China has sent out teams of inspectors to check on school anti-drug education, the state drug control authority said on Thursday.

The National Narcotics Control Commission has dispatched teams to the eastern province of Anhui and the southern province of Guangdong to make sure local primary and middle schools are doing all they can to prevent students from taking drugs.

Primary and middle schools throughout the country were ordered to assess their anti-drug education activities, according to a circular jointly released by the commission, the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League on Oct. 25.

Previously, the three authorities had provided 200 schools with anti-drug educational materials.

An official with the Ministry of Public Security said some young people are not aware of the harm of drugs, especially new methamphetamine-based drugs such as "ice" and "ecstasy".

"Some young people even think it's fashionable to take drugs and easy to quit," he said.

The number of drug takers in China grew 35 percent over a five-year period to reach 1.16 million in early 2005, according to police data.

Police estimates indicate China has more than 700,000 heroin addicts, 69 percent of whom are under the age of 35.

The country's draft anti-drug law outlaws opium, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine, morphine, and cocaine.

It also asks local governments and anti-drug committees, village and urban residents' committees, parents or supervisors of students under 18 to play a bigger role in the country's anti-drug education campaign.

(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2006)