Over 80 per cent of the 189,000 known drug users in Guangdong are young people, according to the Guangdong Provincial Anti-Drugs Committee.

"The basic reason for this is that young people know little about drugs," Zhang Xifan, vice-director of the Guangzhou Drug Rehabilitation Guidance Centre for Young People, told China Daily yesterday.

The definition of youngsters in China is people who are aged less than 35. According to Zhang, most of these drug addicts are between 16 and 35 years old.

Taking drugs only once is enough to cause physical and mental dependence, and drug abuse may lead to HIV/AIDS.

Zhang said he had met lots of young drug addicts, most of whom did not think about the harm drugs can cause, or that taking them once can lead to dependence.

Some of them are even curious about the feelings experienced after drug use.

One 21-year-old man, who did not want to reveal his name, is currently at Guangzhou Baiyun Voluntary Drug Rehabilitation Centre. He became addicted to drugs in 2001.

He said he was persuaded to take drugs by his friends. They told him using them once in a while would not lead to addiction, and taking drugs would help him overcome his fear and depression.

"I have not been able to rid myself of the drug habit since I first touched them," he said.

In order to find more money to pay for drugs, he previously turned to crime.

He was only a bag of bones when he first went to the centre.

Zhang said the man was a typical case. He said the current work of publicizing the effects of drugs on young people was far from sufficient.

The vice-director said drug taking was a problem because most people do not know much about how to get rid of their addictions.

He said primary schools and middle schools should have classes to teach young students about drugs.

Zhang added that he did not find any school that taught anti-drugs message when he visited all primary and middle schools of the Baiyun District of Guangzhou.

(China Daily June 16, 2005)