HEALTH
Some 20 972 tests were performed on pharmaceutical products to specifications of official pharmacopoeia, with increasing emphasis on registered drugs. Safety concern over Chinese medicines has led to advances in the pace of analysis and the search for quality information on herbal drugs.
Year-round surveillance of tar and nicotine in cigarettes continued, with results published for public information and affirmation of the yields declared by tobacco manufacturers.
Globalisation of trade has exposed individuals to more new products with undefined safety information. The scope of testing for consumer goods has continued to grow. Articles ranging from children's toys to textiles containing azo-dyes called for some 34 385 tests in 1997. Wide-ranging products required a multi-disciplinary testing approach and the need for collaboration. The laboratory achieved ground- breaking results in 1997 in co-organising exercises with laboratories in the Mainland.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Preparatory Committee on Chinese Medicine (PCCM) was set up in April 1995 to advise on a statutory framework for the promotion, development and regulations of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Hong Kong. In 1996, it completed a territory-wide enrolment exercise for TCM practitioners. It also revised the list of potent/toxic Chinese herbs and published a health education leaflet on the safe and proper use of traditional Chinese medicine.
The committee finalised its recommendations on the regulation and development of TCM and submitted its report to the government in March 1997.
Drug Abuse and Trafficking
The government aims at effectively enforcing the law, especially against those involved in the supply and trafficking of illegal drugs; developing a comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation programme for drug abusers; discouraging people, in particular the young, from taking or experimenting with drugs; and eradicating drug abuse in the community.
Data collected by the government's Central Registry of Drug Abuse, which were based on 30 000 reports on 17 500 persons, indicated that in 1997, 88 per cent of drug abusers were male and 12 per cent female, 53 per cent were aged over 30 years, 29 per cent were 21 to 30 years old and 18 per cent were aged under 21.
The number of young drug abusers reported to the registry continued to drop in 1997. However, youngsters are still making up a high proportion of the newly reported cases. Of a total of 3 500 drug abusers who came to the registry's notice for the first time in 1997, 79 per cent were male, 21 per cent were female and 44 per cent were under the age of 21.
Heroin remained the predominant drug of abuse in Hong Kong, and was used by 87 per cent of those persons reported to the registry. Other common drugs of abuse included cannabis, cough medicine, methylamphetamine ("ice') and various psychotropic substances.
Overall Strategy and Co-ordination
The government adopts a five-pronged approach in combating drug trafficking and abuse-law enforcement, preventive education and publicity, treatment and
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