70 held for drug abuse in southern Vietnam karaoke parlor

By Thuy Phuong   May 11, 2019 | 04:59 am PT
70 held for drug abuse in southern Vietnam karaoke parlor
Customers hide their faces as police raid the karaoke parlor in Long An Province and found them using drugs. Photo by VnExpress/Thuy Phuong
A pre-dawn police raid on a karaoke parlor in Long An Province found 70 customers using banned drugs.

Acting on complaints that the karaoke parlor run by MTV Young Music Company in Ben Luc Town was opening past midnight, dozens of police officers raided the facility and caught 70 customers high on drugs.

The officers found many plastic bags containing white crystals looking like meth on the tables and several implements used to administer drugs.

A quick test showed 70 people tested positive for drugs and were taken to local police station pending further investigation.

While heroin has been the traditional hard-core drug used in Veitnam, synthetic drugs like methamphetamine have become more popular among young partygoers in recent years.

Vietnamese police have recently intensified their crackdown on drug abuse at nightclubs and karaoke parlors across the country.

Eighty people  tested positive for banned substances in a bar police raided in the central city of Da Nang last week while their Ca Mau counterparts found 96 customers using banned drugs in a karaoke parlor last month.

Despite having some of the world’s toughest drug laws, drug trafficking and use remain rampant in Vietnam. The country has become a key trafficking hub for narcotics in and around the "Golden Triangle," a lawless wedge of land straddling China, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar that dominates the Asian illegal drug markets.

 
 
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