China arrests more than 85,000 drug-users in 1999: report

Asian Economic News, March 6, 2000

BEIJING, March 3 Kyodo

Chinese authorities apprehended more than 85,000 drug-users in 1999, bringing the total number of arrested drug-offenders to 680,000, the official China Daily reported Friday.

Police also reported that 59,000 drug-dealers were apprehended last year, up 7.9% from the 1998 figure, the report said.

Public Security Vice Minister Bai Jingfu said police seized 5.3 tons of heroin and 16 tons of "ice," or crystal methamphetamine, in 1999, the report said.

Under Chinese law, smuggling more than 50 grams of heroin is punishable by death, the report said.

Meanwhile, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday an estimated 490,000 Chinese nationals, or 72% of all drug-offenders, take and inject heroin.

The Xinhua report said intravenous drug use is responsible for 70% of China's estimated 400,000 AIDS cases.

Chinese law stipulates that a drug user who is arrested must be detained for 15 days. Arrested drug addicts are forced to enter a rehabilitation program.

Of the new offenders, 58,400 have been designated as addicts, the Xinhua report said.

Officials claimed that 220,000 drug users successfully completed drug rehabilitation programs last year, Xinhua reported.

China's principal drug smuggling and producing areas are in the southern provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi.

Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, is located in the "Golden Triangle," an area responsible for producing a large portion of the world's heroin.

China is sensitive to drug use and addiction due to the success of the communist government in wiping out opium addiction during the initial years of its rule following the 1949 communist takeover.