Growth in the number of new mainland drug addicts last year was down considerably on the previous year.
Last year 5.6 per cent of the country's drug abusers were new addicts, the National Surveillance Centre on Drug Abuse estimates, compared to 9.3 per cent for 2002.
More than half of the new drug takers were under 30 years old, while 8.9 per cent were younger than 20. Females made up 18.3 per cent of the drug-taking population last year, a smaller proportion than in previous years.
The findings are reported in the organisation's annual report, which is usually circulated only among senior officials and specialists but was released to the public for the first time this year.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the mainland had 740,000 registered drug addicts by the end of last year.
Centre director Lu Xianxiang admitted the figure represented only the tip of the iceberg.
