According to wikipedia use of drugs are a lesser offense in south korea, so if that is correct it is not highly criminalized.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Korea

Supply of drugs has also historically been limited according to the following article that goes over drugs in South Korea at length:

- https://www.koreaexpose.com/drugs-south-korea-a-silent-crisi...

Singapore then. They're still hanging people for possession...

Singapore has also upheld imprisoning people for homosexual acts in recent years. It is not a society that tolerates behaviour outside the mainstream.

The death penalty is for dealing, not for users.

The quantities listed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Singapor... seems higher than what a user would have on them.

Possession of large enough a quantity means you're automatically considered a dealer, and we're not talking huge quantities either: 30g (1 oz) of cocaine translates to a mandatory death penalty. This extends to things like having the key to a locker containing drugs.

Yes. And I wish they would move to a policy of legalise-and-regulate-(-and-tax).

But at least they manage to make their prohibition policy actually effective: drugs are hard to get, and not a lot of people are actually behind bars or executed for trading.

(Compare with eg the US which incarcerates a lot of people, but the drug trade goes on regardless.)

One point that may be significant is that South Korea has only one land border, and it is heavily guarded.

Ok consider Iceland. Literally an island, very high overdose rate.

Well, having a 9 month winter will make anyone take drugs.

That rather supports gok’s claim that it’s more complicated than just punishment severity.

Vitamin D should be the first.

Per capita?

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that there are many variables to consider, and a lot of them are less obvious, or less quantifiable.

I never thought of it this way but basically South Korean is an island effectively. Practically no one travels in/out of South Korea except by flying in/out.

how is this significant in any way to the topic of drug-related deaths?

It relates to how drugs get into the country, and what drugs get into the country. In the case of the U.S., the Mexico border is a huge problem. It probably didn't help that the CIA was selling automatic weapons to the cartels, either...

It's much easier to catch someone smuggling drugs through an airport than it is stopping someone from walking over an imaginary line that's thousands of kilometres long. So less drugs in circulation, which would have an effect on death rates.

Koreans have boats, and a very large coastline...

Sure, but their closest marine neighbor is also very hard on drugs and drugs dealers (Japan).

Given that drugs are grown/cultivated elsewhere and smuggled in, and smuggling them is close to a $100 billion per year business, very.

First thing I‘d ask is if South Korea had a high amount of users and addicts and deaths ever in the past. I could imagine US and Portugal are more similar to each other.

SK also has one of the highest suicide rates (2nd) in the world. There's a confounding effect between people who wants release that can get drugs for it and those that can't which results in suicide.

I feel like in that culture, the drug of choice is alcohol. A lot of people forget that alcohol is a drug, just one that most human societies have deemed acceptable.

According to Wikipedia [1] it is on the 10th place, not 2nd.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...