ENG-1983 — Page 144

HEALTH

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young people, from experimenting with drugs so as to reduce substantially and eventually eradicate drug abuse in the community.

The exact number of addicts in Hong Kong is not known. However, findings from the government's computerised Central Registry of Drug Abuse and other linked indicators. show that the size of the addict population in 1983 was in the region of 45 000 to 50 000.

Data collected by the registry, based on 215 000 reports on 46 000 individuals, indicate that 93 per cent are male and seven per cent female. As to age distribution, 55 per cent were over 30 years of age at the time of their first report, 34 per cent were in the 21 to 30 age bracket and 11 per cent were under 21. The principal drug of abuse in Hong Kong is heroin, which was used by 96 per cent of the addicts reported to the registry in 1983. Opium abusers accounted for three per cent and the remaining one per cent was on other drugs. The most widely-used method of taking heroin was by injection followed by fume inhaling, commonly known as 'chasing the dragon'. Opium abusers generally smoke the drug.

Typical addicts are adult males over 21 in the lower income group, generally employed as casual labourers or as unskilled or semi-skilled workers and living in overcrowded conditions. They have generally not more than six years of formal education and are single or, if married, usually separated from their families.

The government's overall strategy to combat drug abuse 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 Narcotics Bureau and individual district formations of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, and the Customs and Excise Department. Treatment and rehabilitation are undertaken by the Medical and Health Department, the Correctional Services 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. Effective law enforce- ment action pushes up the price of illicit drugs and reduces their supply thus inducing addicts to seek treatment voluntarily. Addicts who wish to rid themselves of their drug habit are offered a wide range of treatment programmes, the effectiveness of which reduces the demand for illicit drugs. At the same time, preventive education and publicity measures are used to persuade others, especially the young, from experimenting with drugs. Co-operation on the international level enhances the effectiveness of efforts in these three areas through the exchange of information and experience.

All these efforts are co-ordinated by the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN), a non-statutory body comprising a chairman, nine government officials and eight unofficial members. The committee, formed in 1965 and reconstituted in 1974, is the government's sole advisory body on all anti-narcotics policies and actions, whether internal or external, and whether related to government departments and voluntary agencies. It is serviced by the Narcotics Division which is headed by the Commissioner for Narcotics.

Given the abundant supply of illicit drugs as a result of successive bumper crops of opium from the Golden Triangle since 1981, the year saw unrelenting action against narcotics trafficking and abuse. In law enforcement, effective action by the police and customs resulted in increased detections being made in respect of drug offences, from 9 625 in 1982 to 10 900 in 1983. Sustained pressure on traffickers at all levels also resulted in more drugs being seized than in the previous year.