The word ‘drug’ is used by restaurants describing foods to emphasize that they are delicious enough to be addictive. For example, in drug marketing, several instances of the word ‘drug’ were written on the door of a restaurant selling Gukbap. In some cases, the names of the pork belly restaurants started with ‘Cannabis,’ and one snack bar sold ‘drug Kimbap.’ ‘Drug’ is attached to all kinds of food names, on the Internet delivery app, such as Fish cake and Kimchi fried rice. Even sentences such as “It’s highly addictive, don’t report it to the police” have been confirmed.
In other words, it is a kind of marketing phrase to give the impression that you can’t stop eating it once you taste it. In the mutual search of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, more than 160 stores use ‘drug’ in their name, but most of them are restaurants. There are a total of 203 restaurants nationwide with ‘drug’ in their names, and 23 of them opened this year.
However, an amendment to the law prohibiting the use of the word ‘drug’ in describing food went into effect in July. This is because the number of drug offenders increases every year. There are concerns that vigilance against illegal drugs may be lowered. In addition, there are concerns that illegal drugs can be recognized positively without awareness. According to the ‘Drug Perception Survey’ released by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April, 46.5% of adults and 48.6% of adolescents answered ‘Yes’ to whether commercial use of drug terms gives a familiar feeling about drugs. The Korean Association Against Drug Abuse Head of Center claimed, “As awareness is not enough, curiosity about drugs themselves is growing in society today.”
