ENG-2014 — Page 333

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Public Order

The Beat Drugs Fund

With a capital base of $3.35 billion, the Beat Drugs Fund aims to support community efforts to combat drug abuse through financing worthwhile community anti-drug projects, assisting drug treatment and rehabilitation centres to meet their statutory licensing requirements and supporting schools in implementing the Healthy School Programme with a drug testing component.

In 2014, the fund approved about $72 million to support 49 anti-drug projects/programmes.

In 2014, the fund's Anti-drug Community Awareness Building programme was implemented through the 18 District Fight Crime Committees to support anti-drug initiatives to raise community awareness of the hidden drug abuse problem.

Action Against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

As a member of the Financial Action Task Force and a founding member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, Hong Kong is committed to adhering to the international standards on anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau co-ordinates the overall AML/CFT policies, while the ND is responsible for establishing a system to detect cross-boundary transportation of currency and bearer negotiable instruments, as well as formulating customer due diligence and record- keeping requirements for designated non-financial businesses and professions, including lawyers, accountants, estate agents, trust and company service providers and dealers in precious metals and precious stones.

Government Laboratory

The Government Laboratory's Forensic Science Division provides a comprehensive forensic service to the criminal justice system in Hong Kong. It has two operational groups, the Drugs, Toxicology and Documents Group and the Criminalistics and Quality Management Group.

The Drugs, Toxicology and Documents Group examines cases in three areas:

1) Abused drugs. The number of examined cases was 8 per cent less than that of 2013 due to reduced case submissions in the last quarter of 2014, with ketamine, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, cannabis and benzodiazepines, in descending order of encounters, contributing 86 per cent of the cases examined.

2) Analysis of blood and urine for drink-driving and drug-driving cases, urinalysis and hair drug testing to support various abused drug monitoring programmes and toxicological examination. Compared to 2013, the demand for urinalysis dropped by 11 per cent while that for drink-driving, drug-driving and hair drug testing remained comparable. The toxicological examination service seeks to ascertain the presence or otherwise of drugs and poisons where they are implicated in suspicious deaths and criminal offences.

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