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By Kim Jae-heun
Teenage drinking has become a serious problem here with about 2,000 teens being treated for alcoholism last year, according to a study by the National Assembly Research Service.
The study, published Wednesday, also showed that half the number of teenagers who drink often do so at dangerous levels, citing easy access to alcohol as the main reason for this.
According to the research, the number of teenagers treated for alcoholism has increased annually more than doubled from 922 in 2010 to 1,968 in 2017.
While the overall rate of drinking among teenagers has been decreasing, the rate of heavy drinking and its related problems among those who do has increased.
Among drinkers, 55.4 percent of females and 48.5 percent of males were imbibing at dangerous levels; with girls drinking on average at least three glasses of soju, and boys at least five, per session over a 30 day period.
Thirty-nine percent of girls and 37 percent of boys were drinking at a problematic level, meaning on at least two occasions they had drunk alone, drunk to relieve stress, been advised to stop drinking, drove cars or motorcycles while under the influence, blacked out after drinking, or became violent when drunk.
"The growing number of heavy drinking and alcoholic teenagers is related to easy access to alcohol and its affordability," an official said.
Currently, the law bans the selling of alcohol to teenagers, but 67.2 percent of those who tried to purchase alcohol had no problem doing so, the study showed.
It was easier for high school students to purchase alcohol than middle school students, and girls had better chance of acquiring it than boys.
Over 7,520 cases of adults selling alcohol to teenagers, which violates the Juvenile Protection Act, were uncovered last year.
In Korea, the law only punishes those providing alcohol to teenagers. Teenagers who drink and buy alcohol are not subject to any punishment.
"To better prevent teenagers from drinking, the United States and the United Kingdom have laws that punish them also, which increases the effectiveness of regulation," the official said. "Korea should also punish teenagers who purchase and drink alcohol. If this is regarded as too harsh, it can at least be an option to use against those who deceive bar or store owners with fake IDs to buy alcohol."
Some lawmakers have recently submitted a revision bill to the National Health Promotion Act to insert warning images on alcoholic beverage bottles depicting the harmful effects, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Currently, only a warning that excessive drinking is bad for a person's health, especially during pregnancy or while young, is placed on bottles. However, it is printed in very small lettering and many point out that this is ineffective.
If the bill is passed, warning images will show photographs of the harmful consequences of driving under the influence, such as car crashes. Warning will also be made clearer and more diverse, stating: "heavy drinking is bad for your health," "drinking during pregnancy can harm the fetus" and "drunk driving is equal to killing."
The lawmakers believe the warning images will have a considerable impact, considering the one seen with the same measure introduced for cigarette packs, which lowered the smoking rate by 1.6 percent.
