Prevention and Monitoring of Drug Abuse

The two divisions, Early Warning and Information, and Screening and Verification, are for the prevention and monitoring of drug abuse.

To effectively monitor drug abuse, the Bureau tabulates monthly statistics of all governmental organizations concerned on cases of drug abuse, kinds of drugs abused, number of narcotics seized, and test findings of urine and non-urine specimens.

To understand the trend of drug abuse for early warning, the Bureau has set up an "Information System for the Reporting of the Abuse of Controlled Drugs". The System was fully automated in 2002. Information is shared with the reporting institutions and the local health bureaus. The System can timely report cases of abuse and alert to the abuse of, for instance, Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine and Ketamine, to alert the public to the trend of abuse of some emerging drugs and their hazards.

To understand the toxicity of abused drugs, the Bureau conducts toxicity assessment of controlled drugs. In addition to the collection of information on the addiction, abuse and toxicity of abused drugs, relevant research is also conducted, the use of Flow Cytometer for toxicity assessment, for instance. More has been done to collaborate with academic research institutes to upgrade the standards of research on the toxicity assessment of controlled drugs.

In education and communication, in addition to various anti-drug activities and campaigns, more has been done to train anti-drug seed teachers, and to collaborate with private sectors in anti-drug education. Educational materials of various kinds have been produced and distributed to organizations and schools for their use. The "2002 Drug Abuse" booklet won the best academic award of the 2003 government publications of the Department of Health. Short videos and radio tapes are also produced for broadcasting on TV's, cinemas, and radios

The epidemiological information on drug abuse, and the evidence of drug hazards collected through toxicity assessment are used in activities and campaigns on anti-drug to alert the public to the hazards of drugs.

A screening and verification system has been planned to extend resources of laboratory testing to cope with the drug abuse problems. More private urine testing laboratories for drug abuse are certified and placed under management. These laboratories scatter around the Island and are sufficient in number to meet the demand of judicial authorities for laboratory testing.

Work done by local health bureaus in the testing of urine for drug abuse is supervised and assessed. Quality of the laboratory testing of urine for drug abuse conducted by hospitals for the health examination of foreign laborers is monitored and spot-checked.

In laboratory testing, assistance is given to judicial, prosecution and police authorities to test suspected specimens or specimens requiring confirmation referred by them. Quality is strictly controlled in the entire process of specimen management, transportation, pre-testing handling, and analysis by automation equipment.

For the laboratory testing of some emerging drugs likely to be abused, in addition to the development of new laboratory methods, relevant information on the laboratory testing of abused drugs has also been collected to develop practicable laboratory methods. Collaboration is maintained with relevant research institutes to upgrade the standards of laboratory testing.