TNAG-1735-FCO40-2448-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 141

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 18 May 1988

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Remedial action has been taken by both the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) and by the police and customs. ACAN has initiated and directed the following measures:

—first, a survey, last autumn, of 110 000 students at 148 secondary schools and eight technical institutes, the full results of which will be issued next month;

second, warning posters placed at all customs entry points;

third, the Hong Kong Christian Service has opened a centre in 33 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, specifically aimed at providing counselling and other services for people abusing psychotropic drugs. We hope that this centre will be able to provide more accurate figures on the numbers and characteristics of people abusing these drugs;

-fourth, publicity to warn youngsters of the dangers of these drugs and the penalties that can be incurred through trafficking, has been stepped up since 1987 by means of posters, television announcements and through district campaigns; and

fifth, the drug education kit supplied to school principals now has supple- mentary information on psychotropic drugs.

Police and customs action has resulted in 274 000 mandrax tablets being seized in 1986, dropping to 74 000 tablets seized in 1987. This dramatic reduction resulted from the action taken by the authorities in China, at the Hong Kong Government's request, to stop the manufacture and distribution of the drug.

Action against the trafficking of mandrax tablets by young people under 21 has resulted in 27 prosecutions in 1986 and 40 in 1987. The majority of prosecutions, however, for mandrax trafficking are taken against persons over 21 for which there were 98 prosecutions in 1986 and 127 in 1987. Such cases usually arise from police and customs raids on vice establishments and from information received by the investigating agencies.

Educational efforts to curb trafficking are also made by means of posters, announcements of public interest, school talks and the teaching kits to which I have referred.

I have used the term 'psychotropic', rather than 'soft' because the term 'soft drug', although commonly used, can be misleading. It suggests that these drugs are not particularly harmful compared with the more dangerous addictive drugs such as heroin, and could lull people into falsely underestimating the potential harm of such drugs. This could prove a grave error.

MRS. FAN: Sir, I have statistics here which show that the number of young people who abuse psychotropic substances between the age of 13 to 15 has doubled in the first nine months this year, compared with the figures in 1986. Could the Secretary please tell this Council whether he considers the educational efforts to curb the abuse of psychotropic substances to be effective?