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Public Order
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Drug InfoCentre is a focal point for promoting anti-drug education. Visitors include students, parents, youth groups, district bodies, community organisations, overseas delegations, parent-teacher associations and uniformed groups. Anti-drug messages are disseminated through activities such as talks, visits, training workshops, experience-sharing sessions and movie-sharing sessions for different target groups.
The Healthy School Programme with a Drug Testing Component is a school-based initiative to strengthen students' resolve in refusing drugs and to foster a drug-free campus. In the 2017-18 school year, 135 secondary schools, partnered with NGOs, were implementing the programme. Another school-based programme, 'Participate in Sports, Stay Away from Drugs, was launched, involving 110 secondary schools. It is a student-led trial initiative aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and an anti-drug culture in secondary schools through students' participation in organising activities related to sports and health, and in supporting student athletes taking part in sports competitions.
Drug Testing
The government has been in talks with stakeholders after a consultation report was issued on a Rescue Drug Testing Scheme. The objective is to identify drug abusers as early as possible so they can receive timely counselling and treatment.
Treatment and Rehabilitation
A variety of treatment and rehabilitation services is available to drug abusers with different needs. Major services include a compulsory treatment programme conducted by the Correctional Services Department, voluntary residential programmes run by NGOs in 38 centres, a voluntary methadone outpatient treatment programme operated by the Department of Health, substance abuse clinics at all seven hospital clusters of the Hospital Authority, and 11 counselling centres for psychotropic substance abusers and two centres for drug counselling run by NGOs.
A Three-year Plan on Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Services in Hong Kong, issued in 2015, set out the priorities and strategies covering 2015 to 2017 and provided directions for anti-drug service providers to review and develop their action plans. In 2017, the division started preparation of the next three-year plan, covering 2018 to 2020, in consultation with anti-drug stakeholders.
Legislation and Enforcement
The division and other relevant departments monitor the changing drug scene closely and review the laws regularly to meet any emerging threat. In 2017, Phenazepam, MT-45 and 4,4'- DMAR were brought under the control of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. The police and the Customs and Excise Department seized 1,770kg and 9,599 tablets of major types of drugs and arrested 4,798 people for drug-related offences.
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