There are currently 700,000 heroin addicts in China accounting
for 78.3 percent of drug users, statistics from the Report on
Narcotics Control in China 2006 show. Of the total, 69.3
percent are under 35 years old and 30 percent from rural areas.
Huazi (an alias), 9, was detained in the drug rehabilitation
center affiliated to the Public Security Bureau of Kunming for
using drugs only days after he came to the city from his hometown
of Sichuan.
"I don't feel good here. I'd like to go home and go to school."
Huazi said.
Huazi, born in Liangshan Yi Minority Autonomous Prefecture, lost
his mother when he was a little boy. As his father is serving a
prison sentence, Huazi lived with his grandfather and started
smoking at the age of eight.
One month ago he stole 400 yuan from his grandfather after a
squabble and ran away with Lapu (an alias), a ten-year-old from the
same village. A train took the two boys to Kunming. "We were
hanging about in the street when a woman carrying a baby came up to
us and said it was interesting to use this (drug) while smoking a
cigarette. I was curious and spent 10 yuan to buy one piece," said
Huazi. Not until they were both sent to the rehabilitation center
did they realize that the "interesting" thing was a drug.
The Kunming rehabilitation center is taking care of 25 minors
and seven of them are girls. The oldest is 16 while the youngest is
only 9. According to the police, there are at most 50 minors at the
center and most of them are from the rural areas.
"At present, some drug dealers take advantage of minors to do
illicit drug trafficking. They force the children to use drugs.
Once they get addicted the dealers will manipulate them to steal or
rob," said Yang Weixin, a police officer at the center.
Most of the young drug users are brought up in single parent
families and are less supervised or cared for by their parents.
Others became addicted to drugs when they came to Kunming to visit
their relatives at holidays.
Fourteen-year-old Feifei (an alias) was one of them. He came to
visit his elder sister from Guizhou Province on February 8, 2006 and was
living with one of his sister's friends. Initially Feifei was lured
to use heroin for a better sleep. He got addicted quickly. Within
one month he spent 30 yuan for 3 pieces of heroin per day and used
up all his pocket money.
One month later he was sent to the rehabilitation center. The
six-month treatment has helped him quit drugs but he still has the
"drug" haunting his mind, said Feifei.
These young drug users were mostly encouraged by fellow
villagers of the same age. Few of them had heard about the drug or
received any information at school. Some are even too young to
understand the lectures given at the center.
What makes the situation more complex is that nobody picks up
the children after the police notified their schools or
families.
An officer with Yunnan Narcotics Control Bureau observed that
the province has attached great importance to education on
anti-drug and AIDS prevention. More and more relevant courses are
carried out in middle and primary schools in cities and towns.
However, the education is far from efficient in rural areas.
In recent years migrant workers have become a vulnerable group
for the drug dealers. Some of them are trafficking or even working
for international networks to cover their drug expenses.
(China.org.cn by Huang Shan, January 12, 2007)