narcotic addiction

we're told china's off the boil - well here'sa trade that's going absolute gang-busters. "she's successfully brought drugs across theborder before and this is the second time she's done it". the drug trade - flooding in to propel china'sparty scene and chasing all that new money. methamphetamine, ecstasy, heroin - tons ofit, as drug culture spreads like wildfire. "if you can get these drugs to australia,you can imagine how much more profit there would be". we're heading to seldom seen corners of thisdramatically changing place as foreign correspondent investigates the other china boom, one thatleads all the way to our own front door.

this is remote dramatic territory. a riverforming part of a border that runs for thousands of kilometres between china and its emergingneighbour, myanmar - what we used to call burma. you might expect large fences and guardson patrol, but here the official borders of countries mean little to people who've travelledand intermingled for centuries. "well this is a pretty porous border. as youcan see there are lots of people moving back and forth across the river. we've just walkeddown here, jumped on the first boat there was, paid the guy, come along and here weare, now i'm in burma!" there's a brisk trade here. myanmar has beenopening up and china has an ever growing affluence. yet to buy chinese goods, poor burmese farmersneed money and in order to get money some

are prepared to transport a very dangerouscargo to the north. with not an official in sight, the potential to ferry illegal drugsacross points like this is clearly substantial. "none of the people here speak chinese soi can't ask them how busy it is down here normally, but it seems like it's just boatafter boat coming through and the trucks are bringing goods from burma across to chinaand also back in the other direction". the home of the golden triangle, myanmar haslong been a major source of the world's heroin. now, on top of that, there are new drugs comingout of here and via china they'll end up as far away as australia. so we've come hereto follow the drugs and to gauge the size of a problem considered so serious it's recentlyled to joint operations by australian and

chinese police. "the factories which produce drugs have increased.. in other words they once produced heroin butnow they've changed to produce ice-type drugs, amphetamine-type drugs" former police officer professor wu jiang isnow one of china's foremost experts on the drug trade. we ask him if myanmar's increased ice productionis in direct response to chinese consumption. "that's correct. it's because of supply anddemand. the key point is they must know there are so many people in china who are sellingdrugs.

they've established networks with them. thereare also a lot of unspotted drug users... so many invisible drug users. there's a market,otherwise they wouldn't produce them". yunnan province is a lush green corner ofchina. its remote location has spared it the excesses of development. here you can find the bustling border townof ruili. part of it has been given special economic zone status to try and boost commercebetween china and myanmar. here, burmese workers can be seen in droveslooking for work in local factories. others come to do business. there are plenty of visitorswith all the right paperwork, but countless numbers without.

the border fence in the middle of town isdotted with large holes so we sit across from one of these illegal entry points and watch.through they come, one after another. some pause first to check - others just race through.this is only 100 metres from the main official entry point and in broad daylight, they crossand they cross and they cross. we decide to approach the young men on themyanmar side of the border for a chat and speak to them through a translator. "i want to know, have a lot of people comethrough here lately in order to sell drugs? aren't any? aren't any here?" "they're not coming through this actual door".

"i'm not talking so much about this particularentrance but crossing this border. could you ask them where along the border?" it seems they want to defend the credibilityof this particular illegal entrance to china. "ah... you have to go 105 yards that way". "another place". "how many people do they think would crossthe border here every day?" there are many. every day two or three hundred". if anything, a few hundred daily crossings would be anunder estimation. dozens come through in just

the short time we're here. if drug trafficking is sky rocketing as suspected,then it must hit these border communities first as it winds its way north. so we go looking for someone who knows thelocal trade. we meet a young man who's prepared to talk about the drug situation in ruilion condition of anonymity. "drug usage here... is it becoming more serious?" "the number of drug dealers doesn't seem tochange much but there are many more drug users". "how many more than before? twice as many?" "right, nearly two times more".

he tells us that those using drugs regularlyin the town vary from chinese to burmese, some are students, some are business people. "where are the drugs sold? in a secret place?" "it's not necessarily a secret place - justa place where police don't show up". "so you can see drug dealing on the street?" "yes, you can". "could you show me where?" "yes". he guides us through ruili, down this town'ssmall vibrant streets to a particular little

corner. and soon after we arrive, the customersare turning up. this man walks across the street to a doorwaywhich will be very busy tonight. he indicates the quantity and in front of a small child,he hands over cash in exchange for drugs. then he goes off to find somewhere safe totake them. this is a humming part of town and many willgo through this doorway. we can't see what's going on inside but there's plenty of movementin the street. a man in green waits outside. eventually a woman in white emerges and approacheshim. again it's money going one way and drugs the other. she counts his change and thenhands it over. as soon as the coast is clear, he walks away.

given the ease with which we've spotted thesetransactions, it's hard to imagine that the local authorities are not fully aware of thissituation. the man in green likes what he's seen so hecomes back for more. these are only small purchases but chinese police statistics castthem in a much bigger light. nearby, burmese poppy cultivation was up by33.8% last year, the equivalent of 60 tons of heroin. in 2012 local yunnan police seized9 tons of ice coming out of myanmar - 26% more than the year before. and the deals keepcoming. in full public view the drugs are prepared.the preferred method of consumption here is smoking - even for heroin and methamphetamine.yet, increasingly, in what was once a heroin

zone, this is now becoming an ice town. "comparatively speaking, it's easier to access.it's easier to buy from the market. it's comparatively cheap. the consumers are many young people. among them it can form a kind of culture - a smoking subculture the roads out of ruili are all heading northand for drugs being smuggled into china, there is a well-trodden path. for most, the firststop is the regional capital where onward distribution will be organised. "i'm here at the kunming narcotics bureau. there are more than a 160 police here. apparentlythis is the largest drug squad in china and

we've been invited here to come and have achat. wang zheng long is a young intelligence officerand to give us an idea of how busy they've been, he shows us some of the drugs policehave confiscated lately. "these are real drugs that you've seized.am i correct?" "that's correct. they are real. this is opium". "opium? so people have secretly brought this in fromoverseas - or produced the drugs in china?" "no. these drugs are all from overseas. we'veseized them in china".

"so they are from myanmar?" "right, yes". "they've come from myanmar to be sold in china?" "right, right". we see ketamine, also known as special k anda pillow case of morphine. there's heroin cut into blocks for convenient concealmentand in smaller pieces to fit into a condom for internal body secretion. chinese police seized 7.3 tons of heroin lastyear but methamphetamine was double that. in 2012 ice seizures went from 14 to over16 tons and we're shown large bags of it in

various levels of purity. "so, if i wanted to sell these here, how muchwould they be worth?" "sell them all?" "at once?" they sell for around 50 yuan a tablet". 50 yuan for one. ten thousand tablets at ten bucks a pop soi'm holding a hundred thousand dollar's worth of drugs here. it's quite a bit". of course that's the price in yunnan province.the further these narcotics are transported

from the border, whether it be inside machineparts, hollowed out shoe heels or wooden artefacts, the more profit there is to be made, as theprice doubles and triples upon arrival in china's mega cities. shanghai is the gleaming citadel at the heartof china's booming east coast. it's a massive port town, a thriving business centre, a magnetfor foreigners and home to some 23 million people. if you were going to build a cityto promote the drug trade in china, it'd probably look like shanghai. this metropolis is an affluence factory - tothe point where it's mocked by the rest of china for having such a superficial and greedyoutlook.

but, when it comes to drug taking, many analyststhink a much more important factor than disposable income is a new found social acceptance ofdrugs and not only here. there was a time not so long ago when it washard to find a young person in china who'd taken illegal drugs. their friends would havethought they were freaks, but in many circles now, it's seen as a totally normal and acceptablepractice. "when i arrived at a friend's home they putseveral kinds of stuff on the table. they told me, "it's fine to take this - it's differentfrom heroin - you won't get addicted to it"... etcetera. so i started taking it". "what kind of drugs were they?"

"it was ice". we meet a shanghai woman who, at one time,got into methamphetamine. and why not? the feelings were great, she was with her friendsand having the time of her life. "we thought it was fun and fashionable totake drugs - so we wanted to keep up with the trend. most of all, we didn't see the harm in it.we thought it was different from heroin and we wouldn't get addicted. so i took it againand again". it's friday night in shanghai so naturallythe kids are heading out to play. it was probably inevitable that as china openedup to all things foreign, illegal drugs would

eventually spread through cities like thisin larger numbers. and as this is a country that doesn't knowhow to do things in half measures, when you're into it, you're into it! what's more, chinese people are early adaptors.according to police research the new trend is to order drugs over the internet. somedealers even use official fast couriers to make a drop. "compared to sydney, london or new york, thelevel of drug use in places like this is still pretty small. the important thing is the trajectoryand it's only going in one direction - up". and according to some experts, while economicgrowth may have fanned chinese drug use, a

really big expansion might be in the wingsif the economy actually falters. "if china keeps up a normal, stable levelof economic growth strengthening drug control systems and education, drug use will not expandso widely. "but if our growth halts with bad social management,and we have social instability, then the drug problem in china will dramatically increase.it could be ten times or twenty times bigger." that's not just because some might turn todrugs when times are tough to dull the pain. it's also because people might see the narcoticstrade as a potential replacement for lost business opportunities in other areas. "it just brings in so much profit. if someonewanted to break into our system, it is very

easy. the easiest and the quickest way tomake a fortune is to deal drugs - to sell drugs here. yet, as with all highs, there's the comedown.our woman hit rock bottom when her son, who was once a good student, was nearly thrownout of school. she was picked up by police and sent to rehab. these days she's clean, has a new job andher son has made it into university. yet the old times still linger in her memory. "my life is great. my family, myself, my careerand my parents are all great. i am back to how i felt before i had taken drugs. but deepin my heart there's a small place reminding

me that i took drugs before". for many in china, trying to kick it is notonly tough but it's compulsory and while ice may be on the rise, a much more traditionaldrug casts a long shadow here. there are one thousand ex-heroin addicts workingat the yulu complex. work camp style rehabilitation centres like this one in yunnan's kaiyuancity were set up in the 1990s for drug users who'd been picked up by the authorities andtoday there are 678 of them across china housing 300,000 ex drug users. but now the police who run yulu say peoplechoose to come and choose to stay, but when they're here, the rules are strict.

"normally if a foreign camera crew came intoa chinese factory there'd be smiles and giggling and 'oooh, what are they doing in here?' notin this place, listen... nothing... just the sound of the machines. people are head down,working. i don't know if it's because they're sad or embarrassed about their past but it'sdefinitely the way it is". lu jianghuai says it was only possible forhim to give up heroin because of the discipline here. now he's been promoted to manage this "what about over here"? "from there and there they glue them and overthere we sew them together. "ah... put them together".

"he introduces the work they do with 15 companiesinvesting in a network of factories making everything from purses to solar water heaters,door frames to cigarette lighters. i asked him what's become of the friends heused to take heroin with. "most of them are dead following an overdose". lu jianghuai has found a woman to marry himat the factory but as for those who were once closest to him, well he doesn't see them verymuch. "dad and mum got divorced because of my addiction. because i was taking drugs they scolded mebut i couldn't stop. my family started to... ah... what can i say? i feel very sorry forwhat happened to my family".

this rehabilitation complex is rolling outa massive attempt at healing in response to an industrial sized problem in china. yet,if you think this is of concern, well it could even hit you closer to home.