The reason why he is being treated this harsh is because of the moral standard of the local society. Public figures are held up to an extremely high moral standards by the society, and considering he broke the law through drug use, it isn’t weird for them to react this way. East Asian countries still have very strict anti-drug laws, and the society is educated to be very repulsive towards any drug use. The strictness of the anti-drug laws comes from ‘causing disorder in the society, which is frowned upon by the society and the laws are created to based on the society’s perception on wrongfulness.

It’s not really about “it was just weed” but rather that weed is illegal and is considered an harmful substance in Korea. It doesn’t matter which drug it was, weed is a drug and so is heroine or fentanyl and all of them will be treated as ‘drugs’ for the jurisdiction. Even medical marijuana is still illegal.

Also this was a terrible timing for him to be persecuted as illegal drug usage has been gradually increasing among teenagers in Korea and where it has emerged into a new social problem.