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I am delighted that this afternoon Andy Lau is making clear his own commitment to our Beat Drugs Campaign and that is something which will be welcomed. There is a role for everyone in the community in this important campaign.
In the document which you will see there are a number of proposals we are intending to take forward. For example, an improvement and an enhancement of education about drugs in our schools, targeting more of our efforts and activities on those children who we think may be particularly at risk, and and it is an issue that was raised with me at one of our rehabilitation centres recently we are also going to ensure that young people who have recovered from drug-abuse are able to slip back into the school system more easily than has been the case in the recent past.
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Some of the ideas that we are putting forward involved reallocating resources or using resources more effectively. Some may involve new resources and we will be taking account of those bids for additional financial assistance in our public expenditure discussions within Government. There is one particular proposal which I know has attracted a great deal of interest and that is the suggestion that we should set up an anti-drugs fund, a special fund to help to finance activities in our Beat Drugs Campaign. And it is further suggested that we should put into that fund the confiscated assets of those who have been found guilty of drug-running and so on, that we should put the results of their confiscated assets into a fund to deal with drug-abuse and to fund anti-drug activities. There are problems with that proposal, some of which were referred to at the Summit. For example, it is not a very sure way of financing a fund. But nevertheless, we think the idea of a fund has a good deal of inherent merit and we are proposing to come back ourselves with a workable proposal for a fund as soon as we can. So we want to take that idea forward positively.
I will, of course, be continuing to take an active interest in the work that is done by the Commissioner, by ACAN and by others. We are, I think, putting together a good and comprehensive programme but it needs a great deal of energy and drive from all concerned and I will continue to make visits to activities associated with the Beat Drugs Campaign, one of the features of my diary, in the coming weeks and months.
Question: How real a possibility is it that confiscated assets from drugs could be re- diverted into this fund and what will the fund be made up of (inaudible)?
Governor: It is a real possibility but as your question implies, topping-up a fund with an amount of cash which is by definition variable, doesn't have all the certainty which is required if you are using a fund for recurrent financing or for providing cash to support projects in a regular way. So we need to look at the other basis for a fund. But I do think that there are attractions and merits in the idea, so we are going to try to work out how it could work positively and we are very pleased that ACAN themselves are going to look at the idea and give us the benefit of their advice.
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