Mr Patten revealed that the spiralling trend of drug abuse had been reversed last year, according to the number of drug abusers reported to the Central Registry of Drug Abuse.
Comparing statistics for 1995 with the previous year, he noted a decrease of 8.3 per cent for all reported young drug abusers and a bigger drop of 27.5 per cent for newly reported young drug abusers. However, Mr Patten warned against complacency as youngsters were still making up a high proportion of the newly reported cases.
"This remains a matter of particular concern," the Governor said.
He added: "The package of Government measures I have announced today is essential if we are to maintain the momentum we established last year in binding the community together to tackle the evil of drug abuse. "We simply can't afford to drop our guard for a second, because there are unscrupulous people who will take every opportunity to exploit the young and the vulnerable in particular.
"This is a battle the Government cannot fight alone. We need the community with us - and the summit today shows that the community is determined to win this battle."
Mr Patten emphasised that the Forward Action Plan he announced today set out only the Government's contribution.
"There have been other concerns, other ideas, other proposals raised today, which are not covered in our Forward Action Plan," he said.
"I was very impressed by the thought and concern that went into these ideas and I want to follow up on them."
To do so, Mr Patten also announced that he had asked the Chairman of ACAN, Professor Chen Char-nie, and the Commissioner for Narcotics, Mr Raymond Wong, to re-convene a special action group to review as a matter of urgency all of the constructive proposals that had been put forward at the summit.
"I have asked for a report to be submitted to me within three months with recommendations as to what future action is to be taken on them," the Governor said.
The progress report on the measures which had resulted from the first Governor's Drugs Summit was published and distributed to all Summit participants.
Mr Patten said the publication of the report was important both in terms of the Government's accountability to the public and its credibility and sincerity in tackling the drugs problem.
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