The number of drug cases involving young people in Guangdong Province has been on the rise in recent years, a senior judge said this week.

And the trend will continue upward if immediate action is not taken, Bin Yicheng, presiding judge at the Third Law Court under the Guangdong High People's Court, said.

More then 25 percent of all drug cases handled by courts in the province in the first 10 months of this year involved people aged under 25.

And the numbers are up 4.76 percent on the same period of 2005, Bin told a press conference on Wednesday.

Many youngsters have even become key members of drug gangs, raising major concerns from society as a whole, the judge said.

The number of drug cases involving women has also been on the rise, he said.

"More than 9 percent of the cases handled in the 10 months to October involved women," Bin said.

He promised Guangdong courts at all levels will hand down the heaviest punishments possible to anyone convicted of trafficking or manufacturing drugs.

"Guangdong will never become a haven for drug traffickers and producers from home or abroad," Bin said.

On June 26, Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liu Zhaohua, then regarded as the world's most prolific drug producer, to death at his first trial.

Liu was said to have produced 12,675 kg of ice, with an estimated value of more than 31 million yuan (US$4.2 million).

Since 2005, Guangdong courts have handled a total of 15,356 drug cases involving more than 20,100 suspects.

A total of 16,722 traffickers and producers have been punished, of which 3,743 were given jail terms of at least five years, or the death penalty.

Many heads of drug gangs have been executed, landing a heavy blow in the fight against this illegal activity, Bin said.

Cheng Wenda, a primary school teacher in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, said she too had seen an increase in the number of drug cases involving juveniles.

"Many youngsters follow the bad examples set by domestic and foreign TV programs that seem to promote violence, drugs and sex," she said.

(China Daily November 9, 2007)