Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
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A4 .1 Narrative summary
of drug vulnerabilities
Hong Kong is a highly developed industrial
and commercial city with a per capita gross
domestic product reaching US$23,800 in
2002 . Since 1997, when Hong Kong became
a Special Administrative Region of China,
economic prosperity has been relatively stable
(United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
2004a; World Health Organization, 2004b) .
In 2000, youth aged 10–24 years comprised
20 per cent of the total population . At the
same time youth unemployment among those
aged 15–19 years was classified as serious . In
2003, for those aged 15–19 years the unemployment
rate was 27 .2 per cent compared
to 10 .5 per cent in 1997 (Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, 2005) . Those aged
15–19 years who do not possess skills can
be left with limited opportunities and with
jobs that often are low-skilled, low-paid and
commonly without prospects (O’Higgins,
2002) . Drug use cannot be isolated from
other larger issues, such as the pressures
of society upon the youth to achieve educational
attainment, when at the same time
opportunities for youth development and
employment can be limited . Cross-border
cheaper drug-seeking by some youth from
Hong Kong into mainland China has been
occurring since the late 1990s . Conferences
are now jointly held by Guangdong (province
of mainland China), Macao and Hong Kong
on an annual basis to discuss ways of dealing
with this issue (Health, 1999; Social Welfare
Institute, 2003; United States Department of
State, Bureau for International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs, 2004a) .
Historical and cultural interactions
with drugs
It is said that Hong Kong was founded upon
opium, almost by accident, during the course
of the First Opium War in 1841 between the
Chinese and the British (Laidler, Hodson &
Traver, 2000) . It was in the best economic
interests of Britain to maintain the opium
trade with China and, when the Chinese
Emperor banned opium, war ensued . After
losing, China ceded the Hong Kong Island
and Kowloon Peninsula to Britain in 1842,
to which the New Territories were added in
1898 under a 99-year lease .
The British colonial government established,
through Hong Kong, one of the largest
business centres for prepared opium flowing
into China (Cheung & Ch’ien, 1996; McCoy,
1991) . In 1918, opium accounted for nearly
45 per cent of the colonial government’s
revenue, and continued to contribute a
significant proportion of its revenue until
the beginning of World War II . The ease
of opium availability resulted in a high
prevalence of opium addiction and in 1909
an estimated 13 per cent of the male population
smoked opium (McCoy, 1991) . At
the time it was estimated there were over
5000 opium addicts obtaining supplies from
legitimate sources, 40,000 opium addicts
obtaining supplies from illegitimate sources,
and about 30,000 people addicted to heroin
pills (Laidler et al ., 2000) .
When opium was reclassified in 1946 and
placed under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance,
heroin soon became the drug of choice and
by 1955–1956 heroin offences exceeded
opium offences by nearly three to one . The
relative inaccessibility of injecting equipment
encouraged drug users to smoke heroin or
‘chase the dragon’, but by the late 1980s this
had changed . For more than four decades
heroin has continued to be the most popular
drug (Cheung & Ch’ien, 1996; Lam, 1997;
United States Department of State, Bureau for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs, 2004a; Westermyer, 1976) .
A4 .2 Prevalence of drug use
and profile of drug users
In 2004, the number of drug users registered
with the Central Registry of Drug Abuse was
14,714, a 6 .3 per cent fall from the 15,708
registered in 2003; the lowest in the past
decade . In 2001, the number of registered
drug users was 18,512, the highest it had
been since 1996 when it reached 19,673 .
Of those registered in 2003, 4303 were
newly reported persons, with the rest being
previously reported cases . In 2003, of those
registered, the majority were male (84 .2%)
and the mean age was 36 years . Since 2000,
the percentage of female drug users ranged
from 15 .5 per cent to 16 .3 per cent with a
mean age of 25–28 years . Female drug users
have been considerably younger compared
to males over the past ten years (Narcotics
Division, 2004b, 2005) .
In 2003, the overall proportion of registered
drug users under 21 years was 13 .6 per cent
compared to 21 .1 per cent in 1994 . In 2003,
there were 2130 registered drug users under
21 years, the lowest in ten years: it has been
suggested this is largely a result of underreporting
of non-narcotic drug use (J . Ch’ien,
personal communication, 2005) . In 2004,
among newly reported cases, 27 .8 per cent
were female and 41 .5 per cent were under
21 years of age (Narcotics Division, 2004a,
2004b, 2004c) . In 2000, the estimated
number of drug users was calculated,
through the indicator dilution formula,
to be 36,384 (Reid & Costigan, 2002) . In
2001, the estimated number of heroin users
was 21,000 (United Nations Office of Drug
Control and Crime Prevention, 2001), of
whom some 60 per cent were IDUs (Reid &
Costigan, 2002) . A study in 2004 reported
the estimated number of IDUs from 13,000
to 40,000 with a mid-range figure of 26,999
(Aceijas et al ., 2004b) . There have been no
other overall recent estimates of the number
of drug users in Hong Kong .
In 2003, the majority of registered drug users
were unemployed and 3 per cent were students .
Primary or lower secondary education was
completed by 79 per cent and only 1 per cent
had achieved tertiary education . Most resided
in public and aided rental accommodation,
while 37 per cent lived in private housing
(Cheung & Cheung, 2003; Narcotics Division,
2004c) . Popular reasons for drug use overall
among registered drug users in 2003 were
‘to avoid discomfort of an absence of drug
use’ (51 .9%), peer pressure (46 .1%), curiosity
(25 .5%) and ‘relief of boredom’ (25 .2%)
(Narcotics Division, 2004a) .
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Country profiles: Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region, China)