The Latest: Under the auspices of conducting drug checks, police in Việt Nam are allegedly subjecting citizens to intrusive inspections of their mobile phones and personal belongings.
Numerous accounts shared by social media users indicate that officers are conducting surprise urine tests at public venues and subsequently searching through private digital and physical property.
The Details: On May 16, an individual using the handle lamvo_5 reported that police entered an Internet café, forcing the user to undergo a urine test for drugs.
Despite a negative result, police proceeded to inspect the user’s vehicle registration and motorcycle trunk. When officers determined the motorcycle was not registered under the user’s name, they demanded the vehicle be taken to the police station, ignoring the user’s explanation that the transfer of ownership was pending.
Following an accusation of resisting officers on duty, about five to seven people restrained the account holder and took the person away. The user later posted that they had returned home exhausted. The account garnered more than 1,300 likes alongside hundreds of comments and shares.
The following day, May 17, user chotuistalkcainhoa asked online: “Has anyone here gone out for coffee, gone to an Internet café or been stopped on the street yesterday or today and had police search your bag or check your vape pod?”
This post quickly received nearly 7,000 likes, more than 7,000 shares, and hundreds of comments detailing similar experiences
Responses included individuals claiming they were dragged out of Internet cafés late at night for group drug tests. The most engaged response read: “I just came back from an Internet café. I was sitting there playing around 10, almost 11 p.m., when police rushed in. Then they dragged the whole group out for drug tests before letting us go.”
Concerns over these operations have prompted citizens to issue public warnings. User kaola.22.812 wrote: “Recently, I’ve seen many cases of police patrols checking phones if people are out late at night or suddenly entering rental housing areas to conduct urine tests. I want to know what kinds of activities they are carrying out so I can mentally prepare and feel less nervous if I encounter them, because I often go out at night and live in rented housing. I recently returned to Hồ Chí Minh City and haven’t had time to catch up.”
Additionally, on May 17, a user named nhatnguyen1079 posted a warning on Threads: “Anyone using drugs should quit now, because recently police have been carrying test kits and testing people on the spot.”
The Background: These civilian encounters coincide with aggressive, broad-scale anti-drug initiatives launched by provincial and city police departments.
On May 15, police in Hồ Chí Minh City launched a localized campaign titled “45 Days and Nights to Transform Localities.” The initiative is designed to thoroughly inspect the city with the ultimate goal of transforming Hồ Chí Minh City into a drug-free municipality by 2030.
Ward Police are actively coordinating with specialized units to inspect conditional business establishments and sensitive services, with authorities explicitly stating they will strictly handle violations involving e-cigarettes and laughing gas.
Prior to the Hồ Chí Minh City initiative, VTV reported on May 8 that provincial police in Bắc Ninh were conducting residential checks combined with surprise, broad-scale drug tests. On May 9, the Drug Crime Investigation Police Department amplified this operation by posting a video on its Facebook page regarding the Bắc Ninh sweeps.
In the comment section, the department stated: “If we conducted drug testing for the entire population, like COVID-19 testing, there would probably be many stories to tell everyone!” The agency further engaged the public by asking: “Do you support nationwide drug testing to screen for and detect people who illegally use narcotic substances?”
Why It Matters: Article 21 of the 2013 Constitution and Article 38 of the 2015 Civil Code clearly dictate that everyone possesses the right to privacy of correspondence, telephone communications, telegrams, and other forms of private information exchange.
The law explicitly mandates that no entity may unlawfully open, control, or seize another person’s digital or physical correspondence.
Furthermore, under Article 128 of the Law on Handling Administrative Violations and Article 192 of the Criminal Procedure Code, law enforcement officers are permitted to search objects only when there are sufficient grounds to believe that the objects contain evidence of an administrative violation or evidence directly related to a criminal case.
(Editorial Note: Independent verification of the accuracy of information posted by these social media users is currently limited due to reporting restrictions inside Việt Nam. Abbreviations from original posts have been written out for clarity.)
Lê Sáng wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 18, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
