CHINA SENDS TEENAGE ADDICTS TO MENTAL HOSPITALS

CHINA is executing drug dealers every week and locking up users, some of
them under 18, in mental hospitals. The harsh regime is designed to contain
a drugs epidemic seen as a threat to social stability. China traditionally
has been plagued by opium, although the Communist Party temporarily
eradicated drug use. Now synthetic drugs from the former Soviet Union are
replacing opium derivatives such as heroin. Official figures show that the
use of drugs, including Ecstasy and amphetamines, is up by more than 25 per
cent on last year. The official number of addicts is

860,000 in a population of 1.2 billion. The crackdown has had a sharp
effect on young club-goers, particularly in coastal cities. Many wind up in
mental hospitals and are left there until a ?3,000 bribe is paid. Once
brimming nightclubs are half empty because regulars fear police raids.

Witnesses described a recent raid on a nightclub in Beijing during which 21
people were arrested and many more intimidated. "Police came running in,
screaming, at half past two," one clubber said. "The first thing they did
was to throw out all the foreigners. They were only interested in busting
the locals."

Plainclothes officers divided the Chinese into those who could pay large
bribes immediately and those who could not. Another witness said: "They
knew exactly the sort of people who would have enough money to pay up
immediately, like people from the music industry. Once this was done, the
plainclothes police left."

The remaining 100 Chinese had to kneel for up to five hours while waiting
for urine drug tests on site. Those testing positive were taken away to
mental hospitals, supposedly to be treated for addiction. They were locked
in freezing rooms and cut off from almost all contacts outside. Some have
been allowed to use the telephone to solicit money for bribes from friends.

More than two months after the raid, some of the 21 arrested are still
locked up with no legal recourse. They have been told that the standard fee
to get out is ?3,000, the average annual salary in China.

China's official media published accounts of group executions of drug
dealers last week. The Legal Daily reported the execution of six members of
a drugs gang in Guangdong Province. According to human rights groups,
similar executions take place every week.