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Damage done from drugs hits almost $4b
By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-27 08:35

China now has 1.13 million known drug users, according to official figures.

The inspection chief of the Ministry of Public Security's anti-drug bureau also warned on Friday that the widespread use of the drug ecstasy was more serious that the government expected.

Damage done from drugs hits almost $4b
Representatives from both China and Vietnam incinerate seized heroin at the Cultural & Sports Square in Dongxing, a city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region that borders Vietnam, on Friday. June 26 was the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. A total of 730 kg of drugs were burned. [China News Service] 

"It is believed that drugs have cost China at least 27 billion yuan ($3.95 billion) on an annual basis, but this is just a rough estimate," said Li Xianhui.

Damage done from drugs hits almost $4b


The government releases the number of known drug addicts each year in an annual report on drug control. Analysts suspect the actual number of addicts is far higher because many users make sure they are not known to the authorities.

The number of known drug users in China in 2006 was greater than this year - 1.16 million.

The government said earlier that an increasing number of women and teenagers were using ecstasy.

"It is not easy to track down those unregistered people who seek, trade in, and take the drugs, especially in the less-developed regions of the country," said Wang Chengdong from the Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law.

China is also showing increasing signs of becoming a center for drug manufacturing - an $800 billion business worldwide, Li warned in an interview with Xinhua online news.

Damage done from drugs hits almost $4b


"More techniques of making 'ice' (methamphetamines) have been transferred into China in recent years. The nation now witnesses the entire process, from drug manufacturing, cross-border trafficking, to sales," said Li on June 26, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

China is seeing more examples of the manufacture of drugs, such as the increased production of the anesthetic ketamine.

China is also uncovering more instances of smuggling and trading in chemical raw materials for drug production. And the courts have seen a sharp spike in the number of drug-related cases, which rose by one-third last year.

The drug trade seems to be more pronounced in coastal cities in south China, said the drug control official, who admitted that the government still has difficulty in identifying the source of much of its seized smuggled drugs.

Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, said Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou were the regions with the most drug-related crime.

Under China's Criminal Law, those convicted of smuggling, trading in, transporting, manufacturing or hiding 1 kg or more of drugs face a minimum of seven years' imprisonment.

The maximum penalty is death.

The nation's legislature should also amend its one-year-old Anti-drug Law to compel discos, parlors and other locations to ensure they are not used by people for the consumption of drugs, said Wu Mingan, a Beijing-based law professor.