12 Drug Addication
9.
CONFIDENTIAL
is a historical and continuing
problem in Hong Kong. 64% of the present prison
population was found to be drug addicted on admission
and there are probably about 100,000 addicts in the
Colony. The success rate of cure in prisons is very
high (currently 41% still drug free three years after
completion of treatment) as is that of Government
financed private agencies, but they do no more than
scratch the surface of the problem.
The latter
can only be solved by simultaneous and successful
attacks on the source (Thailand) and the criminal
distribution net work in Hong Kong, and by provision
of a cure that can be applied en masse without
segregation or interference with the earning capacity
of addicts. There have been notable successes
in seizures and in prosecution of distributors
following the re-organisation of the Narcotics
Bureau of the Police, and improved liaison with
Thailand, but so long as the demand exceeds supply
some drugs will find their way into the Colony.
Similarly even with a mass cure, and our experiments
have not yet found a really satisfactory one, demand
will continue as long as it can be met comparatively
easily. It is a very long uphill struggle in which
applied science and research are just as important as
All the various punitive and preventive measures.