cannabisnews.com: Beijing Offering Drug Addicts Amnesty 





Beijing Offering Drug Addicts Amnesty 
Posted by FoM on June 19, 2000 at 07:36:05 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: SF Gate
China's capital city is ordering drug addicts to register with police in an apparent monthlong amnesty that allows them to avoid harsh treatment programs, an official newspaper reported Monday. Addicts who register within the month of amnesty must swear not to use drugs again and enter gradual treatment programs, the Beijing Morning Post said. 
Addicts who don't register and are later caught using drugs will be forced to withdraw cold turkey during 3-6 month stays in treatment centers, the newspaper said. Unregistered hardcore addicts will be ``severely punished'' in labor camps, it said. The order was issued June 6, the report said, but it was unclear when the amnesty period would start. Police could not be reached for comment. Beijing has an estimated 10,000 drug addicts, with large numbers of drug users from elsewhere in China also residing in the city, the newspaper said, quoting unidentified police sources. The order targets users who inject drugs such as heroin, but the article said police were also demanding compliance from users of Ecstasy, an amphetamine known in Chinese as the ``head-rocking pill.'' China's chief anti-drug official reported in March that China had 681,000 drug addicts last year -- a 14 percent increase over the year before. Using harsh measures, China's communist government wiped out rampant opium addiction in its first decades in power. But drug abuse has returned in the last 20 years, as free-market reforms brought increased trade and travel. China executes drug traffickers and dealers, locks up addicts in prison-like treatment centers, and sends habitual drug abusers to prison camps. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House National Drug Control Policy Office, arrived in China on Saturday to help forge strategies for combating drug trafficking and setting up treatment programs. Monday, June 19, 2000 Beijing (AP)©2000 Associated Press  Related Articles:U.S. Anti-Drug Czar Starts China Visithttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6094.shtmlUS Drug Policy Maker in China http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6085.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on June 20, 2000 at 07:09:09 PT:
Beware of Chinese amnesty
Someone once said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Barry admires the Chinese method of drug war.Just before Mao's 'Cultural Revolution', when milions died in a frenzy of near-mindless destruction, there were a lot of covert political dissidents. These dissidents were proving to be a real embaressment to Mao and Company; one of them, Lin Biao, was the head of the country's defense. So they hit upon an idea: why not trick the dissidents into thinking that a few reforms would be tolerated. Let them think that real change was in the air. Let them get to speaking openly, and criticizing the government. Publishing their critiques on the walls of public squares. Don't punish them - yet - for having the temerity to stand up. In effect, offering them amnesty. And then when they have identified themselves by feeling free to speak out, go and round them up. Which is precisely what they did. And then the authorities killed them. (Lin Biao died in a mysterious plane crash close to the Soviet Border). Outright, or through being worked to exhaustion in prison farms, where beatings were the least of their problems.The policy was called "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom".And McCaffrey admires such means and methods. 
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Comment #3 posted by Mark on June 19, 2000 at 20:56:15 PT
Ridiculous
It seems that China has given into US pressures on drugs in order to get the free trade agreement passed. Why else would these two correspond so soon?If Beijing, a city of millions and millions has 10,000 drug addicts now, just wait until Barry McCaffrey exports his drug policy to China. I'm sure with free trade with the US and Barry on their side, they will soon swell the ranks of their addicts.I can't imagine why Barry would want to go to China and crack down on drugs when their drug problem is so small compared to the United States and when so few, if any, of our drugs in the US originate in China. Perhaps this is part of a secondary effort to export drugs to the Chinese. FREE TRADE!!! CRACK DOWN ON DRUGS!!! MO' MONEY FOR BARRY AND THE BOYS.
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Comment #2 posted by Dan Hillman on June 19, 2000 at 12:06:42 PT
China slapping McHalfFree upside the head?
Whaaa?? McAffrey goes to China to export drug war machinations and gets to see an *amnesty* provided by the national government?  Is China telling BM (love that acronym) that he's all wet by doing something that BM would never do? 
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Comment #1 posted by James Markes on June 19, 2000 at 08:55:58 PT
Brainless Barry In His Element
Brainless Barry McCaffrey must enjoy being in his owm element there, where they can freely use military offensive tactics against their own people with impunity. Of course with his success rate lacking, they should still laugh him out of their country.
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