Thursday marks the International Day Against Drug Abuse and
Illicit Trafficking. Three years ago, China launched a program targeting drug
use and trafficking and now it has paid off. A top anti-drug official says China
has basically eliminated opium planting and heroin processing.
To fight trafficking, transport sectors have carried out
special programs to curb trade, and the police have bolstered their drug
prevention work.
These poppies are beautiful, but they are also the source of deadly drugs.
The Golden Triangle area is the major supplier of heroin, the most
commonly-used drug for Chinese addicts.
To cut the source, China is promoting a substitute planting strategy, a
plan that could reduce heroin production by 110 tons a year. It helped plant
millions of cash crops such as grain, rubber, tea and sugar cane over the past
three years in the Golden Triangle region, which encompasses the northern parts
of Myanmar and Laos.
Apart from aid and investments, China also offered a market for the farm
products.
And satellite remote sensors show poppy growing areas in the region have
dropped dramatically in the past three years.
80 percent of the drugs in China are seized in the border area.
To fight trafficking, transport sectors have carried out special programs
to curb trade, and the police have bolstered their drug prevention work.
Zhang Xiaoqing, vice director of Yunnan Border Security, said, "In 2005,
and 2006, we targeted a big drug dealer who was hiding in Myanmar and then Laos.
But finally we caught him."
Since June this year, a new anti-drug law took effect. It raises the status
of narcotic control commissions, and attaches more importance to community drug
control. It also further regulates the anti-drug campaign and promotes
international cooperation, demonstrating the government's determination to stop
the illegal activity.
(Source: CCTV.com)
[ PLA Daily: 2008-06-26 ]
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