China Under the Second Opium Wars

China estimates domestic drug addicts number 7 to 12 million. At this rate of increase, China could have the most addicts per capita of any major economy in just five years. In addition to ecstacy pills and Methamphetamine, the most alluring drug of all is heroin, a derivative of opium: more than 70 percent of the nations drug addicts are hooked on heroin.

The center of drug deals is Gansu, which is poorer than large estern cities like Beijing and Shanghai. The network of the drug trading is formed around minorities like the Dongxiang and the Hui, who have few other ways to make money. Trafficking just 50 grams means the death penalty, but they are still dealing drugs to make a living somehow. The opium produced in “Golden Triangle” areas near Burma, Laos and Thai travels through minorities like the Miao, the Bai, and the Dai to Yunnan, from which Dongxiang people carry it to Sichuan, and then Yi people to Gansu.

These provinces have been prime transit route of drugs to other Asian areas, but domestic consumption is increasing. Domestic consumption of imported drugs increased 25 percent from 10 percent 5 years ago.

Hence, more and more people grow opium. 90 percent of agricultural product from Gansu province is opium, and dealers from England, Russian and Germany are coming here to buy Sanjiaji heroin, which is known for its high purity.

However, Chinese authorities cannot cover all these areas. According to the Times, corruption has become so systemic that even cops guide the buyers to the producing places. A $9,000 bribe can buy a dealer out of a death sentence. Everybody from 8-year-old children to professors, regardless of rank, chases drugs and police are always shorthanded.

Lots of mandatory drug treatment centers like rehabilitation centers and detoxification-through-labor camps are being established, but they have already become another source of supply. Most of patients are treated like prisoners, and no proper cure is provided there. Hence, 90 percent of the patients, including voluntary patients, return to the detox centers. Private clinics for rehabilitation, at which the price tag tops 5,000 dollars (6.5 million won) for a two-week stay, are flooding the market, but the re-addiction rate is still more than 50%.

The disease and crimes caused by drugs are serious. Out of total 22,517 HIV contaminated in China in 2000, 70 percent of them were affected by intravenous injections. Sichuan, one of prime drug transit routes, informed that over 70 percent of the crimes in the province were committed by drug addicts.

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