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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. This 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. However, bumper opium crops in the Golden Triangle in 1981 and 1982 inevitably filtered through to the Territory, although the signs are that this deterioration is only temporary.
4.7 The Hong Kong Government spends more than HK$210 million
(about £20 million) a year in real terms on the fight against
narcotics. The overall strategy consists of four main elements -
law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, preventive education and publicity, and international action and coordinated by the
Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN). Penalties have been
introduced for the owners of ships which are repeatedly used for drug smuggling, and the possibility of sequestrating the assets of
convicted drug traffickers is under consideration. Hong Kong plays an active part in international anti-drug action, with especially
close links with South-East Asia, Europe and North America.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE
4.8 Hong Kong continues to develop at a pace and intensity that
astonishes most visitors. The new towns of Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Tuen
Mun, Tai Po, Fanling and Yuen Long in the New Territories have been
designed to provide housing for an eventual 2,900,000 people, together with employment opportunities and related services such as
schools, hospitals, clinics and recreational facilities. This will involve a major shift of population from the older urban areas of
Hong Kong and Kowloon.
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