Beijing police Wednesday set fire to 393.5 kg of illegal drugs to mark the 170th anniversary of the famous Humen Opium Destruction.

A majority of the banned substances destroyed included heroin, methamphetamine (ice), cocaine and marijuana.

Shi Dawei, the political commissar of the capital's anti-drug committee, said the police Wednesday destroyed "only about half of the drugs they seized" between 2006 and 2008.

"The police seized more than773 kgof drugs over the three-year period," he said.

On June 3, 1839, Lin Zexu, a senior official of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), ordered that 1,000 tons of smuggled opium, confiscated from foreign dealers in China, be set on fire in Humen,Guangdong province.

The mass opium destruction is known as China's first battle against drugs.

A new memorial hall dedicated to Lin Zexu was also opened to the public in Fuzhou Wednesday.

Beijing police, armed with machine guns, escorted the bulletproof vehicles loaded with drugs to a northwestern suburban area, where the banned substances were thrown into an industrial furnace Wednesday.

Between 2006 and 2008, Beijing's drug enforcement agents uncovered more than 13,860 cases of drug trafficking and captured more than 16,600 suspected dealers, according to the Beijing public security bureau.

China handled about 62,000 cases related to drug trafficking over the past year and arrested some 74,000 suspects across the country, the bureau said.

In the past year, the country's police seized 4.4 tons of heroin, 6.2 tons of "ice", 1 million "ecstasy" pills, 5.3 tons of ketamine, 2.2 tons of marijuana, 1.4 tons of opium and almost a ton of cocaine.

"In recent years, international drug traffickers have found new ways to smuggle drugs into Beijing. Sending drugs across borders via air-mail is the latest trick up their sleeves," Liu Shaowu, deputy director of Beijing anti-drug committee, told China Daily.

"During the Beijing Olympics, 11 foreign smugglers were arrested with 10.9 kg of drugs."

Liu said: "Three underground drug markets inBeijinghave been completely destroyed, and crackdowns on drug dealers will remain one of the bureau's top priorities in the coming years."

Addicts on rise in Shanghai

The number of drug addicts in Shanghai is on the rise, local authorities revealed Wednesday.

Ever since the Anti-Drug Law came into effect on June 1 last year,Shanghai has been trying to educate people about the harmful affects of drugs, crackdown on drugs and treat addicts.

With some 32,000 drug addicts -- 0.15 percent of Shanghai's total population -- the city's illegal substance users have been growing by 20 percent annually, said Zhou Weihang, director of the Shanghai's anti-drug office.

In 2006, the annual growth was reported at 17 percent, he said.

"Shanghaihas become a relay center for drug trafficking as well as a destination where consumption is soaring," Zhou said.

Since 2006, more and more drug users are taking to synthetic substances like ice, ecstasy and ketamine.

"Eighty percent of the new addicts use synthetic drugs and 75 percent of the synthetic drug users are below the age of 35," Zhou said.

"Most people think synthetic drugs are not addictive and it is cool to use them.

"Synthetic drugs are more psychologically addictive than physically and carry the potential to damage a nervous system irreversibly," he said.

People who use an Amphetamine drug called "head-shaking pills" go on spinning their heads for hours and are totally exhausted afterwards. And people who use ice' have illusions, Zhou said.

In suburban Jiading district, a man stabbed his bride on their wedding night. It was later discovered he had a "history of ice addiction" and had even stabbed his ex-wife, who left him thereafter.

Among the 623 cases Shanghai police cracked in the first five months of this year, 34 involved more than 1,000 grams of drugs, said Zhou.

On May 8, police shot dead a suspect during a drug raid, before arresting four suspects, armed with guns, holding 2 kg of ice.

Statistics show that in 2008, a total of 264,000 drug addicts were separated for compulsory addiction treatment while 238,000 accepted community treatment help.

(Chinadaily.com.cn June 4, 2009)