Introduction of Regulations on Administration of Precursor Chemicals and Progress in the Chinese People’s War Against Drugs

October 27, 2005

First, the problem is diverted into domestic clandestine laboratories. At present, domestic clandestine laboratories mainly produce ice and ecstasy. Most of the precursor chemicals, such as phenyl acetone, ephedrine, acetone, toluene, hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid, come from domestic sources. From January to July this year, there are all together 27 ice and ecstasy labs (cells) dismantled, 2,182 kilograms of ice, 370,000 pills of ecstasy and 137 tons of precursor chemicals seized around the country.

Secondly, the amount of precursor chemicals smuggled into the “Golden Triangle” area is startling. China borders on the “Golden Triangle” area, the globally second largest heroin manufacturing place and with no developed chemical industry. Therefore, drug traffickers smuggle a large amount of precursor chemicals, such as acetic anhydride, chloroform, ethyl ether and hydrochloric acid from China’s border areas to the Golden Triangle to produce heroin. With the increase of ice processing factories in the area, the smuggling of precursor chemicals also becomes more and more prominent. From January to June this year, among the 107 tons of precursor chemicals seized around the country, 22 tons are from Yunnan Province, which occupies one fifth of the total amount.

Thirdly, the smuggling of piperonyl methyl ketone and phenyl acetone from Guangdong Province to European countries like Holland, Belgium, Poland occurs occasionally. In recent years, domestic and foreign criminals, collaborating with each other, smuggled piperonyl methyl ketone and phenyl acetone to European ports like Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp by concealing them in the goods not on the control list such as eucalyptus oil, electric cookers in the containers. Customs in China and the related countries have seized some target smuggling cases in succession.

Fourthly, a new tendency has emerged with precursor chemicals used in ice manufacturing being smuggled to Southeast Asia. With the increase of China’s combat against ice manufacturing crimes, drug traffickers begin to transfer their clandestine laboratories to Southeast Asian countries. Drug traffickers are trying to smuggle by sea the precursor chemicals to Malaysia, the Philippines and other Southeast countries by means of hiding in or mixing with other goods.

In addition, the potential danger of the constant smuggling of ephedrine pills to Russia and the possible smuggling of acetic anhydride to the “Golden Crescent” area are also a concern that cannot be neglected.

In order to strengthen the overall administration of precursor chemicals, after up to 8 years of repeated modification and argumentation, the State Council of China promulgated Regulations on Administration of Precursor Chemicals (Regulations for short hereinafter) in the 445 ^th Decree on August 26, 2005, which will take into force on November 1 ^st, 2005. The Regulations includes 8 sections and 45 articles, with 22 types of precursor chemicals and 1 type of ephedrine substance listed in the annex. The Regulations is the first administrative law comprehensively normalizing the manufacturing, operation, purchase, transportation, import and export of precursor chemicals. It will play an important role in further strengthening precursor control according to the law, guaranteeing the legal production and operation, preventing them from flowing into illicit channels, reducing drug manufacturing by blocking drug sources and reducing drug harms. In particular, it is significant in the following four aspects:

First, it improves the legal system of precursor chemicals administration and provides a legal basis for the combat against precursor chemicals related criminal activities. In recent years, the relevant agencies have formulated some regulations in succession. However, due to the lack of administrative laws, it is still difficult to undertake an integrated national control over the precursor chemicals, and the related judiciary interpretations of Criminal Law cannot be introduced. The promulgation of the Regulations provides a special law for precursor chemicals administration, according to which many administrative departments, such as public security, commerce, safety supervision, drug administration, etc., will formulate specific administrative methods, and the Supreme Court will develop conviction and punishment standards. As a result, an integrated precursor chemicals administration legal system will be formed based on Criminal Law and supported by the Regulations, administration methods and conviction and punishment standards, which will provide legal basis for China’s control over precursor chemicals and that for China’s combat against precursor chemicals related crimes.

Secondly, by identifying administrative responsibilities, clarifying administrative measures and strengthening punishment levels, it will comprehensively normalize the law enforcement of administrative departments and the production and operation of enterprises. The Regulations clarifies the administrative responsibilities of each department and the administrative principles: the medicine supervision agencies are responsible for the administration of production, operation and purchase of precursor chemicals used as medicine; the security supervision agencies are responsible for the administration of production and operation of non-medicine precursor chemicals; the public security agencies are responsible for the administration of the transportation of precursor chemicals used as medicine and the purchase and transportation of non-medicine precursor chemicals; the commercial agencies are responsible for the administration of the import and export of precursor chemicals. It also sets forth administrative measures including the administration of licenses or records, prohibition of transaction by cash and timely report, as well as punishment methods including confiscating precursor chemicals and illicit income, fines, revoking business licenses, looking into criminal responsibilities, etc. Thus, it will comprehensively normalize the behaviors of precursor chemicals administrative agencies and enterprises’ operation orders, protect legal production and operation, and effectively prevent precursor chemicals from flowing into illicit channels and being used in drug manufacturing.

Thirdly, it will promote to allocate supervision forces scientifically, restructure supervision focuses reasonably, improve enforcement efficiency, contain crimes of drug manufacturing and trafficking effectively and advance the overall drug control efforts. The Regulations provides that the 23 types of precursor chemicals on the control list will be administrated according to the categories and procedures. The essential chemicals with serious diversion are ranked as the first category, and license administration system is imposed upon them in all procedures, which will help each administrative department to put their focus on priority type, allocate supervision resources reasonably, improve law enforcement efficiency and effectively prevent the drug manufacturing material from flowing into clandestine laboratories, so that the drug manufacturing and trafficking tendency will be contained, the harms caused to the society by drugs be reduced from the sources and the national drug control cooperation be advanced.

Fourthly, it helps to strengthen the self-discipline of enterprises and urge them to operate legally. The Regulations sets forth specific operation methods of production, operation, purchase, transportation, import and export of precursor chemicals for enterprises as well as punishment measures for the violation of the Regulations. Thus, it provides regulations for enterprises to follow in the process of production and operation. Also, through its supervision and examination, it drives enterprises to strengthen their self-discipline and guarantee legal production and operation.

Progress in the Chinese People’s War against Drugs

Since the deployment of People’s War against Drugs by the National Narcotics Control Commission on April 14^th this year, party committees and governments of different areas and relevant departments have carefully carried out the instructions made by central leaders including Secretary General Hu Jintao and the speeches made by Zhou Yongkang. Surrounding the five campaigns of drug prevention, drug treatment, source blocking, strict control and strict administration, the People’s War against Drugs has been carried out broadly and made significant victories. From January to September, there are totally 74,419 cases of drug related crimes solved around the country, 49,097 drug related crime suspects captured, and 7,167 kilograms of heroin, 1,819 kilograms of opium, 4,511 kilograms of ice, 879,000 ecstasy pills and 1,593 kilograms of ketamine were seized. The progress is made in the following five aspects:

Firstly, the development of drug prevention campaign has made new achievements in containing the emergence of new drug users. By referring to Implementation Instructions on National Drug Control Education and focusing on the subject of “participating in drug control and establishing a harmonious society”, with all the people, young people and high risk group as the targets, departments in each region have carried out a series of drug control popularization activities with rich content and diversified forms. A strong atmosphere of people’s war against drugs is thus created. The drug control popularization is pushed to a climax on June 26^th when National Narcotics Control Commission and the Propaganda Department of CCCPC held a report conference about Wu Guanglin, a drug enforcement hero from Yunnan Province, at the Great Hall of the People, with Luo Gan, representing Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, interviewing the members of the reporting team and advanced representatives on drug control, Mr. Zhou Yongkang attended the report conference and made an important speech. In order to contain the development and expansion of news types of drugs including ice, ecstasy, ketamine, NNCC has deployed centralized national popularization and education activities on prevention of new types of drugs, and launched on October 16th “Drug Control Commitment Actions at All Recreation places” simultaneously in the seven cities of Beijing, Dalian, Harbin, Qingdao, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Urumuchi, calling on all recreation places to self-consciously get away from new types of drugs. With the obvious increase of people’s awareness of participation in drug control, reports on clues of drug related crimes have increased. Through people’s reports, Yunnan Province has solve 885 cases of drug related crimes, captured 977 crime suspects, seized 860 kilograms of drugs and cashed in up to 1,000,000 yuan of awards in the first half of this year.

Secondly, the drug treatment campaign has made new achievements in containing drug dangers. According to NNCC’s Notice on the Study and Implementation of Premier Wen Jiabao’s Instructions during the Inspection of the Compulsory Drug Treatment Center of Kunming Public Security Department and Emergency Notice on Further Strengthening Labor Education and Drug Treatment jointly issued by the Office of National Drug Control Commission, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice, each region has actively carried out “General Examination, General Treatment and General Education”. By the end of August, 195,018 person-times have undertaken drug treatment in compulsory treatment centers, 44,739 in labor education and rehabilitation centers, the total number of which exceeds 200,000. The amounts of people undertaking compulsory drug treatment and labor education have both increased compared with the same period of last year.

Thirdly, the source blocking campaign has made new achievements in containing the flow of drugs into China. The southwest, northwest, northeast and southeast border regions that border foreign drug sources have strengthened their efforts of source blocking, improved the drug investigation mechanism with multiple departments participating in and multiple types of police taking actions, which has built up an effective three-line barrier of illicit drugs, namely “the first line blocking drugs along the border, the second line checking drugs in the provinces and the third line intercepting drugs at provincial exits”. Yunnan Province organized operation “Sky Net 2” with “double direction investigation” as its main content. From January to September, there are altogether 8,690 cases of drug related crimes solved, 10,653 suspects captured, 4,224 kilograms of heroin seized, with the number of solved cases and seized drugs separately increasing by 11.3 percent and 9.5 percent compared to the same period of the last year. In the northwest, northeast and southeast, with Xinjiang, Jilin and Guangdong autonomous regions or provinces as the priorities, an overall source blocking effort is also carried in the border areas. Xinjiang has solved 9 cases of drug smuggled through the air route from Pakistan, captured 9 suspects with foreign nationalities, and seized 8.9 kilograms of heroin. During the campaign of source blocking, the public security, military, railway, traffic, civil aviation, customs, postal service agencies have formed a powerful joint force for drug investigation, each doing its own job and collaborating with each other closely.

Fourthly, the strict control campaign has made new achievements in containing the high tendency of drug crimes. By carefully carrying out the important instruction that “people’s war against drugs must launch an integrated battle and a joint battle” made by Minster Zhou Yongkang, the public security agencies in all regions have greatly strengthened the law enforcement coordination among multiple types of police and various areas and international drug control cooperation, and solved in succession a group of target cases of drug crimes. From January to September, there are altogether 1,081 cases solved each involving over a kilogram of drugs, increasing by 27 percent compared to the same period of last year; 154 cases solved each involving over 10 kilograms of drugs, increasing by 20 percent compared to the same period of last year; 1,279 drug manufacturing groups are hunted down, and 26 drug clandestine laboratories are destroyed, which have greatly struck the rampancy of domestic and foreign drug manufacturing and trafficking syndicates. From January to August, the public security agencies in all regions have also solved 30,222 miscellaneous drug trafficking cases each involving less than 10 grams of drugs. In the meantime, provinces like Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Gansu, Xinjiang with serious problems of people migrating to other areas and trafficking drugs have jointly fought against drug trafficking and conducted centralized control over these regions by strengthening their information exchange and cooperation with both drug influx and outflux places. From January to August, Yunnan Province has captured 4,204 drug suspects who are residents of other provinces. In addition, guided by the principle of “strict control, strict prevention and strict administration”, public security agencies in all regions have jointly carried out the rectification of drug abuse and traffic activities in recreation places together with the administrative departments of culture, industry and commerce, investigated and prosecuted a group of drug related recreation places and punished a group of drug related suspects. From January to September, Guangdong Province has rectified 246 drug related recreation places, captured 33 drug trafficking suspects, 2,373 drug users and looked into the legal responsibilities of 58 business owners.

Fifthly, the strict administration campaign has made new achievements in containing the diversion of precursor chemicals, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Upon the introduction of Regulations on Administration of Precursor Chemicals and Regulations on Administration of Narcotic drugs and Psychotropic Substances, by focusing on the two special operations over precursor chemical administration orders and narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances orders, each region has further standardized and strengthened their administration of the production, distribution, transportation and usage of precursor chemicals, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, strengthened the strike over the smuggling of precursor chemicals, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. From January to September, 131.9 tons of precursor chemicals were seized around the country. At the beginning of this year, Heilongjiang solved target case “12.29” of precursor chemicals smuggling, captured 13 crime suspects and seized 935 kilograms of ephedrine pills. In June, Jilin disclosed case “2.20”of illicit sales of triazolam, seized 56.7 pills of triazolam. In October, Fujian Province cracked down a case of ephedrine trafficking, seized 1 ton of ephedrine.

At present, with vigorous strikes and regularization, China’s growing tendency of drug related crimes start to be contained and the drug control has obtained positive effect. In particular, the long domestic balance between drug demand and supply has obviously been changed, with the price of drug increasing to a large extent. The average price of heroin in Yunnan Province has increased by 31.5 percent. Meanwhile the price of acetic acid anhydride used for production of heroin has sharply increased from 70,000 yuan to current 120,000 yuan per ton. Drug prices in most domestic regions have also increased to a large extent, among which the retail prices of heroin and ketamine in Guangdong Province have increased by 30 percent compared with the beginning of this year, the wholesale price and retail price of heroin in Shanxi Province have increased by 180 percent and 157 percent respectively compared with the same period last year, the retail price of ecstasy in Mongolia has increased between 50 percent to 100 percent. In the meantime, with the constant increase effort of strike, the domestic drug situation and social security in those areas where the drug problem is serious have also changed dramaticly. Domestic and foreign drug traffickers have changed the past methods such as directly smuggling into the country and large scale quantity of drugs to use indirect ways of smuggling and tactics to reduce risks. The tendency of drug manufacturing in the coastal regions such as Guangdong and Fujian swifting to set clan labs in the inland and overseas is becoming more obvious. The activities of use ecstasy and ketamine as well as trading those drugs in recreation places are becoming more secret; in some areas, cases of robbery, mug and theft caused by drug problems are reducing and social security is improving.

In the People’s War against Drug, the police agencies have solved numbers of cases of armed drug trafficking especially gun related drug trafficking cases through their heroic fight and selfless dedication. According to incomplete statistics, there are 37 gun related drug crime cases solved, 44 various types of guns, 1,493 bullets and 11 grenades seized, unfortunately 10 policemen injured in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei during the people’s war against drugs so far.