CHINA has become the most important trafficking route for illegal drugs in the Asia-Pacific region and may have as many as 12 million drug addicts. 

A report commissioned by the Australian National Council on Drugs, to be made public in Sydney tomorrow, says Burma is the region's main producer of opium, heroin and amphetamine-type drugs, and that most heroin produced there is now trafficked through China, rather than through Thailand, as previously. 

The Burma-China route has been joined by new routes from Afghanistan - - the world's biggest opium producer - into western China, particularly through the Xinjiang autonomous region. 

Burma, one of the world's biggest producers of amphetamines, gets most of its precursor chemicals from China, which with India is the biggest supplier of these ingredients. 

The report says China, which can produce an ecstasy tablet for less than eight cents, has also become a big supplier of amphetamines for many Asian and Pacific Rim countries. 

China had more than 1 million registered drug users in 2003 - a 15-fold increase since 1990 - with heroin being the drug of choice, as it is throughout most of Asia. 

However, the Chinese Government acknowledges that the number of drug users is closer to 12 million.  China also has the highest number of injecting drug users, up to 3.5 million The report says the vast scale of illicit drug production and use in the region is challenging for developed countries such as Australia, let alone poor developing ones.  Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and the Philippines all have drug-using populations of 2 million or more, which, given the size of their populations, indicates their problems are as severe as those of China.  The most common users are aged 20 to 35. 

A growing gap between the new rich and the poor is fuelling drug use among two extremes: young people with money and those with nothing.  Ethnic minorities in border areas of countries including China, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea are most at risk. 

Most countries offer drug treatment for 10 per cent of their addicts, at best, the report says.  It also criticises the reliance on incarceration, traditional medicines and "boot camp" rehabilitation centres, saying there is little evidence of effectiveness.  But it says China has set up a big national network of methadone treatment centres, and that the harm-reduction approach is gradually gaining acceptance among authorities. 

GROWING PROBLEM

Cambodia is now the world's biggest source of cannabis. 

Eighty per cent of HIV infections in Indonesia and 60 per cent in Malaysia are due to needle sharing. 

Opiates remain the biggest problem in the region, but use of other drugs such as ketamine is increasing.