NUMBER OF NARCOTICS OFFENDERS ON SHARP RISE

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) The number of drug offenders rose sharply in the
first 11 months of 2008, mainly because of a sentence commutation
program implemented in the second half of 2007, the Ministry of the
Interior acknowledged Sunday.

Statistics released by the ministry show that in the first 11 months
of 2008, the courts convicted 37,700 people of narcotics-related
offenses, up 52.1 percent from the same period of 2007.

The figures also show that 86.9 percent of the convicts were repeat
offenders who had been released under the 2007 commutation program.

Ministry officials pointed out that public prosecutors offices
received 78,877 new narcotics-related cases for investigation in the
first 11 months last year, down 2.7 percent from the same period of
2007, and that 89.2 percent of the cases were related to substance
abuse.

They noted that in the January-November period of last year, police
handled 49,928 offenses against the Narcotics Endangerment Prevention
Act, an increase of 2 percent over the same period of 2007, and that
64 percent of the offenses were related to heroin and opium -- two
restricted Class A drugs.

Also in the 11-month period, police detained 53,325 drug abuse
suspects, a rise of 1.3 percent over the January-November period of
2007. Of the total, 86 percent were male and 91.5 percent were
graduates of either junior or senior high schools, or vocational high
schools.

Under the 2007 sentence commutation program, former President Chen
Shui-bian ordered the release of 25,670 prisoners as part of the
commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the end of 38 years of
martial law.

Of the first group of 10,943 inmates released July 16, 2007, 4,973
were offenders against the narcotics control act, including many drug
addicts who were still undergoing rehabilitation. Within two weeks of
their release, more than 20 of them had died of drug overdoses,
according to news reports.

The commutation, implemented eight months before the 2008 presidential
election, was criticized as a mere gimmick intended to draw public
attention away from the corruption scandals embroiling the then-first
family and boost the sagging public support for the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP).

The DPP was relegated to an opposition party after losing the
presidential election, while the former president is now in custody in
a Taipei detention center pending further investigation into the
bribe-taking and money laundering charges against him, his wife, his
son and his daughter-in-law.