JINAN, Jan. 7 -- Police authorities in east China's Shandong Province busted 8,045 drug cases last year, with 9,240 suspects being arrested and 426 kg of drugs seized.

Shao Haohao, chief of the narcotics control brigade under the Shandong provincial bureau of public security, said nearly half of the cases were busted in the fourth quarter after a nation-wide crackdown on drug-related crimes was launched.

Last year, local police also netted 17,030 new drug users and 2,342 of them were put under forced isolation treatment, Shao said.

Shandong reported its first drug user in 1986. By 2000, the number of registered drug users rose to 500.

By 2014, the number rose sharply to 64,000 and the real number is estimated at 300,000, he said, adding the direct and indirect effects of drug use cost the province 10 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars).