Women beat the scourge of drugs

A settlement at the heart of China's narcotics war has won the battle. Ye Zizhen reports with Li Yingqing in Kunming.

It was a difficult decision for Pai Nanxiang to send her two sons to a rehab center decades ago, but she has never regretted it because they have overcome their drug addictions and now live happy lives.

Pai, a farmer in Kanan village in Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, was the first leader of the local women's drug control and order maintenance team, a voluntary organization founded in 2002.

As a border village, the locals have easy access to illicit drugs that are trafficked through the area.

"Back in the 1990s, drugs－especially heroin－were widespread in the village. Many of the users were men, leaving women and children at home with little income," the 61-year-old recalled. She added that back then, 22 local men were addicts, accounting for one-third of the main labor force in the small village.

Pai's husband died at an early age, and the family suffered greatly when her two sons became addicted to drugs.