China's anti-drug campaign still faces severe challenges. Till the end of 2004, drug addicts across the country totaled 791,000, up 6.8 percent from 2003. Young people under 35 years old account for 70 percent of the total drug addicts, according to the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC).

Official with the commission noted that drug problem in China once again tends to spread as a result of factors both at home and abroad.

According to statistics, the death toll of drug abuse nationwide has reached 33,975 and 41.3 percent of the 89,067 HIV carriers reported were infected through intravenous injection.

In the Golden Triangle areas bordering China's southwest frontier, poppy-growing areas and heroin production remain large and most of the drugs have entered China.

The criminalities of producing and trafficking "ice" or methamphetamine and ecstasy are still very rampant in China; illegal growth of poppy and indigenous processing of heroin have revived in some areas; easily drug-making chemicals, narcotics as well as psychotropic drugs spread through illegal channels despite of repeated crackdowns; in some regions, drug abuse and trafficking are serious in recreational places.

So far, drug addicts have been spotted in 2,102 counties, municipalities and regions or 73.5 percent of the country's total, 217 of which have seen as many as 1, 000 addicts each.

Based on the current number of drug users, it is estimated that the annual consumption on heroin amounts to at least 27 billion yuan and governments at various levels have to input billions of yuan annually for compulsory drug rehabilitation and drug rehabilitation through labor.

By People's Daily Online