Ho Chi Minh City deployed all functional forces in the early hours of December 5 in an effort to search for homeless drug addicts and send them to rehabilitation centres.

In District 8, one of the City’s “hot spots” of drug-related evils, the police, night-watchmen, and ward-level security men collected 50 drug addicts.

Meanwhile, at District 12, the functional forces patrolled and checked An Suong flyover area at Trung My Tay ward, one of the district’s ‘dark’ spots of drug use, and took suspects to the ward’s office.

Mai Van Tho, chairman of District 12’s Trung My Tay Ward People’s Committee, said that the ward mobilised all forces to examine ‘hot’ spots in the area as well as checking all suspected hotels and guesthouses.

Actions have been taken to ensure security and order at An Suong flyover area, the ward’s most troubled area, Tho said.

The forces in District 5 also patrolled streets in the area surrounding Cho Ray Hospital , and Hong Bang and Pham Huu Tri streets.

According to the municipal People’s Committee, the City currently has records of over 19,000 drug addicts. Of the recorded 8,000 who are currently in treatment-education-labour centres, 60 percent are from other localities or homeless.

The Committee said the real figure could be 50-70 percent higher because a large number of synthesised drug addicts had yet to be counted.

The December 5 raid is part of a project on managing drug addicts before they are sent to compulsory rehabilitation services to recover their health.

The project aims to help limit the growth of new addicts and the risk of spreading HIV by those people to the community as well as contributing to reducing crimes and social evils in the city, the Committee said.-VNA