Liang Yu: A Female Anti-Drug Warrior

By Wang Lei

Liang Yu is the only female captain of an anti-drug detachment at a county-level public security station in Sichuan province. Committed to thwarting drug crimes, she has led the anti-narcotics team of the Daying County Public Security Station to the top position for the sixth consecutive year in drug crackdowns in Suining city. Behind the stunning victory lie Liang Yu's wisdom, courage,and warmth.

A Frontline Anti-Drug Campaigner

Amid her battles against drug crimes, Liang Yu has engaged herself not only as a commander,but also a front-line soldier.

In May 2016, Liang received an important lead that a man named Xiao under her jurisdiction was making methamphetamine with his gang in a residential house along the expressway in Cangshan town. What was tricky about the case was that some of the desperados were ex-convicts,experienced in covering their tracks as well as equipped with real weapons. Liang rose to the formidable challenge.

To wipe out the criminal dens, Liang Yu brought into play her years of experience in criminal investigation and gave well-informed instructions to the taskforce on tracking, stakeout and disguised operation. Her perseverance paid offand the team successfully cracked the longstanding drug ring embroiling both Daying and Suzhou,capturing five suspects and seizing a large amount of drug-making supplies and materials.

Liang clearly remembers the capture mission along the expressway on a summer evening.Tipped off about a gang of drug dealer intent on transporting drugs to Daying, the policemen from Chengdu and Daying jointly crafted a replan for the capture at the expressway exit. The Chengdu side found that the suspects were all armed with guns and self-made grenades. To ensure a casualtyfree success, the taskforce made a detailed plan whereby Liang was to lead a tracking team. Tailing the gang's vehicle, Liang and her comrades made it all the way to Daying, and everything seemed to have gone off without a hitch. Suddenly, the crafty suspects poised to take a U-turn at the expressway exit, as if they had sensed something suspicious.But before they could make their getaway, Liang promptly asked her colleague at the wheel to run their own car into the gang's. Seeing the suspects deterred, she jumped out the car immediately and smashed the suspects' car open with the help of her colleagues before they overpowered the suspects in the blink of an eye. With a loaded imitation pistol found under the seat of the gang's car, her comrades all credited Liang with saving their lives:if it weren't for her resolute decision, unaffordable damages would have been inflicted. What Liang feared the most instead was that if something happened to her, her family might have no clue.She couldn't bear the thought of their endless concern about her and her job.

Such actions capture the bravery of her anti-narcotics career. Since she joined the force in 2008, Liang and her team have cracked numerous drug trafficking cases, generating a deterring effect on such crimes in the county.

A Glimpse of Hope for the Drug Addicts

In the eyes of many drug users, Liang Yu is like a breath of fresh air. She has helped many recover their lost souls with her warmth and affection. It's, of course, a duty for anti-drug police to crack down on drug-related crimes;however the misery caused by drugs also pulls at the heartstrings of this female officer. Over the years of her engagement in anti-drug work, she has witnessed countless lives and families wrecked by drugs, and therefore set her mind to an even more ambitious goal of rescuing those addicts from degradation.

It's always a complex issue when it comes to dealing with drug users. Nothing is easy:their management, reemployment, reintegration,you name it. In order to find a way around these impasses, Liang started to research the best practices of Chengdu, Yichang and other cities. After referring to a large amount of data,she proposed to establish a community drug rehabilitation center in Daying. Upon approval, the center was officially inaugurated in June 2014.

Since the first day of the center's operation,Liang Yu has been preoccupied with how to treat drug addiction and provide care for the rehabilitated ex-users. She introduced a series of measures, including the"Sweet Home" program,counseling team initiative, and distance reporting system. These initiatives brought the addicts a glimpse of hope as well as confidence for recovery.In 2017, the rehab center launched a program called "The Sweet Home of Sister Liang," where Liang Yu would share with the addicts her own experience in combating drug trafficking in the hopes that her sincerity and earnestness could change their values. She always showed respect to those seeking help from the center, and always took time to talk to them and understand what's going on in their mind. For those who were still hesitant,she would encourage them to set their feet into the center to have a try; for those who had become clean, she would call at their houses to make sure they wouldn't fall off the wagon. Touched by her care and affection, many addicts in the center made friends with Liang and the volunteers in the center.The Sweet Home of Sister Liang has ever since become a home for every drug-user.

Meanwhile, Liang Yu also helped set up four counseling teams in the county in an attempt to help the ex-users restore confidence and courage. Working in either "one-on-one" or group counseling modes, the teams have provided the ex-users with varied actual supports, including offering mental health guidance, arranging for urine tests, and keeping rehabilitation logs. On account of the large number of migrant workers from the county, Liang came up with a distance reporting system, requiring the ex-users to report regularly on their locations as well as physical and mental health status. Under this framework,the rehab center would be accessible even for ex-users working elsewhere. Over the past six years, the Daying Community Rehabilitation Center, under Liang Yu's leadership, has provided not only treatment for over 800 addicts, of which more than 100 came for help voluntarily and 100 succeeded in kicking the habit, but also various other forms of assistance for dozens of ex-users,such as help with the subsistence allowance application and business startup instruction.

A Systematic Management

In line with the county's overall segmented governing system, Liang Yu suggested adopting systematic management on the ex-drug-users.Under the coordination of the rehabilitation center,support of the townships and monitoring of the villages, 326 support groups have been set up within the county. On a monthly basis, grassroots social workers will make two visits to each addict in their area to offer support and do anti-drug publicity. After the visit, information is submitted into the online management system of Sichuan province. This is of great help to further decisions on management. So far, the social workers under this sprawling system have collected and reported more than 30 useful leads, which have offered the public security stations significant help in imposing civil and criminal penalties on the offenders.

To improve management on the ex-users,Liang Yu decided to mobilize more social organizations to engage in drug rehabilitation.All her efforts in doing fieldwork and offering coordination and guidance have paved the way for the solid cooperation between rehab facilities and social organizations. In 2015, the Voluntary Rehabilitation Institute of Junmin Hospital, the first of its kind in Sichuan, was established with the approval of the Health and Family Planning Commission of Suining City. Since its operation,the institute has received over 200 drug addicts and completed physiological detoxification procedures for all of them. The follow-up interviews showed that all rehabilitated ex-users have gotten back on the right track of their lives.

In a nutshell, this innovative series of addiction treatment measures rolled out in Daying county have bumped the county up to the top position in the whole city in terms of drug rehabilitation work.Liang Yu's contribution has also won herself many honors and titles, including the"National March 8th Red-Banner Pacesetters" "Role Model for Public Security Officers in Sichuan Province" and Merit Citation Class III (five times).

One of her colleagues wrote her a poem, which is more or less a mirror of her real life:"Witty and elegant, Liang pledges to combat drugs till her end; always rising to occasion despite danger, she brings light to the hearts that still waver."

As a police officer for 20 years, Liang has dedicated herself to public security in her community and has never forgotten her mission of building a China free from drugs. Wearing many hats as an anti-drug fighter, goodwill ambassador,and a pioneer of reform all at the same time, she will definitely continue to contribute to her beloved motherland. ■