BEIJING STEPS UP ATTACK ON DRUG TRAFFICKING

Seven involved in five trafficking cases executed upon ruling from the
supreme court.

Seven drug traffickers were executed in Beijing over the past two days
following a Supreme People's Court ruling this month, China Daily
learned from a Beijing Drug Control Commission news conference Friday.

A court report said the seven people executed were involved in five
drug trafficking cases between 1997 and 1999. It showed that each
criminal had more than 100 grams of heroin when busted.

According to China's Criminal Law, anyone who trafficks more than 50
grams of heroin face death sentence.

Between January 1999 and this May, police arrested more than 6,600
people in Beijing involved in about 4,900 drug trafficking and abuse
cases, said Ruan Zengyi, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal
Public Security Bureau. Police seized 140,000 grams of different drugs
and confiscated 2.65 million yuan (US$320,000).

During the same period, 945 people in Beijing were punished with
imprisonment or death, said Wang Ming, vice-president of Beijing
Supreme People's Court. Eighty-six were executed or sentenced to death
on probation, Wang said.

Ruan and Wang stressed that Beijing authorities will keep fighting
drug trafficking seriously.

"To use heavy penalties against drug traffickers is consistent with
international practice," said Wang, who added that fines should be
added to other penalties against drug traffickers.

Since 1992, 11 foreigners were punished for their involvement in drug
trafficking in Beijing, Ruan said.

More young people in Beijing are becoming addicted to drugs, making
the situation worse, the deputy director said.

Between 1992 and 1999, 10,500 people in the capital were found to have
used drugs, and 80 per cent were younger than 35, police statistics
show.

From 1999 to the first quarter of this year, 3,930 drug addicts in the
city received compulsive treatments for their habits as required by
Chinese law.

Wang and Ruan also vowed to increase drug prevention education,in part
through a Beijing programme called "community without drugs."

The programme, which has been successful in Inner Mongolia's Baotou
and Yunnan's Kunming, uses education, public assistance and medical
treatment to relieve addictions.

And on June 20, the All-China Women's Federation launched a programme
for women called "Refusing Drugs in my Home."

Lastly, Ruan said, his bureau has signed agreements with entertainment
venues, where addicts are rampant, to guard against drug inflows.