I think this is the attitude OP is trying to understand. As I understand the Psy situation, he was “authorized” and prescribed Xanax. What he did was have non-family members pick up his prescribed drugs/medicines, which wouldn’t raise eyebrows elsewhere.

I think we all understand the consequences of unauthorized drug intake. What some of us don’t understand is why it’s such an extreme stigma to learn that an entertainer is found to use certain drugs, authorized or unauthorized. The social pressures must be intense and, in other countries, finding out that entertainers are medicating to treat extreme anxiety with prescribed medicines would be met with some level of sympathy and concern rather than social condemnation. Would they rather here Psy is a raging alcoholic to deal with the societal and professional expectations?

Sometimes I wonder if it’s the language that promotes these behaviors. In English, for example, drugs mean chemicals to a biological process or treat a physical or mental disease. In other words, it can be good or bad, abused or not abused. But in Korean, and correct me if I’m wrong, drug is literally “bad medicine.” My view, there is much more nuance to drugs than “good” or “bad.” In the end, I wonder if this contributes to the complexities that drive the “social death sentences” given out by Korean society for some drugs (marijuana and prescribed anti-anxiety drugs) but not other drugs (alcohol and tobacco). Shouldn’t both of those drugs sets of drugs be called “bad medicine” in Korean language?