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Following is a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che in the Legislative Council today (November 11):
Question:
To tackle the increasingly serious problem of youth drug abuse, the Government is implementing an anti-drug policy to fight against drug with a five-prong approach spanning publicity and education, treatment and rehabilitation, legislation and law enforcement, external cooperation and research. In addition, the Government has launched the Community Programme against Youth Drug Abuse in all the 18 districts in Hong Kong one after another since August this year, and $500,000 is allocated to each district to fund the programme. At present, various anti-drug programmes have started and the schools in the Tai Po district have even taken the lead to undertake the Trial Scheme on School Drug Testing ("drug testing scheme") launched by the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the authorities will allocate additional resources for the service of residential drug treatment, for example Hong Kong Christian Service Jockey Club Lodge of Rising Sun, Caritas Wong Yiu Nam Centre and Christian Zheng Sheng College, and help resolve the relocation problem of the College;
(b) what precautionary measures the authorities will adopt to ensure that the students found to have taken drugs will not be stigmatised by the schools concerned under the drug testing scheme; whether the Education Bureau will instruct the schools concerned to ensure that such students will not be expelled from schools; of the disciplines of the persons who will join the multi-disciplinary case conferences; and when the authorities will review the effectiveness of the drug testing scheme and whether they will formulate new measures to further combat drug at schools; and
(c) given that many community organisations are raising funds for the activities under the Community Programme against Youth Drug Abuse, of the names, coorganising organisations, amount of allocation from the Government, amount raised from the community, target and number of participants of the activities, contents and objectives of each of the relevant approved activities (list out in table form by District Council districts); whether the Government will monitor the implementation of the various activities and review their effectiveness?
Reply:
President,
(a) To effectively curb the youth drug abuse problem, we must do our best to give a helping hand to those who have unfortunately fallen victim to drugs. The Administration has been closely monitoring the change in demand for drug treatment and rehabilitation services and has deployed appropriate resources accordingly. Following the recommendations of the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse led by the Secretary for Justice, we have injected new resources of $26 million in the 2008/09 Financial Year to strengthen a series of downstream services. These include 101 new subvented places in drug treatment and rehabilitation centres (DTRCs) through resource allocation by the Social Welfare Department (SWD).
Treatment and rehabilitation is indeed a major strategic direction in the anti-drug campaign promulgated by the Chief Executive this July. On one hand, we will invite non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to put forward new and effective mode of services; on the other, we will review the utilisation of existing rehabilitation facilities and room for development and provide support with a view to encouraging operating agencies to increase capacity and improve service quality. We will also, taking into account different situations of existing rehabilitation facilities, consider providing new resources for them to achieve our policy objective.
Separately, some DTRCs need to meet the statutory requirements and obtain licenses through in-situ upgrading or relocation to other sites. Relevant government departments are rendering assistance to these DTRCs, including helping in site search. The Beat Drugs Fund Association has also set up a special funding scheme to fund improvement works by agencies so that their centres can meet the licensing requirements of SWD. Furthermore, SWD convenes consultation meetings, which provides a direct and effective channel for government departments to tender professional advice to operating agencies on issues they have encountered in carrying out improvement works for DTRCs.
(b) Since its setting up in July, a working group comprising representatives of the Secondary School Heads' Association of Tai Po District, Narcotics Division of Security Bureau, Education Bureau, SWD and other relevant departments and parties concerned, has been maintaining close contacts with different stakeholders, discussing with them the details and arrangements of the Trial Scheme on School Drug Testing in Tai Po District (the Scheme) and formulating the Scheme Protocol. Parties implementing the Scheme, including all participating schools, must strictly comply with the laws relating to privacy and personal data to protect the privacy of students. The drug test results of an individual student must not be disclosed to any person other than those to whom the student and his or her parents have given consent, and this would also help avoid labelling effect.
The Scheme is based on voluntary participation. It also aims to help students in their best interest. Thus, the Scheme Protocol has clearly stated that students found to have abused drugs under the Scheme will not be prosecuted for the offence of drug consumption and not be expelled from school. We have repeated such a message clearly to school principals, teachers, school social workers, parents and students during a series of more than 50 briefings from mid-October to mid-November. We will later distribute the consent form and all relevant information to students and parents. A host of information including the Scheme Protocol, video on the aim and procedure of drug testing, leaflet and Frequently Asked Questions has been uploaded to the website of the Narcotics Division of Security Bureau for public access and reference.
Depending on the service need of a student identified to have abused drugs, a case manager, who is a professional social worker, will invite his or her parents, school principal, class teacher, any other teacher suggested by the student and school social worker to a case conference. With the consent of the parents, they will formulate a suitable support programme with multi-disciplinary professional services for the student to help him or her kick the habit.
To evaluate the Scheme, the Administration will, through the Beat Drugs Fund, commission a professional research organisation to carry out a study in parallel to the Scheme. It will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the Scheme, research on other local and overseas experience in school drug testing and suggest appropriate refinements and improvements to the Scheme and a possible approach for the gradual rolling out to other schools or districts.
To further combat the spread of drugs to schools, we have since last year arranged anti-drug professional training programmes for teachers. We also organised large-scale seminars during the last summer vacation with a view to equipping teachers with anti-drug knowledge and skills. We will also distribute anti-drug resource kits produced for schools soon which will be followed by a series of workshops and seminars to help teachers implement a Healthy School Policy with anti-drug elements; more effectively conduct anti-drug preventive education; foster home-school collaboration; identify high-risk students; and make use of community resources to help students in need. The Police also increased the number of Police School Liaison Officers by 27 last year to enhance liaison with schools and strengthen anti-drug preventive education for students. Besides, the Police have implemented further measures such as cyber patrol to strengthen enforcement efforts against youth drug crimes and the gathering of intelligence.
(c) A one-year Community Programme against Youth Drug Abuse (the Programme) was launched in the 18 districts in August this year. The 18 District Offices under the Home Affairs Department are responsible for taking forward the Programme with the support of SWD. The major targets are high-risk youth in the community and young people with drug abuse history. The Programme makes use of the outreaching networks of NGOs to approach the target young people. Various organisations have arranged activities and skills training. All District Offices work closely with the NGOs concerned and monitor the progress through ongoing liaison. Details of the activities organised in all the districts are set out in the Annex which is distributed to Members for reference.
Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Issued at HKT 13:32
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