HEALTH
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Department for the assessment of duties. Expert guidance was also provided on the use of denatured industrial alcohol within the revenue framework.
Technical advice backed by experimental evaluation was given on the chemical hazards associated with the carriage and storage of dangerous goods including their classification under the Dangerous Goods Regulations. A number of scenes of accidents and fires involving spillage and leakage of hazardous chemicals were attended by laboratory staff to render emergency assistance to fire service personnel.
One of the functions of the laboratory is to provide analytical services to the Medical and Health Department in relation to the registration of pharmaceutical products as well as the enforcement of regulations for their control. Medicines dispensed for public use in government hospitals and clinics were regularly examined for efficacy and quality.
Other aspects of the laboratory's work included examinations of agricultural and domestic pesticides, unmanifested import and export seizures, spurious goods, precious metals, commodities for metrological measurements and urines from methadone clinics.
Narcotics
Drug abuse is a long-standing problem in Hong Kong with serious social, economic, legal, medical and psychological implications. The government's policy is to stop the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs into and through Hong Kong, to develop a comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation programme for drug addicts and to dissuade people, parti- cularly young people, from experimenting with drugs so as to eradicate drug abuse in the community.
The exact number of addicts in Hong Kong is not known. However, findings from the government's computerised Central Registry of Drug Abuse and other linked indicators show that at the end of 1988 the size of the known and active addict population was about 44 000, which was 0.9 per cent of the population aged 11 and above.
Data collected by the registry, based on 385 000 reports on 60 000 persons, indicate that 91 per cent are male and nine per cent female. As for age distribution, 51 per cent were over 30 as at the end of 1988, 34 per cent were in the 21 to 30 bracket and 15 per cent were under 21. The principal drug of abuse in Hong Kong is heroin, which was used by 96 per cent of the persons reported to the registry in 1988. However, there are indications that more young people have been abusing psychotropic substances in the last few years, although the abuse of these drugs is not as serious a social problem as heroin addiction.
As a first step to assess the extent of abuse of psychotropic substances a large scale survey was conducted on students in secondary schools and technical institutes in late 1987. The findings of the survey, released in June 1988, revealed among other things that only 1.1 per cent of the secondary school students surveyed and 2.8 per cent of the students enrolled in technical institutes had abused psychotropic substances, mainly Mandrax and cannabis.
Overall Strategy and Co-ordination
The government's overall strategy to combat drug abuse consists of four main elements: law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, preventive education and publicity and international co-operation. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the Narcotics Bureau and individual district formations of the Police Force, and the Customs and Excise Department. Treatment and rehabilitation are undertaken by the Medical and Health Department, the Correctional Services Department and a number of voluntary agencies,