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Research provides the basis for policy formulation
The Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) regards research as providing the indispensable basis for effective policy formulation, the Commissioner for Narcotics, Mr Alasdair Sinclair, said today (Thursday).
"Throwing money at the drug problem, or any other problem, is unlikely to achieve very much unless you understand the problem and know what sort of action stands the best chance of succeeding," he said.
In a speech entitled "Understanding illicit drug abuse: the search for solutions" delivered at a luncheon meeting hosted by the Rotary Club of Hong Kong North, Mr Sinclair said Hong Kong was fortunate to have a very good Central Registry of Drug Abuse, one of the most comprehensive and longest established in the world.
The Commissioner revealed that among other research projects to be started this year by the Research Sub- committee of ACAN would be a study to review treatment programmes.
"The outcome of the study will help ACAN to advise on the future direction of service provision," he said.
"There are many different treatment programmes in Hong Kong, run by a variety of government and non-government organisations, adopting a number of approaches.
"We will be looking at their objectives, their modes of operation, the characteristics of their clients, and their performance."
However, Mr Sinclair noted that as each programme had its own objectives, it was not meaningful to draw up a league table of success rates.
"We prefer to examine rehabilitation programmes in a wider perspective without going into relative effectiveness," he said.
Mr Sinclair said there were six other research projects being planned for the year. They are:
a study of drug progression patterns;
an analysis of the characteristics of methadone patients;
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