China's top court is mulling a judicial interpretation to the criminal law to cope with the spiraling number of cases involving new drugs, a senior court official has said.

Gao Guijun, presiding judge of the Fifth Criminal Court under the Supreme People's Court, said a new judicial interpretation detailing the penalties for smuggling, producing and transporting new drugs will be soon announced.

An interpretation made in 2000 spells out penalties only for traditional drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

However, a series of crackdowns since 2005 has sharply cut down domestic heroin supply, forcing many addicts to turn to substitutes such as methadone and ketamine, Gao said.

"The court is working with the Ministry of Public Security, which has to analyze the contents of new drugs, to standardize the penalties," he said, without giving a timetable for the new interpretation.

Gao made the remarks at a press conference on the eve of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which is today.

He said the top court is also unifying the standards for drug-related death penalties.

Some provincial people's courts in Southwest China, where drug abuse is rampant, were empowered to approve death penalties in drug-related cases before the top court was given back the right to review all death sentences this year.

Of the 55,671 criminals sentenced in 49,270 drug-related cases across the country during the 17 months up to May, nearly two in five received "heavy punishment" ranging from more than five years' jail to the death penalty.

Ni Shouming, spokesman for the court, said drug kingpins were using people such as pregnant women and new mothers for drug trafficking in an attempt to evade suspicion or hoping for lighter sentences.

The women are often well-trained in resisting police investigation, give fake addresses and names, or just pretend to be mute.

Also, the country increasingly faces the pressure of international drug gangs spreading their tentacles in the country, he said.

While drug smuggling from the "Golden Triangle" area - which borders Myanmar, Laos and Thailand - is decreasing because of intense scrutiny, more cases have been detected in recent years of drugs flowing in through Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from the "Golden Crescent" region, which encompasses the mountain valleys of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Criminals from both home and abroad form a production, sale, transport and smuggling chain. China has become not only a conduit for international smuggling but also a major place of consumption," said Ni.

7 traffickers sentenced to death

The country's top court announced yesterday that it had approved the death penalty for seven drug traffickers.

Three principals of a cross-border drug crime, Yan Hanlong, Li Zibin and Xiong Shiwei, were sentenced to death for the "extremely huge amount" of 42 kg of heroin they smuggled from Myanmar.

-- Wang Guangyou organized heroin trafficking by getting villagers in Guizhou Province to transport 806 grams of heroin from Kunming, Yunnan Province.

-- Zhang Hong'an, who had long been engaged in cross-border drug crimes as the leader of a trafficking gang.

-- Long Congbin, who had served imprisonment for drug trafficking before his latest conviction.

-- Guo Shichen, who traded in new types of drugs such as ecstasy and "magu", a Thai word for a stimulant drug that is a combination of methamphetamine and caffeine. Guo's trading of "magu" amounted to 1,275 grams, well above the threshold for a death sentence.

--  Ni Shouming, spokesman for the Supreme People's Court, said the top court will show no leniency in handing down the maximum penalty to kingpins of drug trafficking gangs and those who participate in cross-border drug crimes.