Legal cannabis undermines drug fight

ON MONDAY, China National Narcotics Control Commission released a report on the fight against drugs in 2018, which showed that the amount of cannabis smuggled from North America has seen a sharp rise. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

The number of known drug-takers has dropped by 5.8 percent; the number of new drug-takers has dropped by 26.6 percent; while the number of drug-users aged 35 or younger has dropped by 31 percent.

In other words, the increase in the number of cases of cannabis smuggled from North America comes at a time when drug use is falling. This goes against the generally positive trend of the anti-drugs work of China.