Someone reported my Instagram photos of me smoking cannabis in Thailand to the Korean police — I'm an E-2 teacher. Can I be investigated for something legal that happened abroad?

Korean criminal law does not reach a non-Korean's cannabis use in Thailand; the Criminal Act applies to acts in Korea by anyone and to acts abroad by Korean nationals, and you are neither. The police can still "investigate" in the sense of checking whether the photos point to use in Korea — that is what "clarify" means — and a hair test is how they would check. For a person who has not used in Korea, that test is the exit, and the photos' Thai date stamps are your evidence rather than theirs. Your school is a different matter: an employer's reaction to lawful conduct abroad is a contract and reputation question, not a criminal one, and it is where the real pressure in your situation sits.

What this is under Korean law

Article 2 of the Criminal Act (형법, hyeongbeop) applies Korean law to offenses committed in Korea; Article 3 extends it to Korean nationals abroad. A foreign national's conduct outside Korea is outside both, regardless of whether it would be an offense here. The Narcotics Control Act (마약류관리법, mayangnyu gwalli-beop) is applied through those provisions, so cannabis use in Bangkok by an American is not a Korean offense and cannot be charged.

What the police can investigate is whether the person in the photos has also used in Korea. An anonymous report of a foreign teacher "using drugs" is a tip; the investigator's task is to see whether it leads to an offense within jurisdiction. It leads there only through evidence of use here.

"Clarify," and the test

The investigator will ask where and when the photos were taken, and will ask you to consent to a hair or urine test. You may decline; a warrant on the basis of vacation photos from a country where the conduct was lawful is unlikely to be granted. Whether to consent is a decision for counsel — and for someone who has used nowhere but Thailand, and not recently, a test is the document that closes the file. Timing matters: hair analysis reaches back months and can detect a single use; if your Thailand use was within that window, a positive result would show use, and the argument would then be about where. Your dated photos, your flight records and a laboratory's segmental analysis can locate use in time; that is a conversation to have with counsel before you agree to anything, not in the interview.

If you attend, attend with counsel and an interpreter, state the dates and place, produce the flight and hotel records, and say nothing else.

Your school

Lawful conduct abroad is not a crime, but an E-2 contract typically contains conduct and reputation clauses, and a director who has received a "teaches children" email is reacting to those. Whether a photo of a lawful act in another country is just cause for dismissal under the Labor Standards Act is contestable; whether the school will try is a different question. Do not argue the point with the director in the heat of the email. Say that the photos are from a country where the conduct is legal, that you have never used in Korea, that a police inquiry is being handled through counsel, and that you will provide the outcome. Then let the outcome — a closed file — do the arguing.

The person who sent the photos to the school and the police has, depending on the message, exposed himself to a defamation complaint; that is a lever to hold, not to use yet.

Your situation as a foreign national

A closed police inquiry leaves nothing on your E-2. A dismissal would start an immigration clock the Immigration Office controls; a dispute with the school should be managed with that timeline visible. MEGA X handles the police side and the response to the school; where status is affected, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of the matter.

What to do now, and what not to do

Take the photos down now — not because they are evidence of a crime, but because they are the reason your director is angry. Do not delete them from your device; preserve them with metadata. Assemble the flight, hotel and dispensary records. Retain counsel before the interview. Do not tell the director or colleagues anything about Korea-based use, because there is nothing to tell and a stray sentence would create something.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Anonymous-tip cases with foreign vacation photos are checked and closed; investigators know the territorial rule and they know that a teacher's ex-friend with a screenshot is not a drug case. What keeps the file open is a teacher who refuses everything and explains nothing, or one who says "well, once here too" in an attempt to be honest about the wrong thing. A dated photo, a flight record and a clean test is a file the investigator closes with relief; it costs him a tip he could not use.

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

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Criminal Defense Team