many.
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We can see that from the figures. Most of the figures for crime in Hong Kong don't look too bad. Of course, any crime is bad for the victim it's one crime too But in comparison with most other places, the figures are pretty good, and some of them for instance for violent crimes are actually falling. But you can forget that as far as drug abuse is concerned, especially drug abuse by youngsters. Since 1989 the number of reported drug abusers under the age of 21 has increased by over 200 per cent. The absolute figure has now passed 4,000. And every year it gets bigger. Most of these youngsters are male. Eight out of 10 of them are destroying their lives with heroin.
One of the odd things is that some of the reasons given for drug abuse elsewhere don't apply to nearly the same extent in Hong Kong. Above all, there's little youth unemployment here, but still the figures climb.
So what should we do about it?
One thing that we should be able to agree is that this has got to be a priority. And if it is, and we all give the campaign against drug abuse our support, then maybe we can stop our own rising problem turning into the sort of disaster we see elsewhere.
We are We need even stronger policing and Eddie Hui is dedicated to that. increasing the resources available to the police, particularly to prevent drugs getting in and to hit the dealers hard. We are going to toughen penalties and crack down on the funds salted away by the traffickers.
But there's much more to the campaign than that. We need more and better research - that's not an excuse for delay, we really do - to find why young people destroy their own lives, how best to stop them, and how to cure those who are hooked. We have to work more imaginatively in our schools to improve the quality of education about drugs and other health hazards. I saw 10 year olds the other day I know how many good learning some helpful lessons about tobacco and alcohol. teachers are already showing great initiative in this area. We want to give them more back-up and show other teachers how to tackle these subjects.
And we have to work with them, not least the voluntary organisations, who are trying to help drug abusers to kick the lethal habit and rejoin the land of the hopeful and the living. We mustn't be inhibited by old prejudices in giving a hand to the men and women who work so heroically in this field. I want us to learn what works best and then give it all the support we can.