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N. Korea: Drug diet fad emerges among elite
Daily NK ^ | 2015-08-03 | Kang Mi Jin

Posted on 08/03/2015 3:41:51 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Drug diet fad emerges among elite

Kang Mi Jin | 2015-08-03 17:48

The repressed appetite and heightened sense of stimulation offered by crystal methamphetamine, otherwise known as crystal meth, has made it an increasingly popular option for dieting among the wives of Party cadres and trade workers in North Korea. The growing practice has led to mounting concerns about substance abuse problems within the country, Daily NK has learned.

“More wives of cadres and traders these days are purchasing methamphetamine,” a source from Yanggang Province told Daily NK. “Those who are already addicted use them for pleasure, and there has recently been an increase in those who get it for dieting purposes.”

Daily NK spoke with an additional source in Yanggang Province who corroborated this news.

“(They say) going on meth completely suppresses the appetite and keeps you alert even in the middle of the night when you should be asleep,” he said, explaining that these women find it attractive since it not only makes them feel good but also offers the added benefit of weight loss, contributing to the rising numbers of these dual-purpose users.

Many women in this contingent convince their husbands, namely Party cadres or heads of foreign-currency earning enterprises, to give them money so they can buy these drugs to help them lose weight. Currently in the city of Hyesan, 1 gram of meth is sold for 150 RMB by smugglers. On average, people use roughly 0.1-0.3 grams in one sitting, but the most severe addicts can consume up to 1 gram in a single day, according to the source.

“Taking meth in the North is nothing shocking, and these officials find themselves permitting the practice because they like their wives to be slim,” he explained.

Demand is so high, in fact, that one such wife in Hyejang of Hyesan City was even lodging at her brokers’ home to buy her supply, leading to fingerpointing from neighboring residents. “The crackdown on meth has become more severe, so these kinds of things are happening all the time,” the source asserted.

As previously reported by Daily NK, the step-up on meth crackdowns along the Sino-North Korean border and harsher punishments for users have failed to reduce the number of addicts.

“The reason why the numbers are not dropping is because law enforcement officials and cadre members all have addicts at home,” he noted. “Officials involved in the crackdowns fear their wives will get caught up in things and make things difficult for them, so they just turn a blind eye.”

Naturally, the ‘dieting trend’ has elicited incredulous reactions among ordinary residents, who point out that “the average person has no time, let alone opportunity, to gain weight between mandatory work mobilizations and a shortage of food.” Disgruntled, beleaguered residents point out that if cadres would share some of that food around, “they wouldn’t eat it all alone and get fat.”

Last year, the North Korean authorities added five extra clauses to Article 60 of the country's criminal code, which pertains to attempts to overthrow the state. Using or dealing in drugs appears in the re-codified offenses, along with illegal phone contact with foreigners, including South Koreans; viewing South Korean dramas or DVDs and listening to [foreign] radio broadcasts; transnational human and sex trafficking; and aiding and abetting defectors and leaking state secrets. The additional clauses stipulate harsh punishments for these acts, which could in principle incur the death penalty.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: diet; meth; nkorea
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1 posted on 08/03/2015 3:41:52 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster; AmericanInTokyo; Steel Wolf; nuconvert; MizSterious; endthematrix; ...

P!


2 posted on 08/03/2015 3:42:19 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (The way to crush the bourgeois is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Great! A country with nukes run by tweakers. Then again, I look in the mirror.


3 posted on 08/03/2015 3:45:11 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: wastoute

Ours is on blow. Watch how he rubs his finger by his nose every ten seconds.


4 posted on 08/03/2015 3:48:05 AM PDT by Crazieman (Article V or National Divorce. The only solutions now.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I’m trying to imagine the North Korean version of Breaking Bad but my mind just can’t conjure up an image.


5 posted on 08/03/2015 3:54:00 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: Pan_Yan

I can’t imagine skinnier Norks...


6 posted on 08/03/2015 4:23:33 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks ("If he were working for the other side, what would he be doing differently ?")
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To: TigerLikesRooster

7 posted on 08/03/2015 4:50:17 AM PDT by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

So do they use crystal methamphetamine instead of sprinkles on their ice cream?


8 posted on 08/03/2015 4:52:49 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I guess they’ve never seen some of the before/after pictures of Meth addicts. That’s enough to scare any thinking person from getting within 10 feet of meth. You might lose some weight, but at the cost of your health and soul.


9 posted on 08/03/2015 4:55:48 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: rbg81

“but at the cost of your health and soul.”

The NORK party elite have long since lost their souls. Maybe they can be persuaded to worry about their teeth.


10 posted on 08/03/2015 5:01:54 AM PDT by Junk Silver
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I have read that North Korea is a major meth manufacrturer same as Mexico is in our hemisphere. That the Norks distribute meth throughout NE Asia. That meth is the drug of choice in Japan and South Korea. Not marijuana...that’s for numbskulls.

Drug taking is low in Japan and South Korea but if they take them they want meth and uppers


11 posted on 08/03/2015 5:09:51 AM PDT by dennisw (Useful)
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To: Junk Silver

LOL—good point.


12 posted on 08/03/2015 5:20:40 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
I can’t imagine skinnier Norks...

You're thinking of the peasants. These are the well-fed ruling class members.

13 posted on 08/03/2015 5:39:52 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'll vote for Jeb when Terri Schiavo endorses him.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Didn’t know anyone in the DPRK, other than Baby Huey, a.k.a. Kim Jong-un, had a weight problem. The vast majority of North Koreans subsist on starvation rations; usually no more than a bowl of rice a day, and a small piece of fish once or twice a week. Conditions in the countryside are far worse; reports of residents eating grass to stay alive are not exaggerated, and most of the 1 million or North Koreans who died in the decade-long famine were from rural areas.

Malnutrition is such a chronic problem in the worker’s paradise that the average Nork is now 5-6 inches shorter and about 40 pounds lighter than the typical South Korea. And large numbers of North Korean children show the chronic effects of malnutrition, including brain damage.

Of course, the elites are a different group. Fat Boy, like his father and grandfather before him, understands the importance of delivering actual food and consumer goods to the key people in the military and the communist party, in return for their support.

Going on meth to lose weight is probably a matter of life and death. Being corpulent in a society where almost everyone is stick thin is a good way to attract attention from the secret police, and it gives them the foundation for charges of dealing in the black market, etc. Very handy for getting rid of elites who run afoul of the regime.


14 posted on 08/03/2015 5:49:02 AM PDT by ExNewsExSpook
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To: COBOL2Java

Every picture of NK officers show they might weigh in at 100 pounds...


15 posted on 08/03/2015 5:49:09 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks ("If he were working for the other side, what would he be doing differently ?")
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To: TigerLikesRooster

What were you expecting from a country whose leader
reportedly doesn’t defecate?


16 posted on 08/03/2015 5:50:39 AM PDT by cavador (What is the theory of objectivity?)
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To: rbg81

“I guess they’ve never seen some of the before/after pictures of Meth addicts.”

The addicts you see in the pictures are abusing very dirty meth and essentially starving in the streets with no medical attention.

Pure meth is actually not very toxic and your doctor can even prescribe it to children under the brand name “Desoxyn”.

Elites can use meth for decades without looking like those street addicts. They just become extremely dependent on the drug and slowly lose their mental health.

IMO, Hitler was a prime example of elite meth psychosis


17 posted on 08/03/2015 6:25:32 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: TigerLikesRooster
The winner of North Korea's Next top Model


18 posted on 08/03/2015 6:28:44 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: TigerLikesRooster


19 posted on 08/03/2015 6:34:50 AM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Every picture of NK officers show they might weigh in at 100 pounds...

Think higher up. Dear Leader and his immediate cadre.

20 posted on 08/03/2015 6:47:46 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'll vote for Jeb when Terri Schiavo endorses him.)
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