China's first law on drug control would emphasize humane rehabilitation, while cracking down on drug trafficking.

The draft law, which is under review at a top legislature session, would forbid drug-rehab centers from physically punishing or verbally humiliating drug addicts. The law, however, requires drug-rehab centers to take protective measures when drug addicts try to hurt themselves.

The centers should pay drug addicts for work they do, the bill proposes.

The draft law, the first specifically designed to crack down on drug trafficking, advocates non-discriminatory environments for people undergoing rehabilitation with regard to access to education, employment and social security support.

"Drug takers are law violators, but they are also patients and victims. Punishment is needed, but education and assistance are more important," Zhang Xinfeng, Vice Minister of Public Security, said in a briefing to lawmakers of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Adopting a more humanitarian approach to drug takers, the law will allow many of them to recover in their communities, rather than being confined to drug-rehab centers as is the case now.

The bill stipulates that drug-rehab centers would only admit frequent intravenous drug takers, people who refuse community assistance or fail in community corrections, and those who live in communities without correction resources.

Rehabilitation centers will be organized to serve people of different ages, gender, and addictive conditions, with abuse and humiliation strictly banned.

The bill would order governments above the county level to open drug-rehab centers as needed so drug addicts can volunteer to undergo rehabilitation there.

The number of drug addicts grew 35 percent in the five years since 2000 to hit 1.16 million in early 2005, police report, estimating that China has more than 700,000 heroin addicts. Sixty-nine percent are under 35.

Opium, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine hydrochloride - commonly known as "ice" - morphine, and cocaine are listed as banned drugs.

The draft law is also designed to intensify anti-drug efforts.

Police will be authorized to force people suspected of taking drugs to provide a biological sample for drug tests and proven drug addicts would be registered and forced to undergo rehabilitation.

Those who report their drug addiction to police would be exempted from punishment.

They will be required to sign agreements with relatives, their employers or schools or with village or urban residents' committees, who will then assist them for at least a year to help them shake their addiction.

The bill sets strict rules on use of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in the treatment of addicts.

Editor: Yan