The War on “Red Drugs”: Anticommunism and Drug Policy in Republic of Korea, 1945-1960

• Main Author: Ji-Young Park
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society for the History of Medicine 2016-04-01
• Series: Uisahak
• Subjects: Poppy; Narcotics; Reds; Anti-communism; Drug Policy; Republic of Korea; Korean war; Cold war; Harry J. Anslinger; Protocol for Limiting and Regulating the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant
• Online Access: http://www.medhist.or.kr/upload/pdf/kjmh-25-1-77.pdf
• ISSN: 1225-505X; 2093-5609

This paper investigates the discourses and policies on narcotics in Republic of Korea from 1945 to 1960. Since the Liberation the narcotic problem was regarded as the vestige of Japanese imperialism. which was expected to be cleaned up. The image of narcotic crimes as the legacy of the colonial past was turned into as the result of the Red Army’s tactics to attack on the liberalist camp around the Korean war. The government of ROK represented the source of the illegal drugs as the Red army and the spy from North Korea. The anticommunist discourse about narcotics described the spies, who introduced the enormous amount of poppies into ROK and brought about the addicts, as the social evil. Through this discourse on poppies from North Korea, the government of ROK emphasized the immorality of the communists reinforcing the anticommunist regime, which was inevitable for the government of ROK to legitimize the division of Korea and the establishment of the government alone. This paper examines how the discourses and policies on narcotics in ROK was shaped and transformed from 1945 to 1960 focusing the relationship between the them and the political context such as anticommunism, Korean war, the division of Korea, and etc. This approach would be helpful to reveal the effect of the ROK’s own political situation to the public health system involving the management for drugs.