China´s anti-drug efforts pay off

Thursday marks the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Three years ago, China launched a program targeting drug use and trafficking and now it has paid off. A top anti-drug official says China has basically eliminated opium planting and heroin processing.

These poppies are beautiful, but they are also the source of deadly drugs.

The Golden Triangle area is the major supplier of heroin, the most commonly-used drug for Chinese addicts.

To cut the source, China is promoting a substitute planting strategy, a plan that could reduce heroin production by 110 tons a year. It helped plant millions of cash crops such as grain, rubber, tea and sugar cane over the past three years in the Golden Triangle region, which encompasses the northern parts of Myanmar and Laos.

Apart from aid and investments, China also offered a market for the farm products.

And satellite remote sensors show poppy growing areas in the region have dropped dramatically in the past three years.

80 percent of the drugs in China are seized in the border area.

To fight trafficking, transport sectors have carried out special programs to curb trade, and the police have bolstered their drug prevention work.

Zhang Xiaoqing, vice director of Yunnan Border Security, said, "In 2005, and 2006, we targeted a big drug dealer who was hiding in Myanmar and then Laos. But finally we caught him."

Since June this year, a new anti-drug law took effect. It raises the status of narcotic control commissions, and attaches more importance to community drug control. It also further regulates the anti-drug campaign and promotes international cooperation, demonstrating the government's determination to stop the illegal activity.