Beijing police detain 16 music school students over suspected drug use

BEIJING -- Beijing police have detained 16 students from Beijing Midi School of Music on suspicion of drug use, police said Thursday night.

Police from Haidian District acting on a tip-off caught 16 suspects in the dormitories of the school on Tuesday.

Their urine tested positive for marijuana, said the police.

On Thursday, Beijing Midi School of Music released a statement, saying that police came to the school twice, asked students to take urine tests, and detained more than ten students.

"We have strict school rules. Students are punished even when they are found smoking cigarettes in the dormitory," the statement said, adding that the school takes full responsibility and apologizes to the public.

It is not the first time the school, established in 1993, has been linked with suspected drug use. An insider told Xinhua that police caught drug users in its dormitory based on tip-offs in May 2014.

A report on China's drug situation in 2014 revealed that people using drugs in China are becoming younger. Among 480,000 newly identified addicts in 2014, 29,000 were under the age of 18 and around three quarters were under the age of 35.

"These young drug addicts are both law breakers and victims. We need to provide guidance and help for them to return to society in the future," said Zhu Zhiwei, deputy head of a drug rehabilitation center under Beijing's public security bureau.