Police-1962-1963 — Page 34

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Service of the Department of Commerce and Industry. The manu- facture, traffic and consumption of narcotics are primarily the concern of the Police. The work of other Government Departments and private agencies is directed toward the care and rehabilitation of drug addicts.

128. Hong Kong is not an opium-producing area and the raw materials for use in the manufacture of narcotics come from outside. Refined opium produces morphine and by a simple chemical process morphine produces heroin. The use of these drugs and barbitone, create Hong Kong's addiction problem. The import of opium and morphine and export of heroin are the main trafficking problems.

129. The Narcotics Bureau, which is controlled by a Superintendent of Police responsible to the Director of Criminal Investigation, has three main functions: first to collect and collate information on narcotics and pass it on to all interested formations of the Force; second to co-operate closely with the Preventive Service, and third, to exchange information with the narcotics suppression agencies of other governments and international bodies. In November the Officer in Charge of the Bureau attended a Colombo Plan Seminar in Tokyo on the Prevention of Narcotics Offences.

130. Police action against manufacture, distribution and con- sumption is taken at three levels. Each division has a divisional vice squad one of whose aims is to control the consumption and peddling of drugs within its divisional area. Each of the two urban District Headquarters has a special District Squad which operates against special or major targets of distribution and consumption. Towards the end of the year plans were complete for the introduction of a Force Squad under the control of the Superintendent, Narcotics Bureau, to deal with major distributors.

131. During the year seven illegal narcotics-producing 'laboratories' were successfully raided. A total of 16,081 narcotics offences were recorded and 12,340 persons prosecuted. Details of these are given at Appendices 15 and 16.

132. Seizures by the Police and Preventive Service have increased substantially during the year:

Raw opium Prepared opium Morphine

Heroin

748.123 Kilos (223.529)

44.751 Kilos ( 29.198) 157.060 Kilos (104.867)

83.370 Kilos ( 32.042)

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