Anti-drug Education Not Sufficient in Beijing

Anti-drug education in Beijing, the Chinese capital, is still not sufficient, according to the latest survey sponsored by the Public Security Bureau of Beijing.

Of the 200 respondents from a drug rehabilitation center affiliated to the bureau, 143 began using drugs for the novelty and 107 respondents did nt know much about the grave consequences of narcotics before their first drug experience.

Experts pointed out that the novelty and ignorance about narcotics among many respondents shows that the anti-drug education is still not effective.

The 200 respondents were randomly selected among the rehabilitation center's 800 heroin users.

According to the survey, 44 respondents knew something about narcotics through watching TV, listening to radio programs, or reading newspapers, while 28 respondents visited China's first National Anti-drug Exhibition in 1998.

Only one respondent had visited the narcotics control education base in Beijing and none of the respondents had received anti-drug education during their school days.

The survey indicates that traditional narcotics control education is not efficient enough for the jobless and self-employed people, who are easy targets of narcotics simply because they seldom watch TV, listen to radio or read newspapers.

Therefore, experts in Beijing said narcotics control education during school should be strengthened, and special education for jobless and self-employed people should be conducted.

China now faces a grim drug situation, with a registered drug user population of over 680,000 at the end of 1999. Eighty percent were male addicts, 78 percent between the ages of 17 and 35, and more than 490,000 took heroin.



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