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We all as a community have to work together to beat this scourge. I think that's the view of this community, I think it's the view of parents in this community. We owe it to our young people and I'm sure that just as we've led the way and blazed trails in other areas of economic and social life, so we can do so in this one as well.
Question: Governor Patten, do you see this as a long I mean don't you feel like you should be extending these remedies for the long term? For example, some people think the problem is not directly that children are out on the streets taking drugs, it's more of a social problem with the homes they live in and they live practically on top of one another, many students only go to school half-day and they have a lot of extra time on their hands. So shouldn't it be attacked more from the angle where, you know, you're going to address these social problems that can lead up to drugs?
Governor: I don't doubt at all that we need long term solutions, and sensible and comprehensive long term solutions require a lot more research. One of the surprising things is how little research has been done on the causes, as well as the cures, here in Hong Kong. Interestingly, if you compare Hong Kong with other communities where drug abuse is on the increase, we don't have a lot of the social problems which they have. For example, in some other communities high levels of youth unemployment are associated with drug abuse and that isn't a problem here in Hong Kong but there may be other social difficulties that we've got which are causing an increase in drug abuse and one of our contributors this afternoon made a very, I thought, eloquent plea for more research. But more research can't be a justification for not taking action now, so we have to act in the short term as well as the long term and that's why we're proposing to do more in our schools, that's why we're proposing to give more resources to our Police and that's why we're proposing to give more resources to our Social Welfare Department.
Question: Yes, bearing in mind your decision ... centres being set up, does the Government have any practical solutions for speeding up that process?
Governor: It's a very real process and it's not, as you know, one that just exists in this particular field. But it is a reminder of the importance of working with communities, working through District Boards with communities, to explain to people exactly why the facilities are necessary for Hong Kong and exactly why how things would be worse if we didn't establish these facilities. That point, I think, was particularly well put by Dr Margaret Chan, our Director of Health, in her answer to questions.
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