CHINA REPORTS DRUG ARRESTS UP

BEIJING -- Drug arrests in China rose 15.4 percent in the first half of the
year and seizures of opium more than doubled, the official news agency said
Sunday on the eve of a major anti-drug meeting with its heroin-producing
neighbors.

The meeting Monday in Beijing brings together Chinese anti-drug officials
and counterparts from Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. The "Golden Triangle"
region of the Southeast Asian nations accounts for much of the heroin
smuggled into China.

Chinese police picked up more than 165,000 people in the first half of this
year for drug offenses -- 28,000 of them on suspicion of producing or
trafficking drugs, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Seizures of opium more than doubled to 1.9 tons, while heroin seizures were
up 75 percent at 6.2 tons compared to the first six months of last year,
the report said.

The amount of methamphetamine seized through June was up by 17 percent to
2.9 tons, Xinhua said. It said police also seized a record 640,000 granules
of Ecstasy and 211 tons of imported chemicals intended for drug production.

China has suffered an upsurge in drug abuse and drug-related crime, due in
part to loosened social controls and the easy availability of heroin from
neighboring countries.

After trying for years to conceal the extent of drug abuse, Chinese
authorities have begun to cooperate with foreign governments in anti-drug
efforts.

The meeting Monday is to be led by Luo Gan, the Chinese Communist Party's
top law official.

More than 66,000 addicts were sentenced to compulsory drug treatment, while
11,000 were sent to labor camps, Xinhua said. The report didn't give any
details of those incarcerated, but most compulsory drug treatment in China
is for heroin abuse.