"Highly recommended! Just add 1-2 drops."
This was the advertising copy for GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) recently posted on Instagram. The advertisement showed everything from the scene of adding this GHB — commonly known as a "date rape drug" — to a beverage, to a woman collapsing after drinking it.
According to industry sources on the 27th, posts claiming to have seen "date rape drug ads" on Instagram and YouTube are being uploaded one after another on social media.
GHB is a controlled substance classified as a psychotropic drug in Korea. Because it is colorless and odorless, there have been many cases of it being secretly mixed into beverages and abused in sex crimes. Consuming it carries the risk of losing consciousness or memory.
Recently, a photo directly exposing a drug labeled "GHB" was posted on Threads. The video included scenes of a man adding liquid to a beverage, and a woman collapsing after drinking it, then being carried away on someone's back.
The wording was also blatant. Expressions such as "Perfectly under your control, 100% secrecy guaranteed" and "Suitable for dates, nightclubs, and bars" were used.
Earlier, in May, an advertisement that even titled the product as "date rape drug" appeared on YouTube. While mentioning the risk of coma or memory loss, it promoted the product as being able to evade drug testing.
Under the Act on the Control of Narcotics (Article 3, Clause 12), advertising narcotics and inducing their purchase are strictly prohibited. Even if no actual transaction takes place, the mere posting of an advertisement is subject to punishment. Nevertheless, online drug advertising has not been eradicated.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is constantly monitoring illegal online drug advertisements. Last year, it detected about 50,000 cases and requested blocking from the Korea Communications Standards Commission and platforms. However, illegal distributors continue to evade crackdowns with new methods.
"Illegal distributors evade crackdowns by disguising their ads as normal apps or adult apps, and re-registering on other apps when they are blocked," a Ministry of Food and Drug Safety official said. "Given the nature of platforms where apps and markets with hard-to-identify URLs frequently appear and disappear, there are limits to what government crackdowns alone can achieve."
Regarding this, Meta Korea said, "Under our community advertising rules, the promotion of illegal products is prohibited," and "all advertisements undergo both an automated system and manual review before posting." However, it did not provide a specific answer regarding how this particular advertisement came to be displayed.
A Google Korea official also said, "We are taking necessary measures such as removing ads that violate related policies and suspending advertiser accounts," and "We operate strict advertising policies with platform safety as our top priority."
