Zhejiangcun is already not the safest area due to discrimination against migrants as well as the the corrupt police system that distinctively puts migrants at a disadvantage unless they have connections within the police force. Migrants experience considerable fear at being robbed by both Beijing and Zhejiang liumang (流氓), or hooligans, who are often drug addicts as well.
Drugs are a serious problem in Zhejiangcun, developing into prominence around the 1990s. Drugs are easily accessed in the area due to lack of law enforcement and the high concentration of private wealth; migrants are introduced to the drugs upon arrival and slowly addicted. The migrants divide the drug addicts into two classes: chi dayan de (those who eat opium) and chou baifen de (those who smoke heroin [literally translated "white powder."])
Drug dealers hook the migrants early upon their arrival and, once the migrants are addicted, raise the prices to exorbitant amounts. The average heroin user spends up to 400 yuan per day, which accumulates to 100,000 yuan a year. When the drug addicts are arrested, their parents often rely on their connections with the police in order to bail their children (usually sons) out of jail. In doing so, they, in ways, allow their children to continue their drug addiction.
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