China debates first anti-drug law
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Chinese lawmakers on Tuesday began debating the country’s first bill specifically designed to crack down on drugs that flood across China’s borders.
“It is important to introduce such a law as China is now facing a grave situation in drug control,” Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of public security, as telling the standing committee of China’s rubber stamp parliament.
The country was estimated to have more than 700,000 heroin addicts, Xinhua said, with most the drugs coming from the Golden Triangle area that includes Myanmar and Laos, and the Golden Crescent along the Pakistan and Afghan frontiers.
Zhang was quoted as saying drugs from the Golden Triangle were “pouring” into China, “posing a great threat to China’s drug control efforts”.
The new law would require regular checks be made on the production and sale of certain medicines, though Xinhua did not say which.
Farms where narcotics were grown for legal use and where medicines were stored would also get state protection, the report said.
“The bill will also authorize police to search people and their luggage for illegal drugs at key public places such as train stations, long-distance bus stations and border crossings,” Xinhua said.
And owners of bars and nightclubs would have to post anti-drugs notices on their premises, it added.
Last year, China arrested nearly 60,000 people in drugs cases and seized 17.5 metric tons of narcotics, a senior law enforcement official said in June, though he gave no comparative figures.
China has also been stepping up cooperation with neighboring countries that produce drugs, including training police in Myanmar, the former Burma.
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