G.F. 323 0003230
CONFIDENTIAL #
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The background to the first attempt at centralised control
and co-ordination.
3.
Prior to 1959 there was no central body in existence to
control and co-ordinate the drive against the illicit narcotics trade and the problems associated with the treatment and rehabili- tation of drug addicts. Vigorous law enforcement action was pursued
by the Police and Preventive Service to detect the many offences being committed against the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, while the Prisons Department was active during the 1950's in developing a comprehensive programme aimed at eradicating drug addiction from considerable numbers of the Colony's prison population. This led to the opening of what is now known as the Tai Lam Addiction Treatment Centre in November 1958. But all this activity, substantial
and progressive though it was in itself, was pursued independently
by these three departments; outside the private practitioner there was also no facility available where a drug addict could offer
himself voluntarily for treatment.
4.
In 1959 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (now the Secretary for Home Affairs) was entrusted with the co-ordination
of policy directives to which the executive departments should
work in their war against the illicit drug traffic.
The Narcotics Advisory Committee.
5.
This Committee held its first meeting on the 4th June, 1959 and remains in existence today. It consists of the Chinese Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and two of their European colleagues under the Chairmanship of the Secretary for Chinese (Home) Affairs.
6.
While this Committee made a valuable and substantial
contribution to anti-narcotics work during the first half of the 1960's, for a number of years now the Committee and its "Working Nucleus" have been overtaken by events and have rarely met. It
CONFIDENTIAL
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