Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) yesterday warned about increasing consumption of new forms of synthetic drugs that has led to a host of health and social problems, including an upsurge of deaths over the past few years.
“Many young people have died because of these new synthetic drugs. It has become an urgent social problem, requiring an increase in preventive measures and efforts to crack down,” Tsai said in a keynote address at a conference in Taipei co-organized with the Ministry of Education.
Deaths attributed to use of new synthetic drugs averaged about 10 cases up until 2011, then escalated to 100 deaths in 2017, when the government began implementing programs to combat illegal drugs, which reduced such fatalities to 45 last year, he said.
Photo: Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
Citing data from the Ministry of Justice’s Institute of Forensic Medicine, Tsai said that in 2011, there was an average of 1.9 varieties of the drugs in fatalities, which rose to an average of 4.6 varieties over the past few years, with 10 different synthetic drugs found in one body last year.
Synthetic drugs, also called designer drugs and new psychoactive substances, are manufactured with pharmaceutical chemicals to mimic the effect of substances such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy.
The Ministry of Justice would look at amending the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) to ensure it is updated to allow for prosecution of cases related to synthetic drugs, as well as work with schools and civic groups on anti-drug campaigns, Tsai said.
Medical personnel and researchers from the institute would assist the education ministry and schools in conducting drug testing of students suspected of using illegal drugs, as most private labs do not have the capability to detect the new forms of synthetic drugs, he said.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said that the new efforts would aim to get adults involved, such as having parents form volunteer anti-drug teams at schools, as they are the vanguard in protecting children from substance abuse and its harmful effects.
In related news, the Criminal Investigation Bureau and Nantou County police have seized 400kg of amphetamine and detained eight suspects.
Packaged as tea products imported from Vietnam, the drug cache has an estimated street value of NT$800 million (US$25.3 million), authorities said yesterday.
Among the detained suspects were a husband and wife surnamed Fu (傅), aged 68 and 55 respectively, and a 42-year-old man surnamed Ho (何).
Investigators said the trio are the masterminds behind the operation, which smuggled amphetamines in shipments of tea leaves from Vietnam.
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