ENG-1979 — Page 130

HEALTH

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The examination of pharmaceutical products purchased or made by the government for use in its hospitals and clinics is carried out at the Government Laboratory. Products submitted for registration under the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations are also examined. The laboratory is responsible for the physical and chemical testing of food under the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance. This work, which stems from the activities of the Hygiene Division of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department, is a consumer protection activity that continues to expand.

In addition, the laboratory carries out urinalysis which is a vital part of the methadone maintenance and detoxification programmes run by the Medical and Health Department. Urinalysis establishes whether or not patients are being successfully weaned off heroin.

Other functions undertaken in the sphere of community health include dangerous goods and pesticide residue analyses and determinations relating to traces of noxious metals, such as cadmium in oysters.

Narcotics

Drug abuse is a serious and long standing social problem in Hong Kong. The government, which is advised by the Action Committee Against Narcotics, is firmly committed to fighting drug abuse and to eventually eliminating it.

The exact number of addicts in Hong Kong is not known. However, findings from the government's reorganised Central Registry of Drug Addicts, which came into full operation in September, 1978, indicate that the size of the problem is in the region of 35,000 to 50,000 people.

Data collected by the Central Registry, based on 84,000 reports about 31,000 individual addicts, indicate that about 84 per cent of Hong Kong's addicts use heroin, 11 per cent use opium, and the remaining five per cent use other drugs. Of the addicts, 64 per cent are 30 years and over; 32 per cent are in the 20 to 29 age bracket; and less than four per cent are 19 years or under. Fume inhalation is the most popular method of taking heroin while smoking is generally used by opium abusers.

The profile of a typical addict in Hong Kong is of an adult male over 21, in the lower income group, with not more than six years of education, living in overcrowded condi- tions, and generally employed as a casual labourer, unskilled or semi-skilled worker. He is single or, if married, usually separated from his family.

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The real cost of the government's anti-narcotics programmes is in the region of $180 million a year. The overall strategy consists of four main elements law enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation, preventive education and publicity, and international co- operation. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force's Narcotics Bureau and individual district formations, and of the Customs and Excise Service of the Trade Industry and Customs Department. Treatment and rehabilitation are under- taken by the Medical and Health Department, the Prisons Department and a government- subvented voluntary agency, the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers (SARDA). Preventive education and publicity rests mainly with the Narcotics Division of the Government Secretariat, the Information Services Department and various government district offices concerned with community-building efforts. International co-operation is the responsibility of all.

The work undertaken in each of these four areas is inter-related. Law enforcement pushes up the prices of illicit drugs, thus inducing addicts to seek voluntary treatment. Addicts seeking treatment are offered a wide range of programmes. At the same time, preventive education and publicity efforts are used to persuade other people, especially the young,