- 29-
Drug prevention seminar for social workers
The focus of Hong Kong's anti-drug preventive education and publicity programme for this (1997) year will continue to be on young persons despite the drop in the number of young drug abusers reported, the Assistant Secretary for Security (Narcotics), Mr Lam Ka-tai, said today (Thursday).
Mr Lam was addressing the Seminar on "Drug Abuse Prevention Among Youths" attended by more than 150 in-service and student social workers.
Jointly organised by the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) and the Social Welfare Department, the seminar was aimed at keeping social workers abreast of Hong Kong's anti-drug efforts and enhancing their skills in dealing with young drug abusers.
Mr Lam said: "In the first nine months of 1996, there were 3,076 young drug abusers under the age of 21 reported to the Narcotics Division's Central Registry of Drug Abuse, representing a decrease of 7 per cent when compared with the corresponding figure of 1995. This figure represented an even bigger drop of 12.6 per cent when compared with the corresponding figure of 1994.
"The proportion of young people involved in drug abuse remains relatively small, which is around 3.6 per 1,000 of the population aged 11 -20.
"Notwithstanding the drop in the number of young drug abusers, we are not complacent. We believe that the problem of drug abuse should best be tackled at source through preventive education efforts."
Apart from today's seminar for social workers, Mr Lam said the preventive education and publicity programme would include the following components:
three new TV Announcement of Public Interest (APIs) to promote an anti-drug culture among young persons ;
the use of internet to educate them on the harmful effects of drug abuse;
on-going drug education talks for secondary and primary 6 students and parents of secondary students by the Narcotics Division;
workshops for in-service and trainee teachers.
Page 30Page 31