Around 120,000 given over five years in prison for drug crimes since 2012

Nearly 120,000 criminals charged with drug offences were handed sentences longer than five years by Chinese courts in the last five years, data released by the nation’s top court Tuesday shows.

Chinese courts dealt with increasing numbers of drug cases year- on- year between 2012 and 2016, with a total of 541,000 cases being accepted and 543,000 suspects being found guilty, according to a white paper issued by the Supreme People’s Court ( SPC) at a press conference Tuesday ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking next Monday.

In 2016, 118,000 such cases were resolved, a 54 percent increase compared to the 70,000 dealt with in 2012, and the number of convictions annually increased from 81,000 in 2012 to 116,000 in 2016.

Over 10 percent of criminal cases in 2016 were drugrelated, the white paper shows. A total of 119,000 people were sentenced to five years or above in prison for drug crimes over the past five years. The SPC white paper did not say how many of those sentenced were drug users and how many were dealers.

According to the white paper, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province is the locality which has seen the most of its residents sentenced to over ten years behind bars for drug crimes. Yunnan borders Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” opium- producing region.

However methamphetamine has become the most popular drug in many areas, often replacing heroin.

Ye Xiaoying, an SPC official, told the press that courts severely punish those who traffic or produce drugs, and have also intensified their efforts to crack down on small- time dealers and those who induce or force others to take drugs.