Synthetic drugs pose new challenge

Various types of precursor chemicals, used as raw materials to make the growingly popular synthetic drugs, present a new challenge to the anti-drug campaign, according to a senior police officer from Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The province, where the drugs seized usually account for 70 percent of the total in China, impounded a record 14 tons of drugs last year, up 45 percent from 2010, Meng Sutie, director of the provincial public security bureau, said in an interview last week.

Eight of the 14 tons were synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy. The rest were traditional drugs such as heroin and opium.

By comparison, authorities seized more than 4 tons of synthetic drugs in 2010, and in previous years only a few hundred kilograms annually.

"Synthetic drugs are breaking in with tremendous force," Meng said. The synthetic drugs seized in Yunnan come from Myanmar, he added.

The province shares a 4,061-kilometer border with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, which together with Thailand make up the "Golden Triangle" of poppy cultivation.

Traffickers transported less opiates such as heroin and opium into Yunnan because of multinational crackdowns on poppy cultivation in recent years.

"Drug traffickers in Myanmar are turning to producing more synthetic drugs, which are easier to make for less money," he said.

Using various precursor chemicals, underground labs in Myanmar extract and produce synthetic drugs, such as methamphetamine, which are mainly smuggled into China and Thailand.

To halt the supply of chemicals to Myanmar, police increased their efforts last year against the smuggling of non-pharmaceutical precursor chemicals.

Yunnan province data provided to China Daily showed that 528 tons of non-pharmaceutical precursor chemicals were seized last year, compared with a total of 408 tons seized from 2008 through 2010.

Yunnan will increase its cooperation with Myanmar and Laos in sharing intelligence and cracking down on drug traffickers and underground labs this year.

According to The Annual Report On Drug Control in China 2011, there were 1.55 million people on mainland taking drugs by the end of 2010. Synthetic drugs were increasingly popular with people younger than 25 as 432,000 of them were taking synthetic drugs.

Questions:

1. How many tons of drugs were seized last year?

2. What traditional drugs were seized?

3. Why will Yunnan increase its cooperation with Myanmar and Laos?

Answers:

1. 14 tons.

2. Heroin and opium.

3. To share intelligence and crack down on drug traffickers and underground labs.