OPINION> Commentary
Fight must go on
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-26 07:44

The big number of drug addicts in China - nearly 1 million - is posing a big challenge to the country's fight against drug abuses and trafficking.

While nearly 80 percent of these people are hooked on traditional drugs such as opium, heroin and marijuana, new ones including methamphetamine hydrochloride - commonly known as "ice" - as well as Ecstasy and excitants are more accessible to young people.

To some extent, heroin has been under control. For the first time in the past two decades, increased raids led to decline of the amount of heroin confiscated in 2007 as compared to that in the previous year.

This, however, should not necessarily mean that the fight is over.

The warning from Yang Fengrui, director of narcotics control bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, in Beijing yesterday should be a call for the whole country to continue to keep a tight grip on the drug trade.

The country is a destination of overseas drugs from drug-making countries such as Myanmar and Afghanistan. Still, illicit drug-making and trafficking is rampant in some parts of the country.

We need to keep ploughing vast resources into anti-drug enforcement as the drug trade remains an active virus in the country.

Illicit drugs destroy innumerable lives and undermine our society. Confronting the illicit trade in drugs and its effects remains a major challenge for the country.

In 1987 the United Nations General Assembly decided to observe June 26 as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse.

China has launched a number of pilot projects aimed at spreading information on drug abuse and messages on their prevention to high-risk target groups. More important, China has fought drug abuses and trafficking through legislation. Its first anti-drug law, which took into effect on June 1, is significant in combating drug-related crimes.

The law attaches great importance to the country's cooperation with the rest of the world in combating the drug trade. The law stipulates that the police share information with other countries and international organizations and enhance collaboration to investigate drug-related crimes.

Our fight against drug-related crimes at home will remain nothing more than a passive defense if we cannot touch the origin of drugs abroad.

(China Daily 06/26/2008 page8)