White-collars increasingly using illegal drugs
By Jiang Zhuqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-21 05:49

Executives, college students, actors and public servants have joined jobless youngsters in abusing drugs, police revealed yesterday.

Users of "new types of drugs" and related crime have been on the rise in recent years despite a series of campaigns, the Ministry of Public Security warned.

In the first seven months of the year, police confiscated 2.2 tons of methamphetamine (also known as Ice) and more than 370,000 tablets of ecstasy, 9.5 per cent and 54 per cent respectively higher than the same period last year, ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a press conference.

"That indicates the number of users of new types of drugs, such as ice, ecstasy and ketamine, has been increasing," Wu said. "So have the number of crimes that combine manufacture, sale and consumption of drugs as a whole."

Reports say the sale and use of new drugs is increasingly evident in nightclubs, bars, karaoke lounges and similar venues.

Ministry statistics show there were 790,000 registered drug users at the end of last year, but the actual number is believed to be far higher.

Liu Yuejin, vice-director of the ministry's Narcotic Control Bureau, said 9.5 per cent of registered addicts consume "new drugs," also called chemical or lab drugs.