0003160 GIF. 316
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9.
Given the immense size, scope and complexity of the problems to be faced and overcome, the reasonable fulfilment of such a policy must take a long time. Indeed, unless some extraordinary situation arises which cannot now be foreseen and which leads to opium poppy growing for the illicit traffic being stopped, or at least very substantially curtailed in Burma, Laos and Thailand, and perhaps elsewhere also, or there is a major breakthrough in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, it would be unrealistic to think of 'a long time! as meaning anything other than about ten to fifteen years. In the meantime the strategy and action to be pursued must be of a nature that they flow naturally towards the eventual fulfil- ment of the policy and in the most practical, efficient and economic manner having regard to the realities of the situation both in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
Method
10.
In order to be able to present the various issues involved as clearly as possible and to avoid confusion, this report will be divided into six separate papers as follows :-
(a) Background Information, (this paper)
(b) International Considerations,
(c) Internal Organisation in Hong Kong,
(d) The Law and Law Enforcement,
(e) The Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts,
(f) Conclusions and Strategy
Taken together these six papers will form an interrelated and co-ordinated whole covering every important aspect of the illicit drug trade in Hong Kong. They will provide the basis for the strategy, policies and action which should be pursued in the years ahead. Arising out of this study a new White Paper on the Problem of Narcotic Drugs in Hong Kong for publication during 1973 may be considered necessary.
11.
It is desirable at the outset to provide a general synopsis of the principal events which have influenced the illicit drug trade in Hong Kong since the Second World War and Government's reactions to them. In this way it is hoped that what follows will be more meaningful and easily understood. The rest of this paper therefore will be devoted to setting the background scene, concluding with some comments about certain aspects of the position in which Hong Kong finds itself at the present time in its endeavours to suppress illicit drug trafficking and to eradicate drug abuse.
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