War on drugs faces high figures
- Source: Global Times
- [08:55 April 18 2011]
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By Wei Na
Beijing's 22nd Anti-Drug Education Week kicked off with an event themed "To fight drugs, first volunteer," at Ditan Park Sunday, with photos of narcotics and lectures on drug abuse and trafficking.
"Anti-drug publicity has been strengthened in Beijing, and currently we have recruited about 23,000 volunteers, mostly to help with publicity and education and to help out drug addicts," said team vice director Shi Yuchun.
In the most recent high-profile arrest, Beijing police nabbed Hong Kong actor Mo Shaocong in Chaoyang district Friday for unspecified drug use, according to the Legal Mirror.
Song Yue, vice director of the former Chongwen district office of the Narcotics Control Commission confirmed the number of addicts in Beijing has increased quickly, with a rise in younger users.
"Chongwen district occupies a smaller area compared to others, but still it has a group of former drug addicts that I wouldn't call small," Song said. The majority were heroin or marijuana users, he said.
The most recent drug statistics confirmed by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) are from their 2010 Narcotics Control Report, which provides figures for 2009. That year, police arrested 91,000 drug suspects, and 173,000 drug addicts were forced to attend rehabilitation.
According to the report, the number of people caught using methamphetamine, or ice, increased by 27 percent, the biggest rise seen for drug abuse between 2008 and 2009.
In total, 75,000 people were arrested in China for using ice during that time, accounting for 38 percent of all drug users registered that year.
Expatriate suspects came from 50 countries, with a 20 percent increase in arrests between 2008 and 2009.
In a recent case, this March, China executed three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking in Xiamen, Fujian Province.
"It is a fact that for the last few years, more expatriates have been involved in drug-related crimes in Beijing, and more are smugglers instead of actual users," said an anonymous officer with the narcotics office of the PSB. Updated statistics for 2010 will be released in June, according to the officer.
Mountainous districts like Mentougou see fewer busts than Chaoyang and Haidian, according to Xu Zhigang, an official with the Mentougou district office of the Narcotics Control Commission.
The rural district focuses instead on drug prevention activities such as the unmanned plane surveillance that began in 2010 to crack down on poppy farming.
"We have not detected any opium poppies on the land so far, but we'll launch another area 'skycam' in May or June, when the opium poppies are expected to bloom," said Xu.
