IN CONFIDENCE
official and unofficial advisory commmittees and community
organisations have also been developed as channels of communication
between the Government and the public, notably the District Boards in the urban areas and the New Territories (see paragraph 1.8).
THE LAW ON HOMOSEXUALITY
4.5 The Hong Kong Law Reform Commission is presently considering the possibility of repealing the law prohibiting homosexual acts in
private by consenting adults. Considerable local attention was focussed on this issue in 1980 following the death of Inspector John MacLennan of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force on the eve of his
arrest on charges of homosexual conduct.
DRUG TRAFFICKING
4.6 There are an estimated 50,000 drug addicts in Hong Kong; about 95% of these are dependent on heroin, and the remainder on opium. Hong Kong grows no opium, and virtually all illicit drugs come through Thailand from the "Golden Triangle", the opium growing area overlapping the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos. Between 1966 and 1974, large quantities of drugs were smuggled from this area by Thai fishermen to international waters where they were transhipped to Hong Kong fishing junks.
4.7 The bulk traffic came to an end in late 1974 when the major drug syndicates in Hong Kong were put out of action by the law enforcement agencies. Since then, the trade has become fragmented, falling to small-time traffickers who use individual couriers to smuggle small quantities of drugs into the territory, either through the airport or aboard ships.
4.8
The Hong Kong Government spends more than HK$210 million (about £20 million) a year in real terms on the fight against
-
14
IN CONFIDENCE