A recent study showed that 94 people died from overdoses of “new street drugs” last year, a significant surge from four deaths in 2014, while 55 people have died this year as of last month, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said in a statement last week on its efforts to combat drug abuse.
“New street drugs” caused no deaths in the nation from 2010 to 2012, while one person died after overdosing on a street drug known as “Meow Meow” and four people died of new street drug overdoses in 2014, the six-year study conducted by the Ministry of Justice’s Institute of Forensic Medicine found.
However, since last year, new street drugs have been flooding the illegal market, contributing to record annual numbers for overdose-related deaths over the past two years, the bureau said.
On Dec. 7, a young woman, surnamed Kuo (郭), was admitted to a hospital while unconscious and later died following an overdose of “narcotic coffee powder” — various narcotics mixed with either coffee or milk tea powder that are often disguised as commercial ground coffee — that she allegedly consumed at a days-long party at the W Hotel in Taipei.
Asked about the ongoing criminal investigation into Kuo’s death, a prosecutor said that the case was the “tip of the iceberg” of new street drug abuse by the nation’s youth, adding that many users are ignorant of the severe damage consumption of such drugs poses to their health.
According to the study, street drug users tend to be young: The average age of users who died of street drug overdoses last year was 28.4, with the average rising to 30 for this year as of last month, the bureau said.
The nation’s law enforcement agencies have achieved some success curbing the use of ketamine, partly due to Chinese authorities listing hydroxylamine hydrocloride — the main ingredient — as a controlled substance, the bureau said.
Police believe that the nation’s illegal drug market is experiencing a ketamine shortage, as prices peaked at NT$3 million (US$93,023) per kilogram before falling to about NT$1 million per kilogram, the bureau said, adding that amphetamine, a cheaper and more readily available narcotic, has replaced ketamine as Taiwan’s most frequently traded illegal drug.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has listed the policing of illegal drug use as a priority for her agenda to “rebuild the social safety net,” and police in July conducted a series of operations that led to the identification of 525 suspected drug dealers — 130 of whom were arrested — and the confiscation of 1.48 tonnes of illegal substances as part of a multiagency “war on drugs” led by the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office.
The office said it is pushing district prosecutors to rigorously enforce their authority to confiscate illegally obtained assets from criminal enterprises and equipment used to commit crimes, adding that depriving criminals of their illicit wealth and equipment is crucial to prevent recidivism.
The National Police Administration has implemented rules to double rewards for police officers who are involved in the apprehension of drug rings that target adolescents as part of its efforts to counter drug use by the nation’s youth.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner