HEALTH
the size of the known and active addict population was about 42 000, which was 0.9 per cent of the population aged 11 and above.
Data collected by the registry, based on 413 000 reports on 62 000 persons, indicate that 90 per cent are male and 10 per cent female. As for age distribution, 70 per cent were over 30 as at the end of 1989, 25 per cent were in the 21 to 30 bracket and five per cent were under 21. The principal drug of abuse is heroin, which was used by 91 per cent of the persons reported to the registry in 1989. 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.
Overall Strategy and Co-ordination
The government's overall strategy consists of four main elements: law enforcement, treat- ment and rehabilitation, preventive education and publicity, and international co-opera- tion. 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 Department of Health, the Correctional Services Department and a number of voluntary agencies, the largest being the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers (SARDA) which is subvented by the government. Preventive education and publicity rests mainly with the Narcotics Division of the Government Secretariat, working closely with the Information Services Department, Radio Television Hong Kong and government district offices. International co-operation is the responsibility of all.
The work undertaken in each of these four areas is inter-related. Effective law enforcement curtails the supply of illicit drugs and pushes up their prices, thus inducing addicts to seek ways of ridding themselves of their drug habit through treatment. These addicts are offered a wide range of treatment programmes, the effectiveness of which reduces the demand for illicit drugs. At the same time, preventive education and publicity measures are used to dissuade others, especially the young, from experimenting. Co- operation at the international level, through the exchange of information and experience, enhances the effectiveness of efforts in these three areas.
All these efforts are co-ordinated by the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN), a non-statutory body comprising a chairman, 10 government officials and 12 members from the community. The committee, formed in 1965 and reconstituted in 1974, is the government's sole advisory body on all anti-narcotics policies and actions, whether internal or external, and whether related to government departments or voluntary agencies. It is serviced by the Narcotics Division, which is headed by the Commissioner for Narcotics.
Legislation and Law Enforcement
The government's determination to eradicate drug trafficking is evident in its decision to adopt measures to attack traffickers' assets. After months of preparation, law drafting and consultation with government departments and professional bodies, the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Bill passed into law in July 1989 and came into effect on September 1, 1989. The ordinance empowers the courts to confiscate drug traffickers' assets and counters the laundering of drug money. A person who helps drug traffickers retain or otherwise benefit from their proceeds may be prosecuted. The legislation shows the government's readiness to respond positively to the international call for legislative measures to confiscate the proceeds of drug traffickers and to counter money laundering, as embodied in the 1988 UN Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
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