Chinese lawmaker suggests continual updating of drug catalog and enhancing intl cooperation to tackle new drugs

Beijing police have solved over 60 drug-related crimes from the beginning of this year until July, with a total of 9.3 kilograms of various types of drugs seized by police. Photo: courtesy of Beijing police.

A national lawmaker suggested updating and adjusting China's drug catalog in a timely manner, and providing a clear definition of the range of variations in the chemical composition of drugs, in order to fully cover new types of drugs in terms of legal regulation. He also proposed enhancing international cooperation so that crimes regarding new types of drugs can be handled swiftly.

The suggestion was made by Gao Wei, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), and a professor from law school of Yunnan University.

In recent years, under a regime of strict punishment and effective governance, the overall anti-drug situation in China has shown a positive trend. However, due to various factors both internationally and domestically, anti-drug work still faces many risks and challenges.

In June of last year, the Supreme People's Court reported on the measures and effectiveness of the anti-drug work of the people's courts in 2022, stating that the overall number of drug-related criminal cases continued to decline, but new types of drug-related crimes are on the rise, with a prominent trend toward criminal networks and applying intelligence tools.

Gao, who has conducted in-depth research on drugs, noted that compared to traditional drug crimes, new types of drug crimes have two distinct characteristics: first, there is a constant emergence of new varieties, structures, and combinations of drugs.

What's more, drug crimes are increasingly utilizing new methods such as the internet, electronic payments, and even artificial intelligence. This has made the prosecution and control of new types of drug crimes more challenging.

To tackle those challenges, Gao suggested updating and adjusting the list of controlled substances in a timely manner, and clearly defining the range of variations in the chemical composition of drugs.

At the same time, he also proposed to focus on drug producers and suppliers at the legislative and enforcement levels, and cracking down on drug manufacturing facilities and drug trafficking groups.

It is important to strengthen international cooperation and regional judicial cooperation in drug control, Gao added, noting that integrate the drug control cooperation between different departments, especially the cooperation mechanism between network supervision departments, technology departments, investigative agencies, and judicial agencies, so that new types of drug crimes can be quickly identified, classified, and investigated.

The professor also suggested further improving mandatory isolation for drug addicts and related drug types for mandatory isolation, due to emerging of those new types of drugs. He said that it is necessary to make a targeted mandatory isolation and drug rehabilitation mechanism for different drug users. It is also important to enhance the long-term tracking mechanism for individuals released from mandatory isolation and drug rehabilitations.

In December last year, Chinese State Councilor Wang Xiaohong spoke of the requirements to advance the war on drugs and facilitate the high-quality development of drug control. Wang stressed the need to enhance border control as well as the handling of new types of drugs, such as fentanyl.

China was the first country in the world to subject all fentanyl-like substances to monitoring and inspection in 2019. In October 2021, the country released testing standards for fentanyl and synthetic cannabinoid drugs, employing various analytical methods to further strengthen control over addictive substances.