The number of drug cases involving young people in Guangdong
Province has been on the rise in recent years, a senior judge said
this week.
And the trend will continue upward if immediate action is not
taken, Bin Yicheng, presiding judge at the Third Law Court under
the Guangdong High People's Court, said.
More then 25 percent of all drug cases handled by courts in the
province in the first 10 months of this year involved people aged
under 25.
And the numbers are up 4.76 percent on the same period of 2005,
Bin told a press conference on Wednesday.
Many youngsters have even become key members of drug gangs,
raising major concerns from society as a whole, the judge said.
The number of drug cases involving women has also been on the
rise, he said.
"More than 9 percent of the cases handled in the 10 months to
October involved women," Bin said.
He promised Guangdong courts at all levels will hand down the
heaviest punishments possible to anyone convicted of trafficking or
manufacturing drugs.
"Guangdong will never become a haven for drug traffickers and
producers from home or abroad," Bin said.
On June 26, Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liu
Zhaohua, then regarded as the world's most prolific drug producer,
to death at his first trial.
Liu was said to have produced 12,675 kg of ice, with an
estimated value of more than 31 million yuan (US$4.2 million).
Since 2005, Guangdong courts have handled a total of 15,356 drug
cases involving more than 20,100 suspects.
A total of 16,722 traffickers and producers have been punished,
of which 3,743 were given jail terms of at least five years, or the
death penalty.
Many heads of drug gangs have been executed, landing a heavy
blow in the fight against this illegal activity, Bin said.
Cheng Wenda, a primary school teacher in Guangzhou's Tianhe
district, said she too had seen an increase in the number of drug
cases involving juveniles.
"Many youngsters follow the bad examples set by domestic and
foreign TV programs that seem to promote violence, drugs and sex,"
she said.
(China Daily November 9, 2007)