Number of drug addicts in Vietnam jumps 25%
HANOI - The number of known drug addicts in Vietnam jumped 25 percent over the past year to 142,000 despite a government crackdown, state-controlled media reported Thursday.
Among them, 25,453 are serving sentences at prisons and other correctional facilities run by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper quoted a government report as saying.
The newspaper said more than 67 percent of the drug addicts known by police are under age 30.
The number of addicts has continued to rise in recent years despite tough penalties, including death sentences on drug-related offenses.
The government has announced plans to send all known drug addicts through tough rehabilitation programs by the end of 2005, while reducing the relapse rate of the programs to 60 percent.
The current relapse rate is more than 90 percent.
Most of Vietnam's drug addicts are heroin users.
The Associated Press - April 3, 2003.
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