China is going to release a new regulation soon to give detail to the rules for forced-and-isolated rehab treatment, a new measure replacing forced drug treatment through labor, according to an official with the China Narcotics Control Foundation (CNCF).

Chen Xingyou, Secretary General of the CNCF, said recently in Guangzhou that the new regulation is expected to be worked out and released by June 1.

According to China's Law on Narcotics Control, which was adopted in December 2007 and will take effect on June 1, the country is to end forced labor as a means of reforming drug addicts.

Statistics from the police show the number of drug users grew 35 percent in the five years since 2000, reaching 1.16 million in early 2005, according to Xinhua News Agency. The police estimate that China has more than 700,000 heroin addicts, 69 percent of whom are under the age of 35.

China has adopted various measures to rehabilitate addicts, taking compulsory measures as the main principle. All addicts are sent to compulsory rehabilitation centers established by the government at all levels. Those who resume taking drugs after receiving compulsory treatment are sent to reeducation-through-labor centers administered by judicial departments, where they are forced to undergo treatment side by side with reeducation through physical labor.

The abolishment of reeducation through labor is part of a change toward treating instead of punishing drug addicts, according to Teng Wei, Deputy Director of the Criminal Law Office under the National People's Congress' Legislative Affairs Committee.

"The previous labor-forced reeducation placed too much emphasis on punishment. The Law on Narcotics Control is more focused on treatment, which has brought about a softer rehab policy," Teng said.

According to the Law on Narcotics Control, drug addicts are allowed to recover in their communities during a limited period of three years, rather than being confined to rehabilitation centers as the current drug control regulation requires. The law also says that drug-addicted minors under 16, pregnant women and women breast-feeding babies less than one year old are not appropriate for compulsory isolated drug rehabilitation.

Addicts who are unsuitable for receiving treatment in compulsory rehabilitation centers are ordered to give up within a definite time period under the guardianship of their family members and the education and administration of the local public security stations.

"If the drug addition is not so serious, we consider community rehab first, in which the addicts undergo discontinuation at home with the help of their families, community and medical institutions," said Teng. "But if it is a case of serious drug addiction, forced and isolated rehabilitation is the best way to help."

"It's really a good practice for the Central Government to abandon labor-featured reeducation for drug rehabilitation," said Hu Xingdou, a sociologist at Beijing Institute of Technology, who is also an activist for the abolishment of the reeducation-through-labor system.

The abolishment of forced labor in drug rehabilitation does not have direct connections with the country's reeducation-through-labor system, the reform of which is still under consideration, according to Teng.

But the introduction of forced and isolated rehabilitation will bring significant changes to the reeducation-through-labor system, a reeducation-through-labor camp warden who requested anonymity in Guangdong Province said.