Cambodia has 16,575 drug addicts: anti-drug chief

Cambodia has 16,575 drug addicts: anti-drug chief

Xinhua News Agency | Tue,2016-02-02 Cambodia has 16,575 drug addicts: anti-drug chief 

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- There were 16,575 drug addicts in Cambodia by last year, some 7,753 of whom had received treatment to quit their drug habit, anti-drug chief said Monday.

"Most of them use methamphetamine," Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan, chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said during an annual meeting, adding that users are mostly aged between 18 and 35 years old.

He said the country seized 1,620 kg of drugs in 2015, including 1,513 kg marijuana, heroin, cocaine, ketamine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine.

Some 7,008 drug-related suspects, including 853 females, had been arrested last year in 3,061 cases, he added.

"Cambodia is not the country that produces illicit drugs, but it has been suffering from drug trafficking from regions around the world, especially from the Golden Triangle through the country' s northern and northeastern corridors," he said.

"With this influence, drug trafficking and drug use have alarmingly spread to Cambodia's rural areas." Enditem