- 3-
Forming a special team of social workers in the Social Welfare Department this October to help about 500 drug abusers a year;
* Setting up two additional residential centres for young opiate abusers and a new counselling centre for young abusers;
* Expanding the Hospital Authority's treatment services for psychotropic substance abusers.
In addition, the Government will allocate an additional $1 million in 1995/96 for drug-related research.
year.
It is estimated that the measures will cost about $30 million over this
End/Monday, March 6, 1995
Transcript of Governor's media session
The following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after today's (Monday) Summit Meeting on Drugs:
Governor: Drug abuse is a growing problem world-wide and it's a growing problem here in Hong Kong. Our difficulties aren't yet as bad as they are in some other communities and we certainly don't want them to be. But the figures don't look good and the figures have been getting worse, and if we're to prevent the sort of disaster that has hit so many other communities we've got to take action quickly and we've got to work together as a community, all of us, to beat drugs. That was the purpose of this afternoon's Summit, to get together people from right across the community who have a role in the fight against drugs and to tap their experience and their wisdom and their advice, to see what more we can do as Government.
We're going to consider the ideas put forward this afternoon. I'm setting up a Review Team under ACAN to consider all the ideas that have been put forward and to report to me personally within three months. We've also announced as a sort of payment on account our own Forward Action Plan today containing almost 30 points of action that we are going to take as Government, covering penalties, covering enforcement, covering facilities for education and research, and of course for prevention and rehabilitation.