China arrests over 60,000 in nationwide drug bust

#‎Chinese‬ authorities have arrested 60,500 people for drug crimes and captured 11.4 tons of narcotics as part of a nationwide war on drugs.
From September to December last year, police took on 52,800 drug cases in the campaign titled "Banning Drugs in a Hundred Cities", according to the Ministry of Public Security.

As of mid-December, it had seized around 268,000 ‪#‎drug‬ users. Of these, nearly 70,000 have been sent to compulsory rehabilitation centers.

The number of drug users has doubled in eight provinces, including Jilin, Shandong, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Hunan, said police authorities. An estimated 140,000 new drug users have been registered in the campaign, up nearly 59% from a year earlier.

Chinese authorities have stepped up the crackdown against drugs amid growing concern over increasing drug abuse among young people.

“About 75% of registered drug users in China are under the age of 35,” Liu Yuejin, chief of ‪#‎China‬’s Narcotics Control Bureau, said ahead of World Anti-Drug Day last year.

He urged the media, education departments and society to help reduce drug use among young people.

Speaking of celebrities involved in drug scandals, Liu said that there is substance abuse among celebrities, and the high-profile cases exposed by media only make up a small part of the total number of cases that they deal with.

The most recent and high profile case involved Jaycee Chan--son of superstar Jackie Chan--who was imprisoned on drug-related charges. The younger Chan was sentenced to six months in jail and fined 2,000 yuan for “sheltering others for drug abuse”, after police found more than 100 gm of marijuana in his home in Beijing last year.

Source:CCTVNews