XN000022-1996-05-23 — Page 12

10 -

The plan sets out the Government's contribution but there have been other concerns, other ideas, other proposals, raised during the course of this afternoon's discussion and they are not covered in our Forward Action Plan. I am therefore going to ask the Chairman of ACAN, and the Commissioner for Narcotics, once again, to set up a Special Action Group from within ACAN to review as a matter of urgency all the constructive proposals put forward at this discussion today, and to report to me personally within three months with recommendations as to what future action should be taken. Again, we will ensure that everybody who has participated at the summit is kept fully informed of progress.

Let me now turn to the main items in the Government's Forward Action Plan, and we have grouped these into the same four categories as the discussion here this afternoon.

First of all law enforcement, and I must say during the course of the discussion I was impressed, as ever, by the number of references there were to the District Fight Crime Committees and there are obviously a number of ideas that were put forward then by Mr Ko and by others which we will need to consider in the next few months.

On law enforcement we will be adding three Pharmacist Inspectors to the Department of Health in 1997-98. This will increase the number of pharmacist inspections from 700 to 800 per month and help to clamp down on the illegal sale of controlled drugs. We will be introducing amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance in the 1996-97 Legislative Session to provide for enhanced sentencing for drug offences where adults exploit young people in the illegal drugs trade.

We will be adding 22 posts to the Customs and Excise Department in 1996-97 to establish investigative and intelligence units to strengthen the licensing control system on precursor chemicals. We will be introducing amendments to revamp the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance in the 1996-97 Legislative Session to enable the public to gain a better understanding of which statutory requirements are relevant to different types of pharmaceutical products.

Let me next turn to preventive education, on which we heard a number of positive and interesting proposals once again, and I must say that among the elements that came out in the discussion the ones that impressed me most were the relevance and importance of our youth and community services to tackling this issue, this problem, and the more that needs to be done in that area. And I was also impressed, as I am sure we all were during Mr Wong's contribution, by the reminder of the important role which parents have to play.