TNAG-0417-FCO40-463-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 111

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST SEPT 4th '73

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UN experts to study Asian drug problem

A team of United Nations drug experts will visit Hongkong next month as part of a study to find out how the nations of East Asia can combine to fight the narcotics barons.

The team the ad hoc Committee for the Far East of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs - has been promised all possible help by the Hongkong authorities.

The international experts, from Australia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Britain, will arrive here late in October.

The Commissioner for Narcotics, Mr Norman Rolph, said yesterdaythe fact-finding team would be searching for the best possible machinery which nations in the area could use to co operate in fighting illicit drug smuggling.

Once they have made their studies throughout the region, the Committee will make its report to a U.N. narcotics meeting in Geneva next March.

Mr Rolph said last night the visiting experts would get full co-operation from Hongkong drug fighters.

"We are most anxious to see the most effective machinery possible introduced on a regional basis,” Mr Rolph said.

"I am looking forward to their visit. Perhaps they can come up with some answers."

Meanwhile, the cost of drugs on the Hongkong street markets remains at a high level, reliable sources said last night.

Between early June and the end of July, prices of heroin, morphine and opium soared.

In the two month period, the retail price of heroin jumped by 45 per cent, number three (smoking) heroin by 60 per cent, other forms of heroin by 100 per cent and morphine base (used to make heroin) increased by 2 14 per cent.

The big price increases were caused by the blitz on drug growers and smugglers in the Golden Triangle area of Laos, Thailand and Burma, where more effective policing methods have cut the production of opium at its source.

Recent large seizures of drugs by Hongkong police and Preventive Services have also made narcotics harder to get in the Colony - and have contributed to the price. increases.

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