Eight northern mountainous provinces in Vietnam unlawfully growing 184.9 hectares of poppies in the 2005-2006 crop, local newspaper Vietnam Agriculture reported Thursday.

Yen Bai province housed the biggest acreage of poppy cultivation, with 140 hectares, followed by Son La province with nearly 27 hectares.

Vietnam, which has banned people from growing poppies, is intensifying supervision of crops and remote areas to timely destroy them.

The number of drug addicts in Vietnam surged 56.8 percent to 158,428 in 2005 from 101,036 in 2000, a recent national conference was told. It has targeted to become a drug-free country by 2015.

Source: Xinhua