The link between drugs and crimes
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06/28/2002
Drug-related crimes have accounted for 30 per cent of fatal criminal cases in Shanghai, said Liu Yungeng, director of the Municipal Anti-drug Committee, yesterday at a rehab centre located in Yangpu District.He said many addicts were forced to steal, rob and cheat, which severely threatens the community's security, and the anti-drug campaign should be further deepened. By June 20, some 937 narcotics trafficking suspects have been imprisoned, and the Shanghai police had seized 63.52 kilograms of heroin, 1.44 kilograms of ecstasy tablets, 1.14 kilograms of hemp, and 3.02 kilograms of "ice". "The total amount of the drugs confiscated in the past few months has outnumbered that in the whole of 2000," said Cai Liqun, an officer from Shanghai Public Security Bureau. Statistics show that by the end of last year, the city had more than 14,000 registered drug-users (21 per cent of them female), with a slight increase over 2000. In an interview with Eastday.com, Yang Peiyuan, deputy director of the Municipal Antidrug Office, revealed that most of the addicts are between the age of 17 and 35. Jobless and idle people account for 82 per cent of the total addicts in 2001. Last year more than 30 people died from taking drugs in the city, he added. To make more people realize the harm of drugs, local authorities have added related contents to textbooks to enhance children's awareness. Related departments have placed strict controls on entertainment places such as clubs and cafes. Police found that most of the drugs coming into Shanghai were from South China's Guangdong Province and Southwest China's Yunnan Province. Drug dealers would first take the drugs to neighbouring cities by train, and then take the bus to bring the drugs into the city. "When the drugs are passed from one dealer to another, processing may be fulfilled," Cai explained. "The former drugs may lose their purity, and the total amount multiplies." With the strengthened crackdown on drugs throughout the country, drug dealers now resort to many new and covert ways of conducting the illicit business. In a recent case cracked by Hongkou District Police, six women were nabbed together with two children. "Women dealers just use young children under the age of 10 as shields in the business, and ask these children to fetch drugs," Cai said. "If the drugs are exposed, the women may easily shun responsibility." China Daily news
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