About 1,900 drug addicts in the Shanghai Rehabilitation Center pledged to drop the habit yesterday to mark today's International Anti-Drug Day.

　　The addicts signed their names on a large board with a heart and a Chinese character meaning abstain to show their determination.

　　"I wrote my name wholeheartedly. Drugs are the most terrible thing in the world and I swear to stop using them," said one drug addict.

　　The law stipulates that if a drug addict is caught taking drugs more than two times the individual should be sent to a government-run center to receive forcible drug abstention. There are four such centers in the city - two for men, one for women and one for minors.

　　More than 4,000 drug addicts are receiving treatment in the four centers, accounting for about 25 percent of registered addicts. Five times more men are addicted to drugs than women.

　　According to official statistics, drug addicts are getting younger - about 70 percent of them are around 25 years old. Several years ago, most addicts were middle-aged.

　　Nearly 80 percent of the city's drug addicts are unemployed. That's also a change from several years ago when it was mostly business owners.

　　"These factors create a threat to social stability and make us worry," said Weng Shanyao, deputy director of the Shanghai Bureau of Education through Labor, which governs the centers. "But we are also happy that more people stop taking drugs after they are released."

　　About 40 percent of those who are released from the center resist turning back to their old ways. Eight years ago, when the center opened, only 5 percent of rehab patients stayed drug free.

　　To achieve this the center adopted a series of measures to create a culture of drug abstention.

　　Xia Chuangen, director of the Shanghai Rehabilitation Center, said the program is about more than just getting patients off drugs.

　　"Most addicts feel hopeless about themselves and don't cooperate when they come to the center at first because they think it is impossible to give up addiction," Xia said. "To help them, we take a series of measures to improve their confidence."

　　Officers of the center try to gather family members and neighborhood volunteers to encourage addicts. They offer skill training in computers, tailoring and hairdressing and also help them find jobs when they are discharged.

　　The center has signed an agreement with Shanghai Lingkong Agriculture Park, a privately owned agriculture company. The deal provides employment to those released from the center - 25 have been given jobs so far.