The tidal wave of amphetamine-based drugs, such as ice and ecstasy, which is spreading through China and parts of the Asia-Pacific area, has made the region's battle against the narcotics trade even more imperative, drug officials meeting in Zhongshan of South China's Guangdong Province said yesterday.
Over 80 per cent of global seizures of amphetamines during 2000 took place in East and Southeast Asia, which also accounted for more than 70 per cent of the global seizures of heroin and morphine in 1999, statistics indicate. Half of the people abusing amphetamines in the world also live in these regions.
Beijing has been working more actively with its neighbors on drug control, because in recent years it has become a market as well as a transit country.
China's anti-drug police have improved their capacity to crack down on crimes related to the production and trafficking of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), said Lan Weihong, an official with the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.
Since 2000, the number of cases, seizures of ATS, and its production and trade have dropped steadily, Lan was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Lan made the remarks at a two-day international forum on fighting against ATS-related crimes, which was attended by participants from the United Nations Drug Control Program, and from Australia, South Korea, Japan and Myanmar.
In 2001, the Chinese anti-drug police logged 503 ice cases and confiscated 4.8 tons, a drop of 77 per cent from the previous year. And in the first half of this year, only about 644 kilograms of ice were confiscated.
Chinese lawmakers strengthened and perfected legislation and regulations on ATS crimes, and the Supreme People's Court adjusted the punishments for ATS crimes, Lan said.
In addition, the public security bureaus enlarged their anti-drug police teams and set up a cross-national network for anti-drug information, said Lan.
The anti-drug police, with the co-ordination of the customs, industrial and commercial administration departments and the medicine supervision departments, also enhanced management of the production and sale of ephedrine, which is an important material used in the production of ice, Lan said.
In 2001 the police shut down 46 ice or ecstasy processing factories.
They also launched investigations into entertainment centers to bust underground drug markets.
(China Daily August 16, 2002)
