TNAG-0418-FCO40-464-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 80

C.S. 166

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individually pursued, reference being made again to the Council at the appropriate time where they involve legislation, or to the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council where funds are required.

5

The fifth paper deals with the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts. It describes the facilities at present available, pointing out the need to develop treatment for application

en masse at a reasonable cost. It also points out the need for the reconstituted Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) to conduct a wide ranging review of what is being done now, suggesting (in paragraph 30) that ACAN should be invited to consider in particular:

(a) whether the Prisons Department should continue to treat

persons convicted solely of minor drug offences (who are social misfits rather than criminals);

(b) if the answer to (a) is that the Prisons Department should

not, then what arrangements should be made to treat this category of offender;

(c) whether persons sentenced to imprisonment for offences

of all kinds who are found to be addicts whilst in custody should be obliged to undergo a course of treatment before they are released;

(d) what provision should be made to cure opium addicts who are now invariably fined by the courts because prison sentences are regarded as inappropriate and treatment facilities barely exist;

(e) whether Government should build any more Tai Lam type

drug treatment centres;

(f) whether the length of time addicts now spend in Prisons

Department treatment centres should be reduced to increase throughput even at the risk of higher relapse rates;

(g) the role of the Society for the Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts

in the programme which may be recommended for treating addicts en masse and the programmes it should offer;

(h) whether the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society should continue

to operate drug treatment programmes;

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