President Tsai Ing-wen has vowed to crack down on drug use in Taiwan. She was speaking Friday at an annual anti-drug use meeting at the Ministry of Justice.
Tsai called on government agencies to do their best to prevent illegal drugs entering Taiwan, identify existing drug use patterns and improve drug rehabilitation programs.
Tsai said she wants to see more inter-city and inter-department collaboration in anti-drug efforts. She also said she wants to see tangible results rather than statistics.
“The government shouldn’t use statistics to hide deficiencies or show off achievements. The real purpose of [our anti-drug] policies is to solve the actual problems, not to come up with good numbers. The public can clearly see whether we’ve done a good job or not. So don’t get hung up on numbers and ignore public sentiment," said Tsai.
Tsai also said the government will look more seriously into the complex nature of drug addiction. She said anti-drug efforts should not be limited to punishing drug addicts, who she said need to be provided with education, jobs, and medical care.