Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission June 25, 2008 |
I. Notable achievement has been made in the three-year-long people's war on drugs In the first place, the cultivation area of opium poppy has dropped remarkably in the Golden Triangle, which used to be the biggest threat to China , and cultivation of opium poppy has been banned completely in Laos . Cultivation area of opium poppy in Myanmar has dropped from 2.487 million mu, the highest in one year, to 279,000 mu, down 70 percent from 950,000 mu in 2004, the lowest in history. In the second place, the volume of heroin smuggled into China from North Myanmar has declined sharply. The volume of heroin seized across the country has declined from 10.8 tons in 2004 to 7.1 tons in 2005, 5.8 tons in 2006 and 4.6 tons in 2007, and that seized in Yunnan Province has declined from 8.5 tons in 2004 to 5.3 tons, 4.2 tons and 3.3 tons year by year; bulk drug smuggling and trafficking activities have decreased significantly, and the number of cases in which over 10 kg of heroin was seized across the country dropped from 80 in 2005 to 39 in 2007. In the third place, heroin is in tight supply in the domestic market. Compared with 2004, the retail price of heroin in China has doubled or redoubled, and the average cost of heroin abusers has increased from 218 yuan to 320 yuan, up 47 percent; the purity of heroin sold in small packages has fallen sharply, most of which contains less than 10 percent morphine; purchase of drugs has become increasingly difficult in the society, with abusing of substitutes of heroin appearing in some areas. In the fourth place, the amount of key precursor chemicals smuggled out has decreased significantly. Compared with 2004, the black-market price of acetic anhydride required for processing heroin in Golden Triangle has risen from 70,000 yuan per ton to 120,000 yuan per ton, and that of ephedrine required for manufacturing ice tablets has risen from 2.5 million yuan per ton to 15 million yuan per ton, which has largely curbed the capacity and scale of drug making in drug sources outside the country. in the fifth place, domestic consumption of heroin has shrunk gradually. At present, 55.4 percent of the heroin abusers have benefited from drug treatment and rehabilitation, social help and education and many other measures. The number of undiscovered heroin abusers and drug abusers out of control has dropped significantly. The actual heroin abusing scale has been under control. In some areas, the number of heroin abusers has maintained a gradual decrease, for instance, the number of drug abusers in Yunnan has dropped 22.1 percent from 2004. In the sixth place, the growth rate of new heroin abusers has decreased markedly. Compared with the peak period, the increase rate of China 's new heroin abusers has dropped from 30 percent to 5.6 percent, and that of young people below 35 years old has dropped from 82.5 percent to 59 percent. In the seventh place, the harm that heroin does to the society has lessened significantly. In the 11 regions and some severe drug hit areas in Yunnan Province that the NNCC has been making efforts to control drugs, the situation has been largely improved. The proportion of the spread of AIDS caused by drug abusers' sharing injectors has dropped from 68.7 percent in 2001 to 38.5 percent. Crimes triggered by drug abusers have decreased significantly, and people's satisfaction of the anti-narcotics work continues to increase. II. Current drug situation in China Although positive changes have taken place in the drug control combat, it is still difficult for China to fundamentally solve the drug problem in a short term under the influence of the continuously rampant drug problems globally. Therefore, the prospect of drug control work remains not so optimistic and our tasks remain arduous. Firstly, the fact that multiple overseas drug sources are trying to penetrate into China remains unchanged, and the task to block and intercept inbound drugs is still arduous. Beyond the southwestern border, the North Myanmar area remains the largest drug source that threatens China in a foreseeable future. Methamphetamine (ice) trafficking attempts are increasing notably. Beyond the northwestern border, drugs remain rampant in Afghanistan , where international drug trafficking groups are trying to build a “ China route” to smuggle drugs into our country, which poses a great threat to us. Along the northeastern and southeastern border, an ever-increasing amount of illicit drugs are drugs are muggled into China . Secondly, domestic drug production and trafficking activities cannot be stopped completely, and the task to crack down on drug-related crimes remains arduous. Production of ice and ketamine, which is mainly intended for domestic consumption, is growing rapidly and characterized by expanded area, more categories, small scale and scattered distribution. Sporadic drug smuggling and trafficking activities have become the main approach of drug smuggling to China . It becomes increasingly difficult to completely eradicate drug trafficking networks and the number of drug-related cases involving foreigners is bumping up. Thirdly, heroin abuse remains the most prominent problem in drug control, and the task to control heroin remains arduous. The problem of high relapse rate of heroin addiction has not yet been solved fundamentally. By the end of 2007, 749,000 heroin addicted persons had been registered face-to-face nationwide. Besides this, there is a large number of undiscovered heroin abusers and new abusers are emerging slowly. Floating population, such as migrant workers, are particularly vulnerable to the harm of heroin. Fourthly, the new-type drugs become an ever more severe problem in China , and the task to curb the spread of new-type drugs remains arduous. The number of new-type drug abusers is shooting up. Of this group, youth under the age of 35 accounts for a large proportion. In 2007, the volume of new-type drugs seized in 20 provinces, regions and cities exceeded that of heroin. Drug abuse in entertainment places in large and medium-sized cities is outstanding. In 2007 alone, over 4,000 entertainment places and hotels nationwide were inspected and punished for drug-related problems. Finally, precursor chemicals become a more important source of drug stuff, and the task to prevent chemicals from conversion remains arduous. As domestic and overseas drug production has an increasingly stronger demand for chemicals, the conversion risk of precursor chemicals is also mounting. Domestic and overseas lawless persons are trying every means to smuggle precursor chemicals out of the border. Some domestic enterprises produce and sell chemicals without authorization, making chemicals convert into illegal channels. III. China's drug control plan in 2008 In 2008, we will carry forward “people's war on drugs” as an effective form and basic experience and we will enforce the Narcotics Control Law of the People's Republic of China to fortify and maximize achievement in heroin control, curb the spread and development of new-type drugs and escalate the people's war on drugs to a deeper level. (1) Publicize and implement the Narcotics Control Law of the People's Republic of China in an all-round way to lay a solid foundation for further escalation of the people's war against drug. Efforts will be made to optimize major responsibilities of member organizations of the China National Narcotics Control Commission by law and establish scientific and highly efficient work mechanism as well as examination and appraisal mechanism; urge local governments at or above the county level to include drug control work into national economic and social development plan; and accelerate the establishment of local narcotics control committees and their executive bodies. (2) Put more efforts into drug preventive education in an all-round way to prevent new drug abusers from emerging. Efforts will be made to improve the working mechanism for drug prevention education that focuses on youth, migrant workers, idle loafers and practitioners in entertainment places; include by law drug control knowledge into education content in elementary and secondary schools; organize labor unions, the communist youth leagues, all-women's federations and other departments to conduct drug control education; and extensively publicize the harm of traditional and new-type drugs. (3) Reform and deepen drug treatment and rehabilitation in an all-round way to minimize the harm of drugs to the society. Efforts will be made to plan and establish compulsory isolated drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities, so as to expand the scale of drug rehabilitation and carry out trial work on community treatment and rehabilitation; improve the computer-base dynamic drug abuser management and monitoring system; expand the coverage of community maintenance treatment; and accelerate trial diagnosis and treatment of new-type drugs abusers. (4) Enhance law enforcement in an all-round way to block domestic and overseas drug sources. Efforts will be made to organize different areas and related departments to fulfill their legal responsibilities in seizing drugs and block and interdict drug trafficking networks; severely crack down on drug production and trafficking groups, networks and notorious drug dealers; take severe measures to put an end to organized drug trafficking that leverages special groups and regulate those areas where outbound drug trafficking groups are rampant; and further tighten the management of precursor chemicals. (5) Promote international drug control cooperation in all aspects to further implement the “prohibiting planting and eliminating drug sources” strategy to make greater achievement. The central government will provide more favorable policies to support alternative development, thus pressing ahead the “prohibiting planting and eliminating drug sources” strategy. Efforts will be made to deepen cooperation with related countries to prevent drugs from getting into China from Afghanistan and continue to enhance China 's influence in the international drug control arena.
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