NewGetting high: China’s drug offenders on the rise as more than a million are arrested in 2015
Number of narcotics users caught up 20pc, with young people dominating group of abusers
More than a million drug users were arrested in China last year, a 20 per cent increase from the previous year, the National Narcotics Control Commission said on Thursday.
Roughly half of all the 1,062,000 drug users arrested in 2015 were new offenders, a 14.6 per cent increase from 2014, according to the commission.
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Some 73.2 per cent of those arrested last year abused amphetamine, commonly known as Ice, and 80.5 per cent abused a mix of drugs. Other widely used drugs included heroin and opioids.
At the end of 2015, there were more than 2.3 million drug users in China, the report said.
It also noted their young age – 60.6 per cent of the 2.3 million total were between 18 and 35 years old and 1.8 per cent were below 18. The remaining 37.6 per cent were 36 or older.
According to information provided by the drug users, nearly 70 per cent of them were unemployed. Some 17.3 per cent were farmers, 4.7 per cent labourers, and 0.5 per cent students.
The youth and farmers were the most active groups in drug trafficking, according to the report.