4
Enclosure No 2
HONG KONG
LEGAL REPORT
THE DANGEROUS DRUGS (AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE 1981
(No. 65 of 1981)
The purpose of this Ordinance is to give statutory force to the confidentiality of records which are maintained by the Government's Central Registry of Drug Addicts, and by certain welfare agencies who report to the Government, concerning drug addicts, their treatment and rehabilitation. Certain exceptions are created by the Ordinance to the principle of confidentiality. The principal exceptions are where
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
disclosure is for the purpose of bona fide research, under new section 49E of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance;
the addict gives his consent for information about him to be disclosed for a particular purpose, or to a particular person, under new section 49F;
the Attorney General, in connexion with the investigation or prosecution of a crime, orders the disclosure of records which are otherwise confidential, under new section 49G; and
disclosure is to a medical practitioner or
a coroner.
2.
By new section 49H no prosecution may be brought for an offence created by the Bill without the consent of the Attorney General.
3. Those agencies whose records are given statutory confidentiality by the Bill are listed in the new Fourth Schedule to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance enacted by this Ordinance; the Schedule may be amended by the Secretary for Security by order published in the Gazette.
4.
Before the Acting Governor assented to the Bill in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, the Attorney General advised that he could properly do so.
August, 1981.
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
HONG KONG,
Law Draftsman.