Drugs and drug-related crime in China are still a blot on the Chinese landscape despite a people's war waged against it a year ago.

In the first four months of the year, China arrested 19,000 people responsible for 24,000 drug-related criminal cases, said a senior official with the office of the National Narcotics Control Commission in Beijing yesterday.

Police seized 3,859 kilograms of heroin, 1,005 kilograms of "ice" and 198,000 tablets of "Ecstasy" in the period, Yang Fengrui, permanent secretary-general of the commission, said.

Since late April, campaigns have targeted drug prevention, prohibition and treatment, interception, law enforcement and administrative measures on chemicals used in making drugs.

By the end of 2004, there were 791,000 registered drug addicts in China, including 22,000 added last year, statistics from the Ministry of Public Security indicated.

Comprehensive measures have also been adopted in China for the rehabilitation of addicts and their treatment and recovery, integrated with compulsory measures and social help, Yang said.

In 2004, more than 273,000 addicts received treatment at compulsory rehabilitation centers and 68,000 were treated and re-education-through-labor centers.

A recent questionnaire in Shanghai, in which 40 percent of respondents failed to identify cocaine as a narcotic, has sounded alarm bells about the drug control situation at grassroots level.

"The lack of knowhow on drugs among the mass of people spells great danger in fighting narcotics," said Gu Boping, head of the Huangpu Work Station under the Shanghai Ziqiang Social Services.

The station surveyed more than 200 random passers-by, 10 percent of whom did not regard "ice" as a kind of drug, and 18.5 percent of whom did not consider marijuana as one.

Worse, the station conducted a similar survey among more than 200 college students, of whom 32 percent did not think cocaine was a drug.

"Drug education at community level plays an indispensable role in curbing drug deals and preventing the increase of drug takers," said Pan Donghai, a social worker at Ziqiang's work station in Shanghai's bustling Nanjing Road.

Ziqiang's stations send voluntary workers to every residential building in neighborhoods to promote drug knowledge, anti-drug situations and drug-related laws and regulations.

The work stations select key targets in their jurisdiction, usually entertainment places such as pubs and karaoke bars, and give operators and workers regular lectures.

"We'll suggest that local business administrations and the police make education a precondition for these units to get their annual license approval," said Pan.

In Beijing, communities and judicial departments have explored new ways to control the problem.

Qi Yue, who works with a community correction center at Chongwen District, said giving up the habit for addicts was hard.

Qi and her colleagues have tried out a correction plan for an addict and dealer who was jailed for two years then put on probation.

"During the first two months, frequent dialogues and psychological analysis will be arranged by the center to help him give up drug addiction," said Qi.

After two years' supervision, "an assessment will be organized by the neighborhood committee and local judicial department to decide whether or not he qualifies as reformed and able to return to society," she said.

Like Qi's center, tens of thousands of communities in cities as well villages in the countryside have been mobilized for the construction of drug-free communities, which is aiming to form the main force in fighting drugs.

(China Daily May 27, 2005)