China's first anti-drug social worker group was founded in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan province, on April 30.

China News reports 502 social workers have been selected from the local population to work on the group. Those workers will receive professional training before they start assisting the local government's anti-drug department in urban communities and rural villages. Other cities in Yunnan will adopt the same model in the future.

Bordering on Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, Yunnan has a large problem with drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle, the notorious drug production center along the Mekong River delta.

Last year, provincial authorities seized 4.2 tons of heroin, 73 percent of the total volume of heroin seized in China. They seized 3.85 tons of "ice", 58.5 percent of the total volume seized in China. They also arrested 13,000 suspected drug dealers, including 35 major players. Ninety-seven percent of all the drug dealer apprehended in China in 2006 were arrested in Yunnan.