Lieutenant General Dong Dai Loc, former deputy head of Investigation Police Department on Drug-related Crimes, said that at present Vietnam has around 222,000 registered drug addicts and 46% of this were synthetic drug users who are from 21 cities and provinces. 

Synthetic drug users on the rise

Tra Vinh and Quang Tri provinces along with Danang City are among localities with the highest number of synthetic drug users in the country.

According to a report released by the Centre for Supporting Community Development Initiatives in March 2017, the number of young people aged 17-18 using synthetic drugs have been on the rise in Hanoi, HCM City and Haiphong has increased.

Seven deaths at a Hanoi music festival have been tied to synthetic drug use.

Among synthetic drug users with mental disorders, roughly 72.2% suffer from hallucinations, 68.2% have delirium and 15% faced depression. Many people who live with depression often want to commit suicide, posing difficulties for rehabilitation centres.

Colonel Pham Van Chinh, former deputy head of Drug Criminal Investigation Department, said that many crimes, including serious murder cases, related to synthetic drug use have occurred in Vietnam over recent years. There has not been a really effective treatment regime for synthetic drug addicts, so the rehabilitation has not much improved. This is among reasons why the number of synthetic drug users in Vietnam has continued rising.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen from Bach Mai Hospital said that in many cases using methamphetamine cases users to suffer from heart shock and kidney failure as other health problems in a quick way. Without being taken to hospital timely, they would die in a short time.