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Pyongyang Ice

North Korea Has a Meth Problem

Fifty percent of population in some areas addicted.

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Stephanie Pilick/AP

North Korea has been making meth for export for years, but according to a study in the journal North Korea Review, the country has begun getting high on its own supply. The study says that between 40 percent and 50 percent of the population in northern areas of the country are addicted to crystal meth, though good data are hard to come by. It's not the first time a drug meant for export has become a problem: opium abuse was once widespread, but when the fields died in the mid 2000s the country switched to meth, and now production has shifted from state-run factories to home kitchens.

Read it at The Wall Street Journal

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