Number of people with newly identified drug addictions plummets in China

BEIJING -- China newly identified 155,000 people with drug addictions in 2020, a drop of nearly 60 percent from the figure in 2016, an official with the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said on Thursday.

Public security authorities handled 64,000 drug-related criminal cases in 2020, down 50 percent from 128,000 in 2016, said Liang Yun, head of the anti-drug bureau of the MPS, at a press conference.

The number of people currently addicted to drugs in China also decreased sharply, falling to 1.8 million, down more than 30 percent from the end of 2016, said Liang.

Following a crackdown on drug-related crime, as many as 3 million people nationwide have not returned to drug use for three years after rehabilitation, 2.5 times the number in 2016.

According to official statistics, approximately 97 percent of people expressed satisfaction with the country's anti-drug work in 2020.