HIGH-POWERED TV DOCUMENTARY AIDS ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN

CCTV, China's central television, is broadcasting a high-powered TV
documentary warning people about drugs, particularly the fast spreading
amphetamine-type stimulants "ice" and "Ecstasy", also known as the
"head-shaking" pill.

The addicts are seen rocking forwards and shaking their heads violently in
darkness. They rock and shake on and on, unable to control themselves,
unaware that the pills that make them move in this way are steadily taking
away their health, and their life.

The production of "New Types of Narcotics: Disaster of this Century" was
commissioned by China's National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), which
expects it to play an important educational role in the coming nation-wide
anti-drug campaign mainly dealing with amphetamine- type stimulants.

The campaign chooses amphetamine-type stimulants as targets as the NNCC
believes such drugs have become rampant in the dance venues of large and
medium-sized Chinese cities.

"Ice" was unknown in China before the 1990s but it has spread quickly.
China uncovered 190 cases of "ice" production and sale in 1999, with seized
"ice" totaling 16 tons + more than double the amount seized over the
previous eight years.

China reported the seizure of 4.6 tons of "ice" and 1.87 million ecstasy
tablets in the first 11 months of 2001.

Drug abusers, mostly youngsters that frequent the discos in large and
medium-sized cities, have become addicted to the stimulants as they naively
think they are "fun", unaware of the great danger or risk of death that the
pills pose.

The NNCC expects the documentary to play an important role in this
campaign. "Using this documentary as the basis, we'll launch a nation- wide
publicity campaign to help turn youth and drug-prone people away from
amphetamine "ice" and "shaking-head pills", said a NNCC circular.

Jia Chunwang, minister of Public Security and concurrently NNCC director,
and Bai Jingfu, NNCC deputy director, oversaw the making of this
documentary. It's aired on CCTV channel-I at 21^The producers said that it
is the first anti-drug documentary in the world focusing on
amphetamine-type stimulants.

China has long struggled against narcotics. Resistance to the huge influx
of opium even dragged China into a war with opium-selling countries back in
1840-1842, in which China was defeated and forced to sign a number of
humiliating treaties.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, China
enjoyed a 30-year long narcotics-free period thanks to intensive anti-drug
work. But in the 1980s narcotics reappeared in the country along with
China's opening up to the outside world.

The new China has been resolute in anti-narcotics work. Under China's
criminal law, smugglers of more than 50 grams of heroin can be sentenced to
death. Drug abusers are subject to a maximum detention of 15 days and
compulsory treatment.

By the end of October 2001, the number of registered drug addicts in China
had reached 901,000, of which 745,000 were heroin addicts. Some 286,000 of
these drug users were treated in rehabilitation centers in the first ten
months of last year.