(ECNS)-- Three occupations are becoming the new battlefields against narcotics, namely office workers, freelancers and show business workers, according to Wu Xin, an official with China's Drug Control Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security.
Drug-related scandals involving famous Chinese actors and singers have been exposed in recent years. In one high-profile case, Jaycee Chan, son of martial artist and actor Jackie Chan, was sentenced to a six-month jail term in Beijing for providing venues for drug use. Last week, mainland folk singer Yin Xiangjie was arrest for the second time for taking narcotics.
Zhang Li, associate professor with the Chinese People's Public Security University,said jobless people and migrants were once the highest risk for drug problems, while the new trend indicates that no classes are immune to the issue.
Zhang also said that China's drug users are getting younger.
Figures provided by Wu show that the group under age 35 comprises more than half the recorded drug users in the country in 2015, including 38,000 teenagers under the age of 18. The age group also took up three quarters of the newly-emerged drug users in the first half of this year.
Zhang said young people are easily tempted by curiosity or thrills, which is why drugs have become more fashionable.
To cope with the problem, Zhang proposed intensified regulation of delivery systems to cut drug supplies and adopting general drug testing.
