Some Chinese chemistry teachers have started to cook meth in their spare time

The latest “Walter White” to be held by police is a 35-year-old known as Lu whose drug addiction cost him his teaching job at a secondary school in Nanning, capital of the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang in south-west China.

Like White in the hit TV drama, Lu became a basement chemist producing meth or “ice” illegally at his flat.

His is the fifth recent case to mimic Breaking Bad as the use of meth – called Bingdu by the Chinese – has soared in recent years, overtaking heroin in popularity with the country’s millions of addicts.

“China is facing a grim task in curbing synthetic drugs, including ‘ice’, which more and more of China’s drug addicts tend to use,” said Liu Yuejin, director of China’s narcotics control bureau.

“Addicts will be prone to extreme and violent behaviour, including murder and kidnapping,” he added.

Around half of China’s estimated 14 million drug addicts are now believed to be abusing methamphetamine, costing the country around £51 billion every year.

SILENT BLIGHT

One of the problems for those trying to curb the industry is the spread of meth into the country’s vast rural regions, a silent blight aided by how easily the substance is made.

“The era of synthetic drug abuse is arriving secretly,” said Zhang Yongan, a drug policy expert at Shanghai University, Added drug abuse expert Lu Lin: “Five years ago or so, synthetic drugs were mostly used by rich people. Now it’s mainly poorer people who are taking them.”

In a 2013 raid on a village in Guangdong Province – later dubbed China’s number one drug village – police found dozens of drugs labs hidden in homes. At least three tonnes of meth and ketamine were seized with the value estimated at £142 million.

“In my village, when I was growing up, there were no drugs,” said Deng Qijian, a doctor working in the central province of Hunan. “In the last few years ice has become very popular. Many, many people use it.”

While meth was initially the rich kids’ party drug in China, it is now used by labourers, truckers and others in low paid manual jobs to help give them energy bursts to get through the drudgery of their daily lives as well as let them forget about it afterwards.

“There is not much in the way of entertainment,” said Marek Chawarski, of Yale University who is studying rural drug users in China. “Taking meth is like taking a short vacation.”

While many recognise the dangers associated with heroin use, it is commonly believed that meth is less risky.

“After so many years of education people know the harm and the dangers of heroin,” said one former heroin addict. “Ice today is like heroin in the 90s. People say it gives them energy, makes them feel good, and they don’t think it’s addictive.”

EASILY MADE

So far the evidence is that meth and similar drugs are made in huge quantities in China.

“They are easily made, and easily bought,” said Li Jianhua, head of the Yunnan Institute for Drug Abuse.

“Meth use is an infectious disease. The most frequent way of getting into the drug scene is through friends. If you have one drug user in a village, pretty soon you have two, then five, then 20.”

The scale of the problem is not clear.

“Government narcotic control management in rural areas is still loose,” said Shanghai University Professor Zhang Yongan. “Many places are still at the stage of non-management.”

When police manage to close down one lab another springs up elsewhere. While heroin abuse has been tackled by decriminalisation and the opening of 900 methadone clinics to try to wean addicts off heroin, there is no similar medical approach for meth users. Some are persuaded to go to voluntary detox centres but most are sent to former prisons for compulsory detox for up to two years without any medical or judicial intervention.

The practice is continuing despite a plea from the UN three years ago to shut the drug detention prisons.

The UN said there was “no evidence that compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centres represent an appropriate and effective environment for the treatment of drug dependence.”

INTERNET ADDICTION

Drug addiction of course is not new in China, dating back more than 150 years to when Britain began importing vast quantities of opium from India into the country. As a result around one in five Chinese men was addicted to opium by the end of the 19th century.

The revolutionary leaders who took over in 1949 managed to crack down successfully on the problem but the opening up of China in the 1980s and the resultant boom in trade, rise in incomes and exposure to western lifestyles brought drugs back to the country.

Heroin was initially the drug of choice, smuggled in from Thailand, Laos and Afghanistan but the realisation that ice could be made simply and cheaply has seen a huge surge in its use and the numbers of registered users outstripped those using opiates for the first time last year.

There is also evidence showing that there is a drugs pipeline from China to the west with the synthetic drugs being ordered over the internet and shipped by post.

“There is no typical drug dealer anymore,” said US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer. “It’s easy to get access to this stuff. It’s less dangerous and less risky. These new drug dealers are using the Internet, and all they need is a runner to go intercept the package from overseas.”