TNAG-0416-FCO40-462-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 42

26.

It will be recalled that one prong of Government's strategy recommended in its 1959 White Paper to tackle the narcotics problem was to attack the sources of supply. Unfortunately very little has been done in this respect and having regard to what was involved and the circumstances of that time, it is very doubtful whether anything constructive could have been done. The Royal Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau maintains a degree of overseas liaison with Police Forces in other countries either through

Interpol', or on its own account, usually concerning individual cases which have come to notice, and the Preventive Service doos the same on the customs side, but that is about all. Contacts with those agencies of the United Nations and other international bodies which are concerned with narcotics suppression have been few and formal generally speaking, apart from 'Interpol' and those aspects dealing with the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, and mostly confined to providing statistical information about drug offences detected in Hong Kong. In each of the years 1971 and 1972 to-date nearly six tons of opium and over one hundredweight of heroin have been seized.

27.

Thus, in practice, the strategy which has evolved in Hong Kong for interdicting the flow of narcotic drugs into the Colony is for the Police and Preventive Service to try to detect consignments at the time of import as they penetrate territorial waters or cross the coast line, either acting on information, or by chance as a result of routine preventive action. This procedure has produced minimal results and has had no effect whatsoever in stemming the vast import of drugs into Hong Kong to meet the demands of the market. Given the nature of the Colony's waters and coast- line, the limited law enforcement resources available to tackle the problem in this manner, plus the high degree of professionalism and guile practised by the traffickers, this method by itself must fail. No country has succeeded in preventing smuggling by simply patrolling its perimeters and believing that it can detect most of what is coming in by so doing, and this particularly applies where narcotics are concerned.

28.

Mention has been made of the Americans several times in this paper regarding their actions in Thailand and Laos. The Americans estimate that they have about 560,000 heroin addicts in the United States with a drug problem so serious that it has been declared to be the prime social enemy in the country today. The controversial involvement of the American Armed Forces in the Vietnam War has given rise to a grave heroin addiction problem amongst American Servicemen unparalleled in modern military history, to say nothing of the widespread abuse of cannabis. The heroin consumed by the American Armed Forces in South Vietnam has its origin in 'The Golden Triangle' while cannabis is a weed which grows wild and is indigenous to the area. The extent of drug abuse and addiction in the United States and amongst the American Armed Forces in Vietnam has been attended by extensive publicity in the news media worldwide. It is an important political issue in America demanding action. Arising from this, plus a fear that Burma, Thailand and Laos may well become the principal source of heroin supply for the United States market should Turkey succeed in prohibiting all opium growing after 1972 as it has announced it intends to do, have been nurtured the United Nations and

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