Anti-drug upgrade: Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung tells the media an additional $53 million has been allocated to implement enhanced measures to combat youth drug abuse.

An additional $53 million has been allocated to implement enhanced measures to combat youth drug abuse, Secretary for Justice Wong Yan Lung says.

He today briefed Action Committee Against Narcotics members on the progress of the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse. He said a large-scale campaign will be launched in June to correct misconceptions about psychotropic substance abuse, foster a drug-free culture among youngsters and mobilise the whole community to fight youth drug abuse.

Initial measures include encouraging schools to develop a healthy policy with an anti-drug element. It will equip teachers and parents with the knowledge and skills to deliver anti-drug education, identify high-risk youth and handle drug abuse cases. A set of resource kits will be produced for reference.

Youth outreaching teams and overnight outreaching services will be enhanced to identify and engage young drug abusers early, provide immediate intervention, and facilitate case referrals.

Counselling centres

Two more Counselling Centres for Psychotropic Substance Abusers will be set up in addition to the five existing centres, to form anti-drug programmes that best suit each district's situation. Drug treatment and rehabilitation centres will provide more subvented places.

The Hospital Authority will reopen its Substance Abuse Clinic at Queen Mary Hospital and open a new one in Kowloon East. More medical social workers will be assigned to strengthen support for patients and their families. 

Training will be provided to private medical practitioners to enhance their knowledge of youth drug abuse to help early intervention work.

Services of the Police Juvenile Protection Section and the Social Welfare Department's Community Support Service Scheme will be strengthened to identify early young offenders prone to drug abuse, enhance the frequency of home visits and strengthen rehabilitation services.

School checks

More officers will be deployed to the Police School Liaison Programme to increase the number of school visits. Police will also heighten their intelligence-gathering capabilities on the Internet. To combat cross-boundary drug problems the Customs & Excise Department will increase the number of detector dogs at control points.

On the suggestion of compulsory body checks in schools, Mr Wong said further studies are required to consider the legal and privacy issues involved. The task force will study the feasibility of having the checks.

He said tests could show youngsters the adverse effects of drugs on their bodies which can better persuade them to avoid the habit. In addition, a regular survey of drug use among students will be conducted later this year, with the coverage extended to include students from Primary 4 to post-secondary grades. Future rounds will be conducted more frequently at three-year intervals.

The Task Force will continue to study long-term measures and finalise a report by October.

Terminology change

Mr Wong also recommended the use of the different terms referring to psychotropic substances. He said the existing terminology does not convey clearly the serious consequences of taking psychotropic substances.

"Young people may easily be misled to think they are just taking medication, but not harmful substances. And they might think they will not be addicted to drugs if there is no abuse," said Mr Wong.

In 2007 the number of reported drug abusers was 13,491, up 1.8% from 2006, which reversed a downward trend in the recent decade.

The number of young drug abusers under 21 rose 13.1% to 2,919 last year. About 99% of young abusers took psychotropic substances. The most commonly abused drugs were ketamine (80%), ecstasy (21%), ice (14%), cannabis (12%) and cocaine (12%).

There were 7,810 reported psychotropic substance abusers, overtaking the number of heroin abusers (7,409) for the first time.