Drug abuse had once steeped China's history. No other country in the world has been more historically deeply affected by the trade in narcotics.

　　Perhaps that is why the modern China's attitude to drugs is especially harsh.

　　With more illegal narcotics being smuggledsintosChina and various domestic drugs produced, drug consumption is rising and causing real damage to economic development and social stability.

　　The Chinese authorities have not been keeping slack hand over the tough situation.

　　"No effort will be spared to combat the problem,"said Jia Chunwang, minister of the public security.

　　He said his ministry has been in a co-operative and lasting effort with legislative, financial, health and education agencies to solve the problem of drugs that tremendously infringe on China.

　　"Chinese Government has achieved some successes in this regard,"said Jia. "However, just like any other country in the world, China has still been challenged by the uphill task of eradication of the drug scourge."

　　How tough?

　　Historically and currently the drug abuse is serious for China.

　　Mass opium addiction among Chinese in the 18th and 19th centuries crippled the Chinese economy and its people, especially in the country's south. The importation of opium by the BritishsintosChina in the 18th century, and its continuing trade despite a ban by the Chinese in 1800, sucked at the human and financial resources of the Qing dynasty.

　　In 1839, when the Chinese authorities burned thousands of chests of the drug, the First Opium War erupted. The British won and were able to extract trading rights and the ceding of Hong Kong through the humiliating Treaty of Nanking. This led to a scramble for foreign concessions along the Chinese coast. The Second Opium War was fought in 1860.

　　The eradication of opium addiction became a priority of the new regime after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

　　Within a few short years, the problem had largely been eradicated.

　　But fifty years later the problem of drugs has again become a critical issue in China.

　　China saw a dramatic rise in the number of drug addicts in 2001, a leap attributed to easier access to "ice"and heroin, Chinese drug officials said recently.

　　Bai Jingfu, deputy director of National Narcotics Control Commission revealed at a recent plenary in Beijing that there are 901,000 drug users registered in China, while in 2000, the registered total of drug addicts was 860,000 across the nation.

　　"The life of a family is ruined when a family member becomes a drug addict,"Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang said. Jia, also director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, stressed that the country faces an increasingly tough task in cracking down on drug trafficking and abuse.

　　In 2001, the whole nation altogether cleared up 139 cases of illegally trading and smuggling of precursor chemicals and seized 208.2 tons of precursors, including 51 tons of anhydrides, 6.17 tons of chloroform and 6.71 tons of Acetone.

　　Data from the commission show that in 2000, Chinese police identified 96,189 drug cases, up 48.7 per cent from 1999, and arrested about 57,000 suspected drug dealers. About 36,000 suspects were tried and 6.3 tons of heroin, 2.4 tons of opium and 20.9 tons of "ice"were seized.

　　During the first quarter of this year, the police forces at different levels seized 247 kilograms of ice, 200,000 pills of ecstasy and 488 tons of precursor chemicals.

　　The Golden Triangle, an area between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, and the Golden Crescent in Central Asia are notorious for their drug production and trafficking, Jia said.

　　"More than 95 per cent of China's heroin consumption was smuggled from the Golden Triangle."

　　Jia said the government will intensify its efforts against drugs comingsintosChina from abroad in the area of Southwest China, especially Yunnan Province, which is adjacent to the Golden Triangle.

　　Legislation and enforcement

　　Law makers said China highly values building up the legal system of drug control and persists in controlling drugs according to law.

　　In view of the rampant drug use over the past 20-odd years, China has sped up drug control legislation and formulated and implemented a whole array of laws and regulations.

　　Severely punishing drug-related crimes is an outstanding characteristic of China's criminal legislation for drug control.

　　"The Criminal Law revised in 1997 fully embodies this principle,"official from the National People's Congress said.

　　The law specifies 12 crimes in this regard, which cover smuggling, trafficking, transporting and manufacturing drugs, illegal possession of drugs, harboring, transferring and concealing drugs and illegal cultivation of narcotic bearing plants, said the official who only gave his surname Wu.

　　"Economic sanctions are imposed for drug-related crimes,"said Wu. The law specifies that property shall be confiscated or a fine imposed for drug-related crimes, aiming to deprive drug criminals of their illegal income and destroy their economic ability to commit drug-related crimes again.

　　"Strict administration to prevent the abuse of narcotics and psychotropic substances is a very important component in building China's anti-drug legal system,"Wu said.

　　Hence China has issued more than 30 related laws, statutes and regulations. To prevent precursor chemicals from being divertedsintosillegal channels and to crack down on illegal or criminal activities, Chinese legislative bodies and the Chinese Government have also issued a series of laws and regulations for the strict control of such chemicals.

　　In addition, legislative bodies in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangdong, Gansu, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang and Jiangsu provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions have worked out local drug control statutes in accordance with local conditions.

　　China's anti-drug law-enforcement organs enforce the laws strictly and are waging a fierce battle against all drug-related criminal activities, administering merciless punishment to those involved in such activities.

　　In China, drugs mainly come from other countries, and the Chinese Government has done its best to ban transitory drug trafficking.In the 1990s, the work of banning transitory drug trafficking was further intensified and attention was paid to "eradicating sources of drugs and obstructing their channels of trafficking."

　　Drug and AIDS

　　They are not necessarily related but in fact they are ruining many Chinese hand in hand.

　　Sixteen years ago yesterday, the first case of AIDS was reported on the Chinese mainland. With it came a stern warning on the rapid spread of the so-far incurable, fatal disease.

　　Blood transfusions, use of blood products, sex and mother-infant fluid transmissions are also recognized channels for the spread of AIDS in this country.

　　But intravenous injections of drugs are responsible for 72.4 per cent of all HIV/AIDS infection cases reported in the mainland, according to medical authorities. Sex is accountable for a mere 6.7 per cent.

　　Since international drug traffickers took advantage of the country's opening up and sneaked back to China in the late 1970s, narcotics transactions have been reported in all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.

　　"Where drug dealers went, AIDS followed,"said Yang Fengrui, Deputy Secretary General of National Narcotics Control Commission(NNCC).

　　Places hardest hit by drugs are placesswheresAIDS takes the heaviest tolls, he said.

　　The abrupt rise in the narcotics trade and the apparent acceleration of AIDS propagation in the late 1990s were not accidental.

　　"Drug use does not necessarily cause HIV infection, but the high proportion of drug-related AIDS cases in China points to a dangerous potential that we cannot afford to neglect,"said Yang.

　　Eighty per cent of the reported HIV/AIDS cases were found in young and middle-aged people. About the same proportion of registered drug addicts are under 35 years old.

　　Authorities have been tenacious in dealing with AIDS and drugs.

　　The State Council has already mapped out the Mid-term and Long-term Plan for the Prevention and Control of AIDS in 1998. Corresponding proposals were incorporatedsintosnational social and economic development plans.

　　The nation was drug free for 30 years after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

　　"Our present drug nightmare was at least initiated by international drug rings,"an official with the Ministry of Public Security said.

　　United Nations statistics say the volume of world narcotics trade exceeds US billion each year, or about 8 per cent of world trade.

　　China is only one of the victims.

　　The devastation caused by narcotics has driven more and more national governments to take action to protect their peoples and economies. But the globalization of drug trafficking means no country can claim complete victory over drugs by itself.

　　International co-operation:

　　Joining hands in the fight against drugs ultimately contributes to each individual country's own well-being.

　　The Chinese Government has always played an active part in international drug control affairs.

　　"It is necessary to strengthen international co-operation in drug control to promote the worldwide battle against narcotics and solve the drug problem in China,"said the minister Jia Chunwang.

　　In June 1985, China acceded to the UN 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances revised by the 1972 Protocol.

　　In September 1989, China acceded to the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and thus became one of its first member countries.

　　China is an active supporter and promoter of co-operation in drug control in the sub-region, as initiated by the UN. In May 1991, the NNCC hosted the first meeting of senior officials of China, Thailand, Myanmar and the United Nations Drug Control Programme(UNDCP)in Beijing, to discuss the proposal on multilateral co-operation against drug abuse in the sub-region.

　　China has constantly looked to strengthen its bilateral and multilateral co-operation in drug control with other countries.

　　The Chinese Government has done its best to help bordering countries develop anti-drug weapons.

　　Beginning in 1990, China has helped north Myanmar and Laos,swherespoppies were traditionally planted, to promote alternative development by providing technological and agricultural support and developing tourism resources. These efforts have promoted the economic and social development in that region,thus reducing the threat of the "Golden Triangle"drugs to China and the international community.

　　Just in last month, in co-ordination with police from Thailand and Myanmar and the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA)of the United States, Chinese police and customs officers from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong cracked down on a large cross-border drug trafficking ring, confiscating 357 kilograms of heroin and arresting 13 suspected drug smugglers. Over the past two decades, while China has made outstanding achievements in drug control, thus gaining international praise, it has bec.