312 Public Order
In view of the rising trend of psychotropic substance abuse in recent years, there was a need to update frontline workers on the latest development of service modalities to help abusers. A workshop on practical skills for handling psychotropic substance abusers was held in May 2007, attended by more than 270 people. The participants were also taught how to better encourage abusers to seek treatment.
The ND continued to work closely with other stakeholders on implementing the recommendations of the fourth three-year plan (2006-08) for drug treatment and rehabilitation in Hong Kong. Its key recommendations include strengthening cooperation between medical practitioners and NGOs to address the medical needs of drug abusers and to extend the scope for early intervention.
Preventive Education and Publicity
In 2007, the ND provided 470 schools with drug education programmes to some 53 900 students attending Primary 4, 5, and 6 schools, as well as students attending English Schools Foundation and international schools. Workshops and seminars were also organised for teachers and parents. Three seminars were held separately for teachers of primary and secondary schools. Since parents play a vital role in drugs preventive education, the ND organised three seminars for them in June, August and December. The ND worked with the Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co Ltd, to broadcast two radio programmes during the period between December 2006 and March 2007 to give parents a better understanding of the drug problem to enable them to communicate more effectively with their children.
A new Drug Education Kit was produced for students in primary and secondary schools to help them stay away from drugs. A series of 10 one-minute episodes was also broadcast on TV to help parents better tackle any drugs problems their children might have.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Drug InfoCentre continued to serve as a platform for promoting anti-drug messages among different sections of the community. During the year, 25 200 visitors, comprising 13 000 students, 3 300 members of youth groups, community organisations and rehabilitation centres, 260 principals, teachers and school social workers, 900 groups and 7 740 walk-in visitors, visited the
centre.
A competition in Hip Hop dance and band sound jointly organised with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), was launched in June. RTHK also organised schools tours and special radio programmes to encourage more teenagers to join the competition and spread the anti-drug messages among fellow-students. In addition, a mobile phone game for young people to play was launched in July. It carried the themes 'Ketamine is a dead end' and 'Ecstasy is a dead end'.
Drug Abuse, Statistics and Trends
Statistics on drug abuse are compiled by the Central Registry of Drug Abuse. It collates information on drug abusers obtained from a wide network of reporting agencies, including law enforcement departments, treatment and welfare agencies, hospitals and clinics.