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.
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