The fight to put aspirin in convenience stores

Here's another case of lobbyists in action.

The JoongAng Daily published an article of why you can't find over the counter drugs in convenience stores in Korea. To me, it sounds like people are suffering so just others can turn a profit.

The fight to put aspirin in convenience stores 상비약 수퍼 판매 찬반 논란 January 17, 2011

For Shin Min-seo, a 42-year-old mother, trying to find medication for her daughter’s fever developed into an hours-long ordeal because she got sick after pharmacies closed. “My 10-year-old daughter woke me up at 1 in the morning because she had a fever,” Shin said. “I noticed we ran out of aspirin, so I had to stay up all night putting ice packs on my daughter’s forehead, watching her groan in pain.” If Korea’s laws on over-the-counter, nonprescription drug sales weren’t so strict, Shin wouldn’t have had such a terrible night. “If I could have bought some aspirin at the convenience store right in front of my house, there wouldn’t have been so much trouble,” she said. But allowing supermarkets and convenience stores to sell OTC drugs, such as aspirin, antacids, cough syrups and allergy medication, is back in the news thanks to President Lee Myung-bak. When the president received an annual policy report from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, he asked the health minister where Korea stood on liberalizing nonprescription-drug sales like in the U.S. and Japan. After the media reported his remarks, the issue has been revived, along with fierce debate. Drug sales in Korea are currently limited to pharmacies. Civic groups have called for liberalization, but fierce opposition from pharmacists has made the ministry cautious. To strike a compromise, the Korea Pharmaceutical Association (KPA) came up with an alternative last July and decided to test nighttime emergency pharmacies throughout the country for six months, so consumers could purchase OTC drugs at night, on weekends and on public holidays. But half a year has gone by and the program has been a bust. According to the KPA, 2,848 pharmacies are participating in the nighttime emergency system. However, only some of them are open 24 hours a day. Some close at midnight and others close at 7 p.m. despite staying open seven days a week. “I searched online for nearby pharmacies that is open at night to buy a pain killer for my wife, who was suffering from a severe headache in the middle of the night,” said Kim Sang-heok, 37, from Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi. “Finding a nearby nighttime emergency pharmacy was difficult because most of them were in Seoul, but when I finally found one and got there, it was closed. “I called again the next morning and they told me they stopped operating at night since the end of December,” he added. A Web site operated by the KPA (www.pharm114.co.kr) lists only 43 nighttime emergency pharmacies nationwide, and when one reporter made phone calls at 1 a.m., some of them didn’t answer. Among the 43, only 11 of them are open 24/7. Most of the others close at 2 a.m. Seoul and Gyeonggi had seven pharmacies on the list, while other regions had only one or two. Even pharmacists had written off the program and any solution to the problem. According to Medipana, an online medical news site, pharmacists expressed doubt at an annual meeting held in December, saying that the nighttime emergency pharmacies weren’t good enough to satisfy the public and it was expensive for pharmacies to stay open for a small number of customers. According to a report from the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) last week, 80.4 percent of consumers have experienced inconveniences when purchasing OTC drugs after office hours and on weekends and public holidays. The survey of 500 residents in the Seoul metropolitan area was conducted for three days last October. However, the KPA insists that it will not allow a single pill to be sold outside of pharmacies. One of the pharmacists’ arguments is that consumers can misuse or abuse the drugs if they’re so easily available. Doctors scoff at that argument. “Misuse or abuse of drugs rarely occurs,” said an internal medicine doctor surnamed Kwon, 48. “I’ve been treating patients for more than 10 years and I’ve never encountered any patients who had an OTC drug overdose.” Doctor Yim Sang-jae, 55, said: “This situation is just a turf war and consumers are the victims.” Last Thursday, 25 civic groups gathered at the Seoul Press Center to appeal for the liberalization of OTC drug sales. Korea currently classifies 21,050 drugs as prescription drugs and 17,270 as nonprescription drugs. By Yim Seung-hye [enational@joongang.co.kr] Guide Questions: 1. Why is there a need to liberalize over the counter drugs? 2. What reasons were given for keeping OTC drugs only in pharmacies? 3. In your opinion, what should be done to resolve the problem? Vocabulary: testing the waters scoff

Mart Kids

'Mart kids' ― the loneliest in crowd

Children play video games at the electronics goods section of Home Plus in northern Seoul. Receiving no proper care during the daytime, these so-called “mart kids” spend most of their daytime at shopping malls while their parents work. / Korea Times photo by Kim Tae-jong

By Kim Tae-jong

An 11-year-old elementary student, under the alias Choi Seok-hyen, goes to a big shopping mall near his home in northern Seoul by himself in the morning almost every day during the winter break.

He goes straight to the electronics goods section and plays video games for hours. If he is hungry in the afternoon, he goes to the food court in the basement. After finishing his favorite pork cutlet, he continues his tour of the mall until he gets back home late evening.

Choi is one of the so-called “mart kids” who spend most of their hanging out time at big shopping malls, while their parents work. 

They choose a nearby shopping mall as an alternative playground while most of their peers go to private cram schools or hagwon. 

“It’s fun to be around here,” Choi says. He was a bit intimidated by the approach of this reporter but soon started to quickly move his hands on the controller. “It’s not cold here and you can play different video games for free.”

Big malls equipped with various products and services are an attractive place for children like Choi. In the different sections they can read books, watch animals sold as pets, look at various toys and try some free food at free-sample stands on the grocery floor.

The consequence is children receiving no proper parental care during the daytime flock to big malls, which are usually located in residential neighborhoods. 

They come to a mall alone but groups of three or four children are seen around the mall, pulling a cart and running up and down escalators. People around them raise their eyebrows but no one really cares much about them. 

“You can see those kids every day. About six to seven kids come here almost every day,” Kim Hyeon-young, a member of staff in the game section of Home Plus in Sangam-dong, Seoul, said. “Since the beginning of the winter vacation, they stay here from morning to late evening.”

Such children are obviously a headache to mall staff but there is no way they can prevent them from coming or provide them with necessary safety precautions. 

“I simply ask them to leave so that other people can try the video games, but they don’t normally listen to me. And it’s sometimes irritating when they have a minor fight to play,” Kim said. 

Experts have raised safety concerns over the children hanging out in malls without proper care. 

“Most importantly, they can easily fall victim to crime,” said Kim Seung-kwan, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. “Or they can also commit minor crimes such as stealing since they can be very impulsive.”

Kim believes the increase of such mart kids is attributed to the lack of proper welfare programs for them. 

“The state-subsidized welfare programs focus only on children from the families of the lowest-income bracket. Meanwhile, those from comparatively less poor families or double-income families are neglected by welfare programs even though children receive no proper care. I think more after-school programs could be one of the solutions for children who need care,” he added. 

Although more welfare programs are required for children, the government has even failed to organize one unified channel to deal with child welfare. Welfare policies and programs are inconsistent and inefficient as they are split among the Ministry of Gender Equality & Family, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. 

Along with various welfare programs for children, many also argue that more affectionate attention should be given to children in the first place. 

“A mall seems to be a very ironical place,” movie director Park Ji-eun said. “It has almost everything for kids from toys to game machines and the place is always crowded. But those kids are the icon of ‘loneliness in a crowd’ and it has no love that kids really need.”

Park, who has recently released an 11-minute short film about “mart kids,” had to observe and talk to many of them for her film. Then, she realized that they seemed to be more isolated from society. 

“When I approached them, they tried to avoid me. They seemed to be very introverted and defensive. Most don't seem to be accustomed to getting any affection. That’s why I feel really sorry for them,” she said. 

Guide Questions:

1. Is this any different from the latch-key kids of double-income families in other countries? What do you think would be the effects on the child?

2. Whose responsibility is it to make sure these kids have safe places to pass their time (the government? schools? charities? parents?) 

3. What are their parents thinking?  Where's the disconnect, where these kids fall through the gaps?

4. The idea of free-range parenting: giving kids enough freedom to develop a sense of independence - is good, but
5. Is it so bad for kids to have minimal parental supervision?  When I was a kid, my brother biked all around the city, as long as he was home by dark.  Why are people so freaked out now by unsupervised kids?
6. After talking about "Tiger Moms" who fill their kids' entire days with study and lessons, and "Mart Kids" who don't have any structure at all, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems?

Vocabulary:

Latch-key kids

Susceptible