Li Zhengping, an anti-drug hero of Longling County, Yunnan Province, told the China News Service on June 19 that the drug output from the Golden Triangle had been reduced this year and the cultivation of opium poppy substitutes had played a key role in that.

On June 18, 2005, the police in Longling County received information indicating that an overseas drug dealer named Yu had entered China with drugs and was awaiting an opportunity to sell them. A special team was immediately set up to take the case. On June 23 Li Zhengping and his colleague Zhang Honglin successfully stopped the drugs being sold. In all 26,872 grams of opium and an imitation handgun were seized. A drug dealer was killed in the operation. Li became something of an anti-drugs hero.

According to Li, the number of finds involving more than 10,000 grams of drugs has fallen since last June.??

Satellite surveys and reconnaissance indicate that the sown area of opium poppies in the Golden Triangle has decreased significantly. The current sown area is only about 10 percent of the highest record. The changing agricultural landscape is a credit to the long-term work of the Chinese government and the Yunnan provincial government to implement the cultivation of the opium poppy substitutes in Burma and the northern Thailand. The area of cassava in Burma run by enterprises from Longling County has been expanded to some 66 hectares from about 3 hectares in 2004. These substitute plants can be purchased at subsidy prices.

Li said that the Longling County shares a 19-km-long border with Burma. The county therefore is the frontier of the anti-drug war. Drug smuggling methods have changed greatly in recent times with the application of high technology.

He said that the reducing output of traditional drugs has brought an opportunity to ban the drugs completely in Sino-Burma areas. But modern "man made" drugs like ice, ephedrine and Ketamine are also seeping into the Sino-Burma areas. Nine hectograms of ephedrine were confiscated between January and May this year alone in Longling County.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua, June 21, 2006)