Between January and October, Da Nang’s police officers detected and dealt with 133 drug-related cases involving 179 offenders, an increase of 23 cases and 20 arrests compared with the same period last year. 

Chairman Tho addressing the meeting

The local police seized a total of 3.53kg of synthetic drugs, 0.57kg of heroin, 40.75grams of synthetic marijuana (commonly known in Viet Nam as ‘American Grass’), 87.7 grams of marijuana, and other related items.  In particular, there has been a growth in the number of users of synthetic drugs.

As of October, 3,016 drug users had been recorded in the city, 84% of whom used synthetic drugs.  In particular, 88.9% of the drug users were aged between 18 and 35, whilst 79.6% of them were either unemployed or in unstable jobs. 

Over the period, 543 heroin addicts have been sent to the 05-06 Education and Vocational Training Centre for rehabilitation, and 82 are receiving help in their own homes to give up drugs.

These figures were released at a recent meeting to discuss even more effective measures to combat drug-related crimes.

Municipal People’s Committee (PC) Chairman Huynh Duc Tho asked the city’s departments of Finance and Construction to accelerate the expansion of the 05-06 Education and Vocational Training Centre to admit more drug addicts.  Meanwhile, the municipal Department of Health was urged to help the general public be more vigilant for drug addicts with dangerous symptoms of psychosis.

The families of drug addicts should work closely with relevant local agencies to manage and encourage the drug addicts to voluntarily attend local detoxification programmes.

The owners of local bars, discotheques and other entertainment facilities must sign commitments to ensure that there are no illegal drug users in their establishments.  Their business permits will be revoked if this problem occurs.

The municipal Department of Labour, War-invalids and Social Affairs will need to develop specialised software providing information about local drug addicts in order to tighten the management of these people.  The Department will also submit plans for consideration and approval by the municipal PC for constructing a specialised hospital exclusively for drug addicts.

Special attention will be paid to diversifying the local detoxification programmes and measures for drug addicts, and encouraging local businesses to offer job opportunities to those who successfully undergo such programmes.