BEIJING -- China executed a British national for drug smuggling, sparking outrage from British leaders, who had appealed for clemency on mental-health grounds, and threatening to strain relations between the countries. Akmal Shaikh, convicted of carrying more than four kilograms of heroin two years ago at Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in northwestern Xinjiang province, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday after China's Supreme People's Court upheld his death sentence, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the execution, saying in a statement that he is "appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted." He expressed his "sincere condolences" to Mr. Shaikh's family and friends. [continues 515 words]
URUMQI -- Relatives visited a British man on the eve of his scheduled execution in China for drug smuggling and made a last-minute plea for mercy amid concerns he may be mentally ill. Akmal Shaikh, a 53-year-old father of three, is due to be executed Tuesday. The two cousins who visited him Monday said he had not been aware of the death penalty he is facing. He would be the first citizen of a European country to be executed in China in half a century. [continues 267 words]
THE Chinese embassy has responded to calls for clemency for the British man set to be executed tomorrow morning. Akmal Shaikh, 53, from north London, is due to be put to death at 10:30am after being convicted of smuggling heroin. His cousins Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, from London, were to arrive in Urumqi in north-west China yesterday. They say their relative has a bipolar condition which affected his behaviour. However, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said Mr Shaikh was found with more than 4kg of heroin, which he said was enough to kill 26,800 people. He said that, according to Chinese law, being caught with 50g of heroin was enough for the death penalty to be applied. [continues 67 words]
FORMER drug addict surnamed He has been given a new start in her life, thanks to staff at a Minhang recovery center. Once hopelessly addicted to drugs, the young woman was sent to the rehab center by her family. However, her mother acted very strictly with her and the young woman became depressed again after completing an abstention program. When community staff at the center noticed, they immediately worked intensively with He and her mother to resolve the problem. Now she's a productive member of society again and has met her "Mr Right." [continues 261 words]
HONG KONG: The government has pledged to review the role police will play in the proposed drug-testing trial in Tai Po secondary schools. Commissioner for Narcotics Sally Wong Pik-yee made the remark after the Law Society expressed grave concern about police involvement in the trial program. Speaking after a meeting with representatives of the Professional Teachers' Union, Wong stressed that students who test positive for drugs in the scheme will generally not be prosecuted. Cheung Man-kwong, the union's president, said he opposes police involvement in the scheme. [continues 114 words]
HONG KONG: A major teachers' union has suggested Tai Po secondary schools be allowed to carry out the planned student drug testing program in their own ways and then report their results to the government. Cheung Man-kwong, the president of the Professional Teachers' Union, said the government can spend the next few months consulting with the education sector and come up with feasible proposals of how to implement the trial. He said schools should be allowed to decide individually how, when and where to carry out the drug tests and in what conditions students should be subject to testing. [continues 391 words]
HONG KONG: Some principals of secondary schools outside the boundaries for the Tai Po pilot program to be initiated this fall want suspected drug users in their schools to be tested for drugs. They are calling for additional government subsidies to pay for the testing. About 30 representatives of school councils and principals met with government officials yesterday to talk about the program of voluntary testing to be inaugurated in Tai Po. Rosalind Chan, the honorary executive secretary of the Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, said several principals suggested at the meeting that the government subsidize drug testing of students under suspicion in districts other than Tai Po. [continues 384 words]
HONG KONG: The Hospital Authority will expand service for pregnant drug abusers to reduce harmful effects on unborn children. The authority served 192 pregnant drug abusers in Kowloon West between 2006 and 2008. Most of those under treatment were users of heroin, cocaine or their substitute methadone. Some cases were referred to the authority by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers (SARDA). The women were treated using methadone at a clinic in Sham Shui Po operated by SARDA. [continues 552 words]
BEIJING: China's railway police nabbed 496.8 kilograms of drugs in crackdown of 1,291 drug-related cases in the first five months, the public security department of the Ministry of Railways said Saturday. More than 1,500 drug suspects were detained, said the ministry. It cited the Kunming Railway Station, a "drug control frontier" which blocked six drug crimes cases and seized 1.06 kg of drugs in 24 hours. As the closest major Chinese city located near the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia as well as the main linking point in intentional drug smuggling, Kunming, the capital city of Yunan Province, plays a critical role in China's anti-drug efforts. [continues 140 words]
Drug traffickers have invented ingenious ways to smuggle drugs into prisons - including intentionally committing crimes to get arrested. But 95 percent of the drugs meant for inmates last year were seized at the reception centers in Lai Chi Kok and Tai Lam, officials say. Correctional Services Officers Association junior section chairman Peter Chan Ba-tak credited the thoroughness of the inspectors and controversial body-cavity searches for the success in preventing drugs from getting into prisons. He said the 5 percent that did get through were either smuggled into prisons using less checked cavities in the body as well as through visitors. A prisoner then showed reporters how he stored 12 peanuts in his sinuses before sneezing them out. Other hiding areas include the ear canal and the rectum. [continues 294 words]
BEIJING -- The Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site Sunday that antidrug organizations across China made "obvious achievements" last year in stopping drug sources and improving rehabilitation methods. The ministry said antidrug forces cracked about 55,000 criminal cases in the first 11 months of last year and detained 65,000 suspects based on China's antidrug law. About 3.9 metric tons of heroin was confiscated and around 1300 groups were suppressed for making or dealing drugs. A total of 17 professional rehabilitation centers have been built across China so far, the ministry said, adding the centers now emphasize the welfare of addicts so as to prevent them from relapse after giving up drugs. Antidrug forces also enhanced cooperation with international counterparts on digging out overseas drug sources, said the ministry. [end]
The Supreme People's Court (SPC) said yesterday that people driven by poverty to join drug traffickers' gangs but not playing important roles may not be given the death sentence. "Some of the people involved in drug trafficking are from the lowest income group or are unemployed they are paid small amounts (of money) to peddle or carry drugs," says an SPC guideline, issued to lower courts. Unlike drug dealers and gang leaders they have very little power and are not considered as "harmful" to society. [continues 336 words]
Two suspected drug addicts were injured when they jumped from the fourth story of a residential building in Shanghai's Baoshan District on Thursday afternoon. The pair were allegedly trying to escape from police. The two, both Shanghai women, a 21-year-old surnamed Zhang and a 25-year-old surnamed Chen, jumped from a kitchen window and landed on a platform on the second floor, after police officers knocked at the door. Two officers went to a residential building at 78 Changjiang Road S. about 2:10pm after being tipped off that someone was using drugs on the fourth floor. [continues 143 words]
GUIYANG -- The number of registered Chinese drug addicts has risen by a third in the past three years, and has now reached 1.08 million as of October, said an official of the Ministry of Public Security on Friday. The number is continuing to increase and the situation is serious, said Zhang Xinfeng, the ministry's deputy minister. According to the ministry, the number of addicts was 785,000 in 2005. Nearly 80 percent of the drug abusers are heroin users, Zhang said. [continues 190 words]
The number of registered drug addicts in China has risen by a third in the past three years and reached 1.08 million in October, according to the Ministry of Public Security. It continued to increase and the situation was serious, said Vice Minister Zhang Xinfeng. The number of addicts had risen from 785,000 in 2005 and nearly 80 percent of drug abusers were heroin users, Zhang said. More than 56,000 drug dealers were arrested and 460,000 drug smuggling cases were dealt with in the first 10 months of 2008, Zhang said, adding that Chinese police would continue to crack down on drug trafficking. [continues 140 words]
OTTAWA -- Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. [continues 96 words]
OTTAWA - Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. [continues 543 words]
OTTAWA -- Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China. The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany. The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour. [continues 280 words]
Teenagers suspected of taking drugs across the border may be subject to compulsory drug testing when they arrive at the Hong Kong checkpoint. The move was among the recommendations announced yesterday by the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse headed by Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung to curb drug abuse. Wong said the number of young people going to the mainland to take drugs was alarming as official figures show one in six young drug abusers, or 17 percent, took drugs across the border last year. [continues 411 words]
The government has decided to involve private doctors in addressing the disturbing rise of drug abuse among the young. The government will also enhance training for school principals, teachers and school social workers in a bid to identify drug abusers at an early stage but remains reluctant to introduce drug screening at schools as this could infringe of human rights. Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung said private doctors would be provided with more information to help them identify young addicts at an early stage and motivate patients to seek help promptly. [continues 244 words]
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