Hanoi has so far this year recorded nearly 16,000 drug addicts, 1,565 fewer than the number documented by the end of 2014, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

Of the figure, 4,390 are being monitored in rehabilitation centres while 2,458 other are being managed at detention centres.

Over the past years, Hanoi has set up 10 centres on a total area of 147 hectares, providing detoxification treatment and rehabilitation education for 11,150 drug users.

The model of family and community-based detoxification groups has also been applied in almost all districts and wards of the city, together with new Methadone treatment centres.

The city is also building a project to increase the quality of optional rehabilitation model in families, community, and detoxification centres to 2020, encouraging larger social involvement.

According to Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Vice Secretary of the municipal Party Committee, improvements were made but bottlenecks in the issue of policy and implementation still remained, requiring greater attention of the whole political system.-VNA