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People from different sectors of the community attended the ¡°No Drugs No Regrets¡± Pledge Ceremony launched at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Wan Chai this afternoon (June 21), raising the curtain of this year¡¯s territory-wide Campaign Against Youth Drug Abuse.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Secretary for Justice, Mr Wong Yan Lung, SC, said that since its launch last year, the campaign carrying the theme "Not Now, Not Ever", had greatly enhanced community awareness on drug prevention.
Mr Wong also explained in details the all-out efforts made by different Government departments to implement the 70-plus recommendations of the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse, which included publicity and preventive education, law enforcement as well as drug treatment and rehabilitation services and other aspects of related work.
Mr Wong said, ¡°The role of schools is of paramount importance. We have been stepping up the prevention work in schools including the provision of on-site training sessions for teachers and life-skills training for students. We will enhance the co-ordination between Government departments and the non-governmental organisations in the coming year. We will organise anti-drug activities for over 70 % of upper primary students and all junior secondary students. The Department of Health will extend their anti-drug education programme from Primary Four to Primary Three.¡±
¡°The anti-drug resource kit will be launched in the 2009-10 new academic year. To bring forth anti-drug work in schools, the Education Bureau will again organise discussion forums for headmasters in November for the education sector to exchange views and join hands in school anti-drug work.¡±
¡°The voluntary school-based drug testing scheme, which all of us are very concerned, will be one of the priorities in the coming year. As recommended in our Task Force report, we are inviting proposals from organizations in order to commence the research work for the voluntary school-based drug testing in the fourth quarter this year. We expect the pilot scheme to be launched in accordance with research findings in some schools in 2010-11 academic year.¡±
¡°We note that the recent spate of incidents has aroused public awareness of the severity of the drug abuse problem in schools. Some principals have expressed their wish to have all secondary schools in their districts to join the voluntary school-based drug testing scheme as soon as possible. Some schools have even indicated their interest to join earlier. In parallel with its research work, the Narcotics Division is at the same time liaising with the Education Bureau to assist relevant schools and organisations to initiate their own trial scheme in the 2009-10 academic year.¡±
¡°We will carefully consider the readiness of the relevant schools, as well as the provision of supporting services such as counselling and treatment services, and community support. The scheme is on a trial basis and will be introduced on a small scale. The Narcotics Division and the Education Bureau will contact the relevant schools as soon as possible to discuss the details,¡± he continued.
Other officiating guests attending the ceremony included the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee; the Commissioner for Narcotics, Ms Sally Wong; the Chairman of the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN), Professor Daniel Shek Tan-lei; the Chairman of the ACAN Sub-committee on Preventive Education and Publicity, Ms Scarlett Pong Oi-lan; and the Chairman of the ACAN Sub-committee on Treatment and Rehabilitation, Dr Ben Cheung Kin-leung.
In the ceremony, new TV Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) were premiered. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong Enlighten Centre also performed its anti-drug musical drama production. Popular music duo FAMA gave a debut performance of the campaign¡¯s anti-drug songs. The best film of the Anti-drug Short Film Competition, ¡°A Promise of the Ring¡±, was viewed by the attendants. The student and the teacher involved in the production of the winning short film shared with the audience what they had learned about drug during the production process.
One of the events of the ceremony is a sharing session co-organised with the Family Council. Artiste Lawrence Cheng Tan-Shui was invited to host the session. ACAN Chairman, Professor Shek and member of the Family Council, Dr Wong Chung-kwong together with an ex-abuser and her mother share their views on how a harmonious family could help beat drugs.
Before the end of the ceremony, the officiating guests together with the attendants made their pledge to demonstrate their support for the anti-drug cause.
After today's ceremony, a series of publicity and promotional programmes will be launched, including new TV and Radio Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs), posters, an anti-drug theme song, etc. Anti-drug APIs and related advertisements will be placed in the public transportation networks. The advertisements will also be placed at cross-boundary control points. A number of giant outdoor banners will be mounted at various government premises. Anti-drug messages will be publicised through the Internet as the medium is popular among the youth.
Ends/Sunday, June 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 21:56
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