Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200806/20080626/article_364623.htm
China promises drugs purge in Games cities
Created: 2008-6-26 1:25:36
Author:Lydia Chen
CHINA would crack down on illegal drugs in Beijing and other cities hosting Olympic events, a top police official said yesterday.
Police would target drug use at nightclubs and other entertainment venues, as well as smugglers supplying major cities, said Yang Fengrui, director of the Bureau of Narcotics Control under the Public Security Ministry.
Drug traffickers in China face the death penalty.
While most Olympic events are taking place in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qinghuangdao and Shenyang cities will host soccer matches and Qingdao City in Shandong Province will host sailing events.
Yang told a Beijing news conference the crackdown would be accompanied by a publicity campaign aimed at raising "public awareness of the hazards of drug use."
The number of known addicts in China rose 35 percent to 1.2 million from 2000 to 2005, the latest period for which data are available. That included 700,000 heroin users, more than two-thirds of them under 35.
Yang was speaking on the eve of the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
He said China had cracked 144,000 drug-related cases involving 174,000 people in the past three years.
More than 4,000 hotels and entertainment venues across the country had been punished after drugs were detected in their premises, he said.
Police had seized 17.5 tons of heroin, 19.7 tons of methamphetamine and 5 million ecstasy tablets over the three years, he said.
Almost 13 tons of heroin and 9.3 tons of methamphetamine were seized in Yunnan Province along China's southern border with the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, where drugs are relatively cheap and plentiful.
Yang said 507 kilograms of heroin and 4.8 tons of cannabis had been seized in places including Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai.
He said ecstasy, ice, ketamine and other new types of illegal drugs were replacing traditional drugs such as heroin as the key threat among people under 35 and the situation was worse in big cities.
Mobile populations such as migrant workers had become a new group prone to drugs, Yang said.
The August Olympic Games will be high on the anti-drug agenda this year and the Chinese authorities would do all they could to stem the flow of drugs out of China and interrupt drug trade routes, Yang said.
Police would target drug use at nightclubs and other entertainment venues, as well as smugglers supplying major cities, said Yang Fengrui, director of the Bureau of Narcotics Control under the Public Security Ministry.
Drug traffickers in China face the death penalty.
While most Olympic events are taking place in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qinghuangdao and Shenyang cities will host soccer matches and Qingdao City in Shandong Province will host sailing events.
Yang told a Beijing news conference the crackdown would be accompanied by a publicity campaign aimed at raising "public awareness of the hazards of drug use."
The number of known addicts in China rose 35 percent to 1.2 million from 2000 to 2005, the latest period for which data are available. That included 700,000 heroin users, more than two-thirds of them under 35.
Yang was speaking on the eve of the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
He said China had cracked 144,000 drug-related cases involving 174,000 people in the past three years.
More than 4,000 hotels and entertainment venues across the country had been punished after drugs were detected in their premises, he said.
Police had seized 17.5 tons of heroin, 19.7 tons of methamphetamine and 5 million ecstasy tablets over the three years, he said.
Almost 13 tons of heroin and 9.3 tons of methamphetamine were seized in Yunnan Province along China's southern border with the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, where drugs are relatively cheap and plentiful.
Yang said 507 kilograms of heroin and 4.8 tons of cannabis had been seized in places including Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai.
He said ecstasy, ice, ketamine and other new types of illegal drugs were replacing traditional drugs such as heroin as the key threat among people under 35 and the situation was worse in big cities.
Mobile populations such as migrant workers had become a new group prone to drugs, Yang said.
The August Olympic Games will be high on the anti-drug agenda this year and the Chinese authorities would do all they could to stem the flow of drugs out of China and interrupt drug trade routes, Yang said.
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