TNAG-0418-FCO40-464-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 84

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(b)

3

The Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, Cap 138.

5.

The purpose of this Ordinance briefly is to control pharmacists and regulate the sale of poisons, which include some dangerous drugs having a genuine medical use. Some of these dangerous drugs are also abused. In general terms they are the factory made drugs the amphetamines or stimulants, and the barbiturates or depressants as opposed to the opiates and cannabis. (The hallucinogens, like L.S.D. are treated in the same way as heroin and opium, under Cap 134.)

6.

Before May 1972 the maximum penalty upon conviction for any offence under this ordinance was $1,000 with a fine of $100 per day for continuing the offence following conviction. Now it is $10,000 and imprisonment for one year plus a fine of $1,000 per day for continuing the offence following conviction. All the penalties thus remain far below those prescribed in the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance and this is attributable to the very different objects of the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance. Nevertheless as we succeed in mastering the opiate problem the likelihood is that the abuse of factory made drugs now treated as poisons will increase unless effective controls are applied and enforced.

7.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance is unsatisfactory and deficient in several important aspects and does not provide the degree of control necessary to ensure that those drugs regulated under it do not get into the wrong hands, so facilitating their abuse. It is not proposed to go into detail' here, for the issue is complex; suffice it to say that there is a definite need for an overall revision

and improvement. At the moment enforcement is limited and is largely ineffective.

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