[News Today] METH USE IN ITAEWON CLUB SCENE

[LEAD]
KBS reporters have uncovered evidence of a group drug use at a club in Seoul's Itaewon district. The suspicious powder discovered on site was sent for analysis, and was later found to be methamphetamine, meth.

[Report]
Around 2 a.m.
A club in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood.

The place is packed, with over an hour wait to get in,

Finally we make our way inside.. to find the floor filled with people dancing with their tops off.

It's now past 3 a.m., and among the
excited crowd, our KBS team spots a man taking an object that resembles a lipstick and putting it close to another person's nose to inhale.

Clubber who has used drugs before / (VOICE MODIFIED)
That seems to be ketamine. It amplifies your senses to better enjoy the music
and so on.

He brings up a similar object close to
his own nose as well.

Clubber who has used drugs before / (VOICE MODIFIED)
The container is a tact to disguise the drug so that others won't notice.

A suspicious situation also unfolds outside the restroom where people endlessly line up throughout the night and early morning.

A group of two to three men go inside a single stall..

and then come out together after about a minute.

This same scene of several people entering and exiting the bathroom stall is repeatedly witnessed.

Clubber who has used drugs before / (VOICE MODIFIED)
If drugs are sold, it would likely happen in the restroom. People go in
to get high again when effects are wearing off.

Our reporter team went inside immediately after the suspicious people had left but found no sign of the toilet having been used.

Instead, they found mysterious zipper bags, several of them, inside the waste bin.

There were yellow and blue colored powder residue remaining inside two of the bags collected by the team.

KBS had it tested by experts and found the substance to be methamphetamine.

Shin Ho-sang / Adviser, Chemdata-affiliated institute
You see the bars. The two lines are exactly the same. That means
it's methamphetamine.

Apparently, meth, which is white on its own, was mixed with another substance.

Shin Ho-sang / Adviser, Chemdata-affiliated institute
It may be a disguise or mixed with another substance to increase volume
as the amount is miniscule.

On the walls of the club, there were even signs warning people not to take drugs, but no one was enforcing the rule or preventing others from using substance.

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