There are numerous drug rings based in foreign neighbouring areas, which have formed a trafficking network to smuggle large amounts of drugs into the country, says the report released at a recent meeting of the National Committee on Preventing AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution, with Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong in the chair.

By the end of 2008, there were more than 40,000 addicts in 13 provinces in the whole country. There has been a rise in the number of ethnic minority young people who get addicted to narcotics, especially heroin and other synthesized drugs.

Last year, the northwestern region reported over 1,400 new addicts and more than 1,833 others who relapsed to addiction, equal to over 37 percent and nearly 47 percent of the total figures recorded in the whole country.

The 2007-2008 crop saw a decline in the re-planting of opium and marijuana trees; however, this trend may be reversing.

The drug police force in the region have so far investigated nearly 3,500 drug-related cases and arrested more than 5,000 suspects, confiscating nearly 124kg of heroin, 23kg of opium, nearly 90,000 tablets of synthesized drugs, and more than 295kg of ketamin.