VIET NAM PARTICIPATES IN INTERNATIONAL ANTI-DRUG DAY

Thanh Hoa -- The ministries of Education and Training and Public
Security, in co-ordination with the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's
Committee, yesterday launched a campaign in honour of the
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking today.

The campaign is aimed at calling all people, including the 23 million
students nationwide, to respond to the UN slogan "Do drugs control
your life? Your Life, Your Community. No Place for Drugs."

The slogan will be used for three years for a campaign focused on
different aspects of drug control: drug abuse in 2007, drug
cultivation and production in 2008 and illegal drug trafficking in 2009.

With this campaign, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) aims to raise awareness of the major problems that illegal
drugs represent to society and mobilise support for drug control.

Representatives of 10 provinces' education and training departments
and 10 secondary schools in Thanh Hoa Province, on behalf of the
nation's 23 million students, signed an action plan against drugs in
schools for 2007-2010.

On the same day, in Bac Giang Province, 1,200 students, men from the
armed forces and youth volunteers and representatives from local
offices and organisations took part in a campaign in honour of the
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The drug war

The illegal trafficking of drugs will not be tolerated in Viet Nam,
according to the message made by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
ordering ministries and localities to launch crackdowns between May
26 and September 26.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, since 1997, police have
uncovered more than 111,000 drug smuggling cases and arrested more
than 190,000 people while confiscating caches of opium, heroin,
marijuana, ecstasy and other banned narcotics.

Anti-drug forces have also detected, tracked and broken up a bevy of
transnational drug-trafficking rings, sending thousands of addicts to
rehabilitation centres.

According to the Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee,
drug-related crimes are entirely absent from over 4,000 communes and
towns in Viet Nam, 47 per cent of the country's total.

The Ministry of Public Security warns, however, that drug use and
trafficking in Viet Nam more often than not are directly affected by
regional and international trade, and drugs flowing into the country
have yet to be fully eradicated. Meanwhile, the number of drug
addicts continues to rise, and smuggling rings are becoming more sophisticated.

Ministries and localities have been asked to closely observe the
activities of restaurants, hotels and bars, including karaoke bars,
in order to prevent drug use and trafficking. -- VNS