XN000022-1972-05-09 — Page 6

6

Tuesday, May 9, 1972

DETERMINED EFFORT TO STOP DRUG FLOW

New System Adopted By Prisons Department Paying Off

A total of eleven persons, about one tenth of all those to be

admitted last night into Tai Lam Addiction Treatment Centre and Victoria

Reception Centre, were arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle varying

quantities of suspected heroin into the prisons.

The drugs were concealed within their persons on admission but

were detected by prisons staff using an improved searching procedure recently

introduced.

Since the beginning of this, month,,, all persons remanded for suitability

reports under the Drugs Addiction Treatment Centres Ordinance are remanded..

at the Tai Lam Addiction Treatment Centre.

This new arrangement has helped to relieve the pressure on the

Victoria Reception Centre and therefore enable an improved system of search

to be implemented.

During the eight days since then, including last night's find, a

total of eighteen cases of alleged drug smuggling by prisoners on admission

were detected, and a similar number of people arrested.

Commenting on the drugs find last night, the Commissioner of Prisons,

Mr. T.G. Garner, pointed to the revealing fact that only one of the ten

persons arrested at Victoria Reception Centre was on a dangerous drugs charge.

The others were charged with theft, burglary, assault, and loitering.

"It