China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) on Thursday said that immigration authorities at the country's borders and ports seized 2.42 tonnes of narcotics in the first half of this year, releasing the data in a statement to mark this year's World Drug Day.

As of June 25, immigration authorities have handled 205 drug seizure cases -- including 38 major cases that involved drug quantities exceeding 10 kilograms -- leading to 262 arrests, according to NIA figures.

According to the 2024 China Drug Situation Report released by the Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission on June 19, the Golden Triangle remains China's primary source of illicit drugs, accounting for 76 percent of all drugs seized from overseas sources last year. The total amount of drugs seized from the region declined by 18.4 percent from the previous year to 12.4 tonnes.

According to the NIA, immigration authorities have intensified surveillance and interdiction on the country's borders, and conducted comprehensive crackdowns targeting entire trafficking chains through the enhanced application of big data analytics.

In China's southwestern border province of Yunnan, local authorities have been cooperating with their counterparts in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to conduct joint operations, leading to the dismantling of 18 overseas drug production sites since 2021, according to a press conference held by the provincial government on Thursday.

Yunnan has long been a key battleground in China's fight against drug trafficking and once faced severe narcotics challenges. The province has seen the number of newly identified drug users declining for five consecutive years, Zhang Chunze, a senior public security official of Yunnan, said at the press conference.

He also noted that Yunnan has introduced a set of regulations on the management of precursor chemicals in the province.

China maintains a tough stance on illegal drugs, with its drug situation continuously improving over the years. As of the end of 2024, China had 747,000 registered drug users, a year-on-year decrease of 16.7 percent, accounting for 5.4 per ten thousand of the total population.

In 2024, China uncovered 37,000 drug-related criminal cases, arresting 62,000 suspects, representing a year-on-year decrease of 12.9 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively.

Specifically, in recent years, Chinese anti-drug authorities have intensified the crackdown on narcotic and psychotropic drugs, as well as new psychoactive substances (NPS), which generally refer to substances with effects similar to regulated drugs but not yet controlled under international conventions or national laws.

According to the 2024 China Drug Situation Report, China has seen a continued decline in the abuse of major traditional drugs such as opioids and methamphetamine. Meanwhile, there were 88,000 reported cases of narcotic and psychotropic drug abuse in 2024, accounting for 45.6 percent of all drug abuse cases handled nationwide, with etomidate being the most commonly abused substance.

The abuse of unregulated addictive substances has also become an emerging problem. In some provinces, the number of individuals abusing unregulated addictive substances has already surpassed those abusing traditional drugs, the report said.

Deng Yuan, an associate chief physician at the Yunnan Institute for Drug Abuse, noted a worrying trend that some people who once used traditional narcotics are now turning to addictive prescription or over-the-counter medications as substitutes due to limited access to traditional substances, while some teenagers get access to such substances via online channels.

In 2024, China added 46 new types of psychoactive substances and 4 new narcotic and psychotropic drugs to the national list of controlled substances.

The Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission also announced on June 19 that China had included all nitazenes and 12 other kinds of NPS on its list of controlled drugs, following the country's previous moves to list all fentanyl-related and all synthetic-cannabis-related substances under control.

According to data released at a press conference held by the Office earlier in June, Chinese anti-drug authorities in 2024 solved more than 9,800 etomidate-related criminal cases, arresting 18,000 suspects and seizing 1.1 tonnes of etomidate-type drugs.

The authorities have also targeted nitrous oxide abuse, cracking down on the illegal production, sale, transport, and use of the substance. Last year, authorities uncovered 566 criminal cases involving nitrous oxide, arrested 2,293 suspects, and seized 358,000 liters of the substance.