PLACING BLAME FOR DRUG USE

I am an avid reader of The Korea Herald after having lived in the country
for three years. I work in news in Canada so I pay close attention to the
stories you print. After reading the article "Nine drug users indicted in
bar raids" (July 26), I can't help but question the motivation behind the
story's headline-like treatment. I realize drug use in Korea isn't as bad as
it is in North America, but it does happen. I don't think it warrants
front-page coverage when so many other things are taking place.

And the way it is written also bothers me on a certain level. The
gatekeeping of your editors seems to take an anti-American stance every so
often. This article is a good example. It is made very clear to all readers
that the "bad drug users" formerly lived in the United States.

You are sending the message that all low life people in Korea get their bad
habits from the States, as if to say "no real Korean would ever do drugs,
it's the ones who go to the States that are the bad ones."

During my stay in Korea, I was approached several times by people who
offered to sell me drugs - people who had never been to America. I think you
have a great paper, but the anti-American slant kills its credibility. If
you saw a Canadian report about people who were arrested for doing drugs in
Toronto, and the repeated focus of the story was that the culprits were
people who had been from Korea, would you think that Koreans did a lot of
drugs or had low morals?

Allen Rollin, Ontario, Canada