-year-long project which aims to prove the effects of medical cannabis by 2020. It has been mainly focusing on the activation of ‘cannabinoids’, which are the chemical substances of Marijuana. As a result of the project, the National Assembly passed legislation to ease the Act on the Management of Narcotic Drugs last November, and the law took effect in March this year.

The law states that it is not fair to completely ban its use without considering its medical benefits and thus its use for medical purposes along with import and export of some marijuana-based products are allowed to secure the interests and expand the opportunity to access treatment for patients. As an effect, Marijuana has proven its medical benefits by controlling seizures or reducing pain for cancer patients.

The law is still very limited though as only certain types of pharmaceutical marijuana including Sativex, Epidiolex, Marinol and Cesamet are accepted, which has already been marketed in several countries. On top of that, patients with rare or incurable diseases such as epilepsy are only eligible for the treatment. They must indicate that there are no available alternatives to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and it can be prescribed only through the Korean Orphan Drug Center. Plus, the national insurance does not cover the indicated medicines, therefore the patients need to pay the full burden of the treatment. Due to the strict limitations, some say that it is yet to be fully commercialized. Nevertheless, it is seen as a great leap forward because it can benefit patients that really need it.

Even though some countries including South Korea acknowledge its medicinal benefits and legalize its medical use, the controversy over medical marijuana has been an issue all around the world. The medical director of the Cleveland Clinic, an American academic medical center, has also stated in an interview he had with Medscape, that they do not recommend the treatment to patients since there are a lot of scientific studies that suggest detrimental effects on physical health, specifically on cardiovascular and respiratory health while only few suggests its medical benefits. Indeed, since Thailand legalized its medical use, Krabi Public Health Office has reported that many of the patients using medical marijuana have been developing side effects such as vomiting. On top of that, negative perspectives still remain since there are risks of abusing the system as people lie about their symptoms so that they can get the drug. In actuality, abusing medical marijuana has been a serious social problem in Montana and the scale was out of control. According to an article from Independent Record, among the prescribed patients, more than 25 percent of them were in their 20s and considering the fact that it was being prescribed to those who have serious conditions, the percentage were unreasonably high. There are also some critics that say it can be used as a means to make money since there is the possibility that people sell and buy the prescriptions.

Legalization is seen as a remarkable step by South Korea to first allow medical weed in East Asia after its own research projects. The research is still going on and I believe it will soon be commercialized so that people could be free from all their pain as they get more and more chances to use the treatment. However, as we can learn from all the precedents, it is regarded as extremely important to keep developing the right standards and systems so that we could properly maintain the law and prevent any cases of possible overdosing or misusing.

Cho Aruem  aruemcho@gmail.com

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