Fifteen-year- old Xiao Hua often thinks of the day she will be able to enjoy freedom like other teenagers in this city.

Xiao was sentenced to the reformatory for one year after she was found guilty of trafficking in drugs.

Xiao, who comes from a broken home, first experimented with drugs at a friend's birthday party about two years ago.

Statistics on juvenile delinquency and drug addiction in Guangzhou show it rose almost 48 percent in the first 11 months of last year. The rate grew by more than 50 percent in 2006.

It is particularly serious among teenagers of migrant families, Lu Na, who works at Guangzhou Juvenile Delinquency Research Society, said.

She said juvenile delinquency among the migrant population accounted for more than 90 percent of the city's total crime committed by young offenders.

Xu Chujing of South China Normal University said teenage drug abuse could be found in many cities.

He said drug addicts under the age of 35 make up about 80 percent of the nation's 1 million addicts. About 30 percent of juvenile crime can be attributed to drug addiction.

Experts said the problem deserves more attention by the authorities.

"Families, schools and society as a whole, should pay greater importance to the issue and take better care of teenagers physiologically and psychologically," Xu said.

Xiao said: "If my parents had cared more about me and if I had known better the consequences of drug abuse, things would have been different."

(China Daily June 10, 2008)