China blames North American cannabis legalization for the increase in cannabis trafficking on its territory

China, along with other Asian countries (Russia, Japan, South Korea), had already been worried the impact of Canada’s legalization on international trafficking. Today, China’s Narcotics Control Commission (NCC) holds North America’s legalization of cannabis responsible for the increase in consumption within its territory and in cannabis seizures at its border.

International Trafficking and Diplomatic Tensions

At a press conference In Beijing last Monday, the agency’s director, Liu Yuejin, spoke of «a new threat to China.» He noted that the number of cannabis users in China had increased by 25% in 2018. The agency estimates the total number of cannabis users at 24,000. This represents approximately 0.002% of the Chinese population.

«Over the past two years, we have seen an increase in the amount of cannabis trafficked from North America to China,» explains the director of the CCS. He notes that his agency has intercepted 115 packages containing cannabis sent through international postal services. This would amount to a total of «55 kilograms of cannabis and cannabis-derived products» in 2018.

Sino-American tensions over drug trafficking do not end there. The United States, for its part, accuse China and its production of fentanyl —a prescription drug 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin—to flood the U.S. black market and to be partly responsible for the overdose epidemic that has swept North America in recent years. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four overdoses was linked to fentanyl in 2018.