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The number of reported drug abusers continued to fall in the first half of this year (2005) and stood at a total of 8,833. This represents a decline of 5.1% from 9,303 in the same period last year.
The Commissioner for Narcotics, Mrs Rosanna Ure, released the figures recorded by the Central Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA) at a meeting of the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) today (September 22).
"The continuous decreasing trend could be mainly attributed to a drop in the number of male abusers from 7,761 to 7,228," Mrs Ure said.
Among the different types of drugs abused, heroin remains the most commonly abused, though the number of heroin abusers has dropped from 6,364 in the first half of 2004 to 6,300 in the same period of 2005.
A significant drop of 30% (524) was also noted in the number of ketamine abusers over the same period of 2004. The number of ketamine abusers under 21 dropped by 21.6% (225) during the period.
"Thanks to the concerted efforts of various sectors of the community in support of Government's effort to combat drug abuse, drug abuse continues its downward trend," Mrs Ure said.
"However, it should be noted that both the number and proportion of drug abusers taking more than one drug type was on the rise," she cautioned.
According to the CRDA, the number of poly drug abusers in the first half of this year rose to 2,238, which amounts to 25.6% of the total number of drug abusers. The phenomenon of abusers taking more than one drug is much more popular among psychotropic substance abusers than among heroin abusers.
Mrs Ure attributed the trend to the casual attitude towards psychotropic substances among youngsters. They often underestimated the dire consequences of taking drugs.
To further obtain scientific evidence on the harmful effects of poly drug abuse, the Government has recommended, and ACAN has endorsed, that the subject will be one of the priority research areas to be funded by the Beat Drugs Fund in the next round of funding.
Mrs Ure also noted that the number of female drug abusers had risen slightly by 4.1% and stood at 1,605. She said the Narcotics Division would pay particular attention to educating young women about the harmful effects of drug abuse and to helping female abusers to quit the habit.
The most common reasons reported by drug abusers for taking drugs were to identify with peers (44%), to avoid discomfort of withdrawal (41.2%) and to relieve boredom, depression or anxiety (30.4%).
Ends/Thursday, September 22, 2005
Issued at HKT 17:18
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