I shared a joint with friends at a party in Korea and the police are calling it "supplying" — I'm on a working holiday. Is passing it around really a separate crime?

Yes. Handing cannabis to another person is a separate offense from using it under Korean law — the statute prohibits "receiving or handing over" cannabis, and the investigator's words "provided" and "gave" map onto that offense. It is not the same as selling, and it is not the same as trafficking; it is the offense that sits between use and supply, and it carries the same statutory range as use. What makes your case "different from the others" is that four people will be charged with use and you with use plus handing over — and the file will say you were the source at the party. The others' statements about who brought it will shape that; your own statement, already given, is now the anchor they will be compared against.

What this is under Korean law

Article 61 of the Narcotics Control Act (마약류관리법, mayangnyu gwalli-beop) punishes, in the same paragraph and with the same range — up to five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 50 million — the use, possession, and "receiving or handing over" (수수, susu) of cannabis. Handing a joint to a friend is a handing-over. It is distinct from sale (매매, maemae) or from acts done for the purpose of trade, which fall under the heavier provisions. Prosecutors and courts treat a non-commercial handing-over at a party as more culpable than solitary use — the person who supplies the group is the reason the group used — and sentence it a step above, within the same range.

Your possession of the cannabis before the party is a separate count; who gave it to you is a question the police will ask, and have probably asked.

The others' statements

Five people at a party produce five statements, and investigators reconcile them. If four say "he brought it and rolled it," your case is the source case regardless of how you describe it. If some say the cannabis was already there or that someone else supplied it, the picture is muddier and your role smaller. You cannot control their statements and must not try; contacting them now, in any form, is read as collusion and can itself be charged. What you control is the consistency of your own account with what you already said, and the truthfulness of that account about who gave you the cannabis — an evasion on that point is the thing most likely to turn a party-use file into a supply investigation.

How the process works

The police will complete the five interviews, run tests, and refer the case (송치, songchi). For a group of first-time users, prosecutors commonly resolve the users with conditional suspensions of indictment or fines; the person charged with handing over is more often indicted, with a suspended sentence the typical outcome for a first offense with a small quantity and no commercial element. That is a range, not a prediction. The gap between the two outcomes — a conditional suspension versus a suspended sentence — is the gap between a non-record and a conviction, and it is worth working for.

Your situation as a foreign national

A departure suspension (출국정지, chulguk jeongji) is likely to be requested for the person identified as the source; confirm before assuming you can leave in five months, and understand that a case unresolved at your visa's end becomes a suspended file with an entry flag. Resolving it before you go — a decision from the prosecutor, or an indictment with a trial date you can attend — is what allows a clean departure. A conviction is a fact for any future entry and visa; a drug conviction appears among the grounds for entry refusal. The Immigration Office decides those matters; we do not predict them. MEGA X handles the criminal case.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not message anyone who was at the party or the person who gave you the cannabis. Do not use. Preserve nothing new and delete nothing old. Retain counsel and have a written submission prepared before referral: the non-commercial nature, the small quantity, your cooperation, a program enrollment, and your plan to remain in Korea until the case is decided. Prepare any further statement with your lawyer.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Party cases are built from the first person who talks, and the rest of the group is sorted by how their stories fit hers. Investigators are not trying to create a dealer out of a friend who rolled a joint; they are trying to identify where the cannabis came from, and a "source" who is honest about his own source is a user who handed something over, not a link in a chain. A "source" who says "I don't remember who gave it to me" has made himself the end of the chain. Be the former.

Contact us before the next interview — text consultation or +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Criminal Defense Team