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NARCOTICS
20 The fight against Hong Kong's traditional problem
of drug addiction and trafficking continues. Liaison
with international agencies, disruption of importation
manufacture and distribution, erosion of demand by
voluntary or compulsory cure, and better education of
the public about the dangers of addiction and the
availability of cure, are all having their effect
particularly since all action is now so closely coordinated
by the Action Committee Against Narcotics, supported by
! the Commissioner for Narcotics. With the success of
the Police in breaking the drug syndicates Hong Kong has
ceased to be an international distribution centre. We
can therefore concentrate on our domestic problem.
21
The initial data from the new computerized register
of addicts suggests that this problem may not be quite
so large as we had feared. It seems possible that the
number of addicts may be considerably less than 50,000
instead of the previous guesstimate of 100,000.
22. With the large number of voluntary treatment centres
now available, and the expansion of accommodation in
compulsory drug addiction treatment centres, the total number
of addicts under compulsory or voluntary treatment or further
care at any one time, now averages between 13,000 and
14,000. This is probably still too small a proportion of
the whole, even with the comparatively high success rate