BEIJING (TIP): China has admitted for the first time that one out of every 100 Chinese is a drug user. It said that the total number of drug users could be 14 million, which comes to one percent of the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens. The number may be higher if only the adult population is taken into account.

The sharp increase in drug addiction is driven by the easy a availability of synthetic drugs like methamphetamine, which is widely marketed and sold over the Internet. In fact, 80 percent of new drug users in 2014 were those addicted to synthetic substances.

Revealing another shocking facet of the drug situation, the National Anti-Drug Commission, said that nearly 56 percent of the drug users were in the productive age group of 18 to 35. Even government officials, businessmen and celebrities have fallen prey to it, Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the commission, lamented.

An estimated 463,000 people began started using narcotic substances last year, he said.

“Compared with taking traditional drugs, such as heroin and opium, using methamphetamine can easily bring on mental problems,” Liu said. “The addicts find it difficult to control themselves and are prone to extreme and violent acts, including murder, kidnapping and injuring others.”

The police has Police officers identified more than 100 cases of violent crimes that were caused by meth abuse across 14 provinces between January and September 2014. This is more than the total number in the previous five years, according to the health ministry.

The government said there are three million “registered drug users” but the total number of addicts could be 14 million. Nearly half of the registered users are addicted to synthetic drugs which is different from organic drugs like heroin. “Under the pressures of rampant drug smuggling and strong domestic market demand, China is facing the grim task of curbing synthetic drugs, which young addicts increasingly use,” Liu said. China had been meeting annually with the US, Russia, Myanmar and Vietnam to exchange information and discuss combating cross-border drug-related crimes, he said.

China is working with neighboring countries to collect intelligence and conduct joint operations, while focusing on smashing drug-trafficking rings and arresting major drug lords, he said.

Song Zengliang, a senior official at the ministry’s Narcotics Control Bureau, said in an earlier interview that much of the methamphetamine is smuggled into China through border areas such as Yunnan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.