Beijing Steps up Attack on Drug TraffickingSeven drug traffickers were executed in Beijing over the past two days following a Supreme People's Court ruling this month, according to a Beijing Drug Control Commission news conference Friday.A court report said the seven people executed were involved in five drug trafficking cases between 1997 and 1999. It showed that each criminal had more than 100 grams of heroin when busted. According to China's Criminal Law, anyone who trafficks more than 50 grams of heroin face death sentence. Between January 1999 and this May, police arrested more than 6,600 people in Beijing involved in about 4,900 drug trafficking and abuse cases, said Ruan Zengyi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. Police seized 140,000 grams of different drugs and confiscated 2.65 million yuan (US$320,000). During the same period, 945 people in Beijing were punished with imprisonment or death, said Wang Ming, vice-president of Beijing Supreme People's Court. Eighty-six were executed or sentenced to death on probation, Wang said. Ruan and Wang stressed that Beijing authorities will keep fighting drug trafficking seriously. "To use heavy penalties against drug traffickers is consistent with international practice,'' said Wang, who added that fines should be added to other penalties against drug traffickers. Since 1992, 11 foreigners were punished for their involvement in drug trafficking in Beijing, Ruan said. More young people in Beijing are becoming addicted to drugs, making the situation worse, the deputy director said. Between 1992 and 1999, 10,500 people in the capital were found to have used drugs, and 80 per cent were younger than 35, police statistics show. From 1999 to the first quarter of this year, 3,930 drug addicts in the city received compulsive treatments for their habits as required by Chinese law. Wang and Ruan also vowed to increase drug prevention education,in part through a Beijing programme called "community without drugs.'' The programme, which has been successful in Inner Mongolia's Baotou and Yunnan's Kunming, uses education, public assistance and medical treatment to relieve addictions. And on June 20, the All-China Women's Federation launched a programme for women called "Refusing Drugs in my Home.'' Lastly, Ruan said, his bureau has signed agreements with entertainment venues, where addicts are rampant, to guard against drug inflows. |
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