According to a CNN report this week, the drug enforcement body in China has blamed the legalization of marijuana in Canada and parts of the U.S. for a spike in smuggling into the country.
The deputy director of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, Liu Yuejin, said at a press conference that the number of marijuana users in China had grown by more than 25 percent in 2018 to hit around 24,000 people.
“In two years, we have found increasing cannabis trafficked from North America to China,” he added, according to the CNN report.
According to Liu, 115 packages sent through international postal parcels, containing a total of “55 kilograms of cannabis and cannabis products,” were intercepted last year.
He noted that most of the suspects connected to the seized parcels were foreign students or students who had come home after working abroad.
China’s drug laws are intense as anyone who is found with over 50 grams of a controlled substance can face the death penalty.
