CONFIDENTIAL #B
機密
}
7
Illicit Trafficking
19.
As the strength of the Police Force and Preventive Service has increased and their expertise has developed during the past decade, narcotics seizures have mounted very substantially. Details of them are given in Appendix 'B', together with details of prosecutions and convictions. This shows that more opium and crude morphine products were seized in 1972 alone than for the whole of the six years recorded in Table III of the 1959 White Paper. A greater proportion of the traffic is almost certainly now being detected.
Public Attitudes
20.
During the decade there were widespread changes of attitude towards the abuse of dangerous drugs.
As a result of a tendency in many countries for large numbers of young people to reject established values, cannabis became the world's major drug of abuse, whilst also amphetamine and barbiturate substances began to be abused on an extensive scale. A problem which the affected countries had tended to play in a low key is now widely publicised, and of international concern. This has had an effect in Hong Kong: the population here has become more acutely aware of the problems of drug abuse and better informed about them than it was in 1959. Even so, and despite strenuous and devoted efforts by many people, both in Government and from voluntary agencies, progress during the past decade has been limited and hard won. It is therefore timely to take stock of the position and, drawing on the experience of the past quarter of a century, to launch new initiatives.
G. F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL #2
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.