ENG-1981 — Page 144

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HEALTH

whether related to government departments or to voluntary agencies. The ACAN is served by the narcotics division, which is headed by the Commissioner for Narcotics.

Substained efforts in the four major anti-narcotics strategies continued to produce rewarding results in 1981. During the year, the price of heroin in the illicit market dropped considerably, with an increase in purity content, compared with the situation in 1980, indicating that the supply of heroin had become more plentiful. In law enforcement, the police and customs continued to apply increased pressure on traffickers at all levels. This resulted in an increase in detections of both serious and minor drug offences, rising from 1 443 and 4 712 in 1980 to 2 000 and 6 728 in 1981, and more drugs were seized in 1981 than in the previous year.

In the field of treatment and rehabilitation, 1981 was another busy year. Despite a considerable fall-off in street prices of heroin, large numbers of addicts continued to come forward for, and remained in, treatment voluntarily.

The Narcotics and Drug Administration Division of the Medical and Health Depart- ment operates 20 methadone treatment centres, each providing maintenance and detoxifica- tion services to addicts. Methadone maintenance is a long term treatment approach which is intended to prevent an addict's return to illicit heroin or other narcotic abuse, while detoxification is a short-term form of treatment aimed at eliminating the physical dependence on narcotics.

As the methadone treatment programme has proved to be extremely effective in serving both addicts and the community, the ACAN endorsed in May 1981 a proposal to establish two new methadone clinics in the New Territories in Yuen Long and Sha Tin for addicts living in these areas. The necessary funds, staff resources, equipment and premises have been sought and it is expected that these clinics will become operational early next year.

SARDA runs two voluntary in-patient treatment centres - one for men and the other for women. The male centre, on the outlying island of Shek Kwu Chau, has a capacity for 600 patients, while SARDA's Women Treatment Centre, in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, can take 30 patients. Linked with these two centres are six regional after-care centres, three units for the intake of patients and three hostels. During 1981, 2 706 patients, including 78 women, were admitted to SARDA's two centres.

Under these two voluntary treatment programmes and the Prisons Department's compulsory treatment programme, 12 554 addicts and ex-addicts are now receiving some form of treatment, rehabilitation and after-care every day. This represents an increase of 25 per cent compared with the situation six years ago. In addition, addiction among young people continues to decline. Addicts under 21 in the Prisons Department's drug addiction treatment centres decreased from 25 per cent in 1969 to 6.9 per cent in 1981; at SARDA's Shek Kwu Chau voluntary in-patient treatment centre addicts under 19 also decreased from 13 per cent to 1.9 per cent in the same period.

A Bill to protect the confidentiality of information on drug addicts kept by the Central Registry of Drug Abuse and its reporting agencies was enacted by the Legislative Council in July, 1981. Discussions among government departments continued on proposed amend- ments to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance. These included penalties to be imposed on ocean-going ships repeatedly found to be smuggling dangerous drugs into Hong Kong; redefinition of the term 'manufacture' (of dangerous drugs) to allow suitable charges to be laid in cases where only traces of drugs are found on equipment used for 'diluting' or 'cutting' heroin base; and legal protection for medical practitioners engaged by the police in searching body cavities of suspected traffickers. Drafting procedures for these proposed amendments are at in their final stages and it is envisaged they will become law in 1982.