CHINA ADMITS DRUG PROBLEMS, EXECUTES DEALERS

BEIJING -- China marked U.N. anti-drug day yesterday by executing dealers,
torching narcotics and publicly acknowledging the grim inroads drugs are
making among Chinese, particularly the young.

Those executed included three drug traffickers from Taiwan, a Hong Kong
resident, two Shanghai heroin dealers, four dealers in the northern
province of Shaanxi, three farmers in China's drug-afflicted southwest and
four manufacturers of methamphetamine, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

It carried conflicting accounts on the total number of people put to death
but said the executions made "a clear and compelling statement."

China also executed at least 38 drug traffickers last week.

In its first policy paper on China's drug problems, the government said
yesterday that the number of registered drug addicts jumped from 148,000 in
1991 to 681,000 last year. Heroin was the drug of choice for 71 percent of
addicts, and 79 percent were under age 35, according to the document issued
by the State Council.

More recent figures have put the number of registered addicts as high as
800,000, and a senior U.S. drug-control official has quoted Chinese
estimates of 3 million to 12 million total drug users, out of China's
estimated 1.25 billion people.

"The drug scourge is becoming more serious with each passing day and the
situation is grim for the anti-drug struggle," the policy paper said.

Law enforcers "are waging a fierce battle against all drug-related criminal
activities, administering merciless punishment to those involved."

Between 1991 and 1999, China cracked more than 800,000 drug cases,
confiscating almost 40 tons of heroin, 17 tons of opium, 15 tons of
marijuana and 23 tons of methamphetamine, the paper said.