DEALERS EXECUTED ON UN ANTI-DRUG DAY

BEIJING, CHINA China marked UN anti-drug day Monday 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 New China 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
Monday 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, China's
Cabinet.