THE
JUNE
STAR
73.
5th
•PIUM WAR
AKK 193
f
N
51
TO SAVE
100,00
NARCOTICS Commissioner Norman Rolph today unveiled a muki-million dollar plan which will "break the bad:' of the drug addiction and traf- ficking problem in Hongkong.
Speaking to The STAR in an exclusive interview, Mr Rolph said our present drug treatment and rehabilitation facilities "hear no relation with the size of the problem.”
"Forty tons of opium are imported into Hongkong each year. Of this,only about six tons has been seized for each of the last two years,” he said.
"We estimate that there are about 100,000 drug addicts in Hongkong." he said.
Mr Rolph said the plan, which he has been working on for 12 months, was multi- pronged.
Trawlers
"It will include the attacking of opium cultivation in the Golden Triangle through crop substitution, attacks on trawlers tifat are bringing the drugs here, the importers and syndicates in Hongkong, the street sellers and a massiveC treatment and rehabilitation programme." he said.
"We have not yet submitted any of the proposals to the Government but we expect to do so sometime this year."
"This plan will hopefully break the back of the drug
X
addiction problem in 10 years subject to a lot of factors."
"Not the least of these (fac- tors) is to stop the vast import of opium going on in Hongkong » now," he said.
Mr Rolph said that at pre- sent, the Prisons Department had facilities to treat less than 10 per cent of its inmates for drug addiction.
"It would be correct to assume that about 80 per cent of the total prison population in, Hongkong, are addicted to drugs," he said.
He admitted that most drug dependents released from prison as "drug-free" went back to drugs soon after.
He also admitted that not less than 60 per cent of those treated in drug-treatment centres went back to drugs and that there had been no decrease in the number of addicts in Hongkong for many years.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.