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HEALTH
and education for young people, parents, teachers and organisations. The centre also makes available to the public a range of anti-drug information in the form of publications, films, video-cassette tapes and slides.
The Drug Abuse Telephone Enquiry Service, which was started in September, 1977, continued to operate in 1980. By the end of the year, the service had received 16,540 enquiries since its inception and the response from both addicts and non-addicts has been good.
Externally, Hong Kong continued to play an active and important part in international anti-narcotics operations. Over the years, Hong Kong has maintained close links with the United Nations, with inter-governmental agencies, such as the Colombo Plan Bureau and Interpol, and with individual governments in Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. During 1980, Hong Kong took part in 17 international meetings concerned with anti-drug law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, and preventive education. Hong Kong also made its sixth annual contribution of $100,000 to the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control in support of its world-wide anti-narcotics efforts, which include the opium poppy crop-substitution programme in the 'Golden Triangle', where the boundaries of Burma, Laos and Thailand meet. It is from this area that most of Hong Kong's opiate drugs come.
The techniques and methods employed by Hong Kong in its anti-narcotics work have made it an important venue for training anti-narcotics personnel from other countries. In 1980, 126 anti-narcotics officers from various countries came to Hong Kong on study visits, either through bilateral arrangements with their governments or under the sponsor- ship of United Nations bodies such as the World Health Organisation, or the Colombo Plan.
In April, Hong Kong organised an international meeting on 'The role of education in the social re-integration of former drug users'. Arranged in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the meeting was attended by delegates from Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, the United States of America, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and produced a very useful exchange of ideas and experiences.
Following the success of the first World Health Organisation Inter-Regional Training Course on the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug-dependent Persons held in Hong Kong in 1979, the WHO invited Hong Kong to organise a second course in October and November. The course was held successfully and provided 22 physicians from Egypt, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Burma with an in-depth account of the latest theories and practices in the field of drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation. As a result of continual efforts to eradicate the scourge of drug addiction, Hong Kong can now claim to have contained its drug problem and made successful inroads into preventing the spread of drug abuse among young people and in reducing criminal be- haviour among addicts.
Environmental Hygiene
The work of the Urban Services Department includes street cleaning, the collection and removal of refuse and nightsoil, the management of public toilets and bathhouses, the control of food hygiene, and the disposal of the dead. In the urban areas, the department operates as the executive arm of the Urban Council, while the Director of Urban Services is the authority for the New Territories.