CONFIDENTIAL
4
機密
D.
(c)
Middle-aged or older addicts were inclined to be less willing to try rehabilitation. Many of them were labourers, coolies, laan workers, etc. engaged in labour intensive work or on irregular shift dutics. They needed, or believed that they nceded, the drugs to bolster up their strength, energy, or stamina. Some had been taking drugs for years and did not believe their habit to be as harmful as the Government publicity preached.
New treatment techniques
(a)
Methadone treatment was widely known and considered useful in providing addicts with a cheap substitute for heroin.
(b) Furthermore, conventional institutionalised
(c)
treatment might not be suitable for many addicts unable to leave their jobs or families.
The success of methadone treatment caused a large number of addicts to cease taking hard drugs, thus reducing the incidences of would-be social crime and disorder and eroding the heroin consumer market.
(a) However, some drug addicts would seek methadone
treatment only when they could not afford the higher price of heroin. If and when prices went down again, they would still relapse.
(e)
Acupunture treatment was less widely known, but considered to have been highly successful. Observers pointed out that the voluntary organizations offering this type of treatment (e.g. Tung Wah Group of Hospitals) would only admit addicts whose family, social, physical and psychological conditions indicated a good chance of rehabilitation, and this was believed to be the main reason for the high success rate. Only a limited number of addicts could be treated at one time and the treatment could only be administered by skilled and trained specialist personnel.
CONFIDENTIAL
(f) Treatment
機密