CHINA ADMITS IT NEEDS HELP TO FIGHT DRUGS

China has conceded that it cannot win its fight against illegal drugs
without help from the international community.

This frank admission was made by a senior Chinese official during a
conference on drug control.

China's Minister for Public Security Jia Chunwang says the country's
problem with drugs is now bigger than ever.

That is despite a massive crackdown on drug-related crime in the past
six months, which netted 140,000 suspects linked to more than 100,000
drug-related crimes.

Minister Jia says in the past two-and-a-half years, China has seized
more than 15 tons of heroin and more recently, four tons of the
designer drug known locally as "ice".

The problem extends to drug use too. Despite harsh rehabilitation
camps that get addicts off drugs via forced labour, the official
number of drug addicts in China is now 600,000, eight times the figure
of less than a decade ago.