Beijing police say they have wiped out drug-related crime at
entertainment venues and have set a goal of eradicating drugs at
all public places before the Olympic Games.
Fu Zhenghua, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Public
Security Bureau, said that after "waging a people's war against
drug crime" this year, police had eliminated drugs at all of the
city's 1,300 entertainment venues this year.
"This is a hard-earned success for such a large metropolis like
Beijing, and we are very proud," Fu said. "But this is just a
preliminary success in the campaign against drugs. We hope to clear
up all the city's public places by 2008."
Police shut down two entertainment venues where drugs were being
used and another 11 were temporarily suspended from doing
business.
In the first 11 months of this year, police solved 3,620
drug-related crimes, seizing 4,065 suspects, of which 1,080 were
involved in drug-trading. The number of cases represented a
year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent, said Zhao Wenzhong, section
chief of the bureau's anti-drugs section.
Police arrested 24 foreigners in cases involving drugs this
year, he added. police had met their goal by relying on "grinding"
checks and secret inspections.
"We also introduced a tip-off system for the public to use, a
blacklist for the entertainment venues and an appraisal system for
policemen," Zhao said.
Police encouraged people to report cases of drug-use. Zhao said
people who reported actual cases of drug-use would be amply
rewarded.
Twenty-one people received a reward worth 170,000 yuan
(US$21,250) this year, according to Zhao.
Entertainment venues where drugs were taken or sold would be
blacklisted and exposed via the media, he said. People caught
taking drugs or otherwise connected to drug-use will not be allowed
to operate or work for entertainment venues.
Besides applying stricter oversight to entertainment venues,
police will also be reprimanded if they fail to stamp out
drug-related crime within their precincts.
(China Daily December 26, 2006)