A policeman (not in the picture) shows middle school students poppy bulbs in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, yesterday, a day before the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

More young women were found in taking new types of drugs in Beijing as narcotics became increasingly popular in mass binges and were considered effective to help lose weight.

More than half of 310 new drug takers seized by Beijing police last month were women, mostly under the age of 30, Yi Yang, deputy director of the anti-drug department of Beijing municipal public security bureau, was quoted by Friday's China Daily as saying.

Women accounted for 21.7 percent of 14,000 drug users caught by police in the Chinese capital last year.

More women drug users were found as new types of drugs such as methamphetamine and ketamine, which were often used as a stimulant for mood and energy, became increasingly popular in parties and gatherings, Li said.

Such parties were often attended by an equal number of men and women, or couples, while men drug addicts alone may just stay at home and use traditional drugs such as heroin.

New drugs such as "ice" enhance sexual ability, and were often found in group sex parties, in which the same number of men and women participate, which partially explained the increase in women drug users, according to Professor Xia Guomei from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

A number of women drug addicts, especially those in the entertainment industry, were taking drugs for the purpose of losing weight, she was quoted as saying.

Local police said most of the new drugs seized in Beijing were made domestically and transported from the southwestern region of the country.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2009)