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Heroin epidemic hits China - BBC
Heroin epidemic hits China - BBC
Chasing the dragon: Heroin is easy to obtain in border villages
China is battling a heroin epidemic despite routinely
executing smugglers.
After years of playing down the
problem, officials now estimate there
are 500,000 addicts across the
country.
And some say the real figure could be
much higher.
The epidemic is particularly acute in Yunnan province
which is bordered by the poppy growing countries of
Laos, Burma and Thailand.
Yunnan, in the deep south
west, is estimated to have
100,000 addicts.
The province has eight
compulsory rehabilitation
camps run along military
lines. But the failure rate is
high.
The drugs culture has
brought with it problems of
prostitution, crime and Aids.
Drug abuse has been regarded with a sense of shame
since the British began profiting from the opium trade in
the last century.
When the Communists came to power in China they
took a hardline stance against narcotics, going so far as
to execute addicts.
But drugs continue to flood
across the border and the
number of addicts is rising.
Yunnan's sniffer dog teams
cannot check every vehicle
entering China even on the
main smuggling route.
Fang Nai Jian of Yunnan's
anti-drugs department
supports execution for
traffickers.
''I think the death penalty is necessary to strike at the
drugs problem,'' he said.
''We have a history of imposing the death penalty in
China and we should use it for drug traffickers.''