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0003160 G.F. 316
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21.
About this time initiatives were being pursued also by a number of leading citizens in the Colony in conjunction with the Narcotics Advisory Committee to provide voluntary treatment facilities for drug addicts to meet the serious problem of addiction which by then was apparent in the community. This led eventually in July 1961 to the incorporation of the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts (S.A.R.D.A.) and to the establishment of the Shek Kwu Chau Rehabilitation Centre in April 1963 operated by the Society for the treatment of voluntary clients. S.A.R.D.A. derives nearly all its funds from an annual Government Subvention. In planning for the setting up of this Centre the principle of voluntary confinement was cardinal whereby an addict of his own free will surrendered his liberty for a period in order to take the cure in the drug free locality of Shek Kwu Chau Island. Thus a similar environment was produced for the voluntary client as existed under Court restraint at Tai Lam, a condition found to be an essential pre-requisite to the successful physical withdrawal of a drug dependent person from his addiction and his progressive rehabilitation thereafter. In determining the regimen to be followed at Shek Kwu Chau due regard was had to the experience gained by the Prisons Department at Tai Lam and by the Medical and Health Department during its pilot project at Castle Peak Hospital. The latter ceased to function with the opening of the Shek Kwu Chau Rehabilitation Centre. By the end of October 1972 a total of 5,263 clients had been discharged from Shek Kwu Chau since its opening in 1963.
22.
In October 1968 S.A.R.D.A. opened a Women's Treatment Centre on Hong Kong Island for voluntary clients with accommo- dation for 32 addicts at any one time. 228 women had been discharged from the Centre by the end of October 1972.
23.
Up to 1965 the drive against narcotics was mainly carried out by six Government Departments and four leading Voluntary Organisations. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs exercised some degree of co-ordination, but having regard to his many other duties and the pressure of work this was minimal and perforce largely ineffective. The Narcotics Advisory Committee, essentially a policy making body, also endeavoured to play a part in this direction but it proved to be an unsuitable instrument for the purpose. The substantial effort being put into the various aspects of the anti-narcotics drive by Government Departments and Voluntary Agencies was fragmented and lacked the cohesion necessary to make constructive progress in a co-ordinated manner towards common goals. In short organisations tended to pursue their own particular work programmes independently. The defi- ciencies in this system were highlighted in the findings of a Narcotics Seminar held in October 1964 promoted by the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society and the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. As a direct result of this Seminar a major overhaul of control arrangements was undertaken which led to the setting up in June 1965 of a joint committee of interested parties called the Action Committee Against Narcotics (A.C.A.N.) to be serviced by a small Narcotics Division created within the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs. Concurrently with these developments the Narcotics Advisory Committee was reorganised to make a more compact and less unwieldy working group charged with advising the Secretary for Chinese Affairs on the co-ordination and implementation of official policies and practices intended to reduce the trade in and the consumtion
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