No one can answer with any accuracy the question of just how many users (including user combinations) there are in Taiwan today. But if one could assume that law enforcement actions were effective enough to reach 20-25% of the users (such assumption is generally supported by police observations and inmate confessions), then the total user population is around 20,000 people, roughly four or five times the number of convicted users, or about 0.9% of Taiwan's population. The public health community has, however, higher estimates such as 300.000 or more. Whether 200,000or 300,000, the size seems large enough to consume not only the huge amount of drugs seized in recent years but also those not seized. In addition, the MIIB recently found evidence to show that certain international drug rings might plan to set up or have already established drug depots in Taiwan to coordinate local sales operations. Such arrangements are intended to cover a series of transactions over a long time, not just one-shot dealings, as has been the case in the past. This could also explain why the volume in recent seizures tends to be rather large, in quite a few cases over 100 kilograms.

Last but not least, it does not stand to reason for drug traffickers to smuggle into Taiwan large amounts of drugs which they intend to smuggle out to a third country such as the U.S. at a later time. First of all, it is meaningless to do so because Taiwan is not a necessary transit point; there is no reason why they could not ship the drugs directly to their destination. Secondly, it is too risky to use Taiwan as a transit point because the ROC government has always been tough on drugs. Thirdly, Taiwan itself has a large enough drug market with good prices, why ship drugs elsewhere?