HONG KONG: Social workers have urged allocation of more resources for drug prevention in schools after three students, still dressed in their school uniforms, were found unconscious in a park in Tin Yat Estate in Tin Shui Wai, New Territories.

The three teenagers aged 14 and 15 were taken to Tuen Mun Hospital to recover and then were arrested. The three students at Pak Kau College were detained by police for questioning, allegedly for taking drugs.

College social worker Chim Shek-chu said two of the students admitted to her in April that they had taken what was described as an insignificant amount of ketamine. The students had been receiving counseling and were said to be taking lesser amounts of the drug.

Chim said there are seven students in the schools abusing drugs. All are enrolled in a rehabilitation program. Some of the students are from single-parent families, and have turned to drugs to alleviate their personal suffering.

"Their families have problems. The parents are not getting along well with each other," Chim said. "The students are unhappy and reluctant to go home. They have met some bad people and started taking drugs."

A student of the school said the three classmates behave correctly on campus.

"I cannot understand why they take drugs," he said.

The college principal, Tam Man-kwan, said the school will carry out an investigation.

"We will look for the suspects, finding out whether there are hidden drug users in the school," he said.

But the school will not implement a compulsory drug testing program, Tam said.

Figures from the Central Registry of Drug Abuse showed that 3,395 people aged under 21 were reported to be drug abusers last year. Most lived in Yuen Long, where 399 individuals were identified. The survey also showed another 388 residents in the North district.

Social welfare sector legislator Cheung Kwok-che said anti-drug services in the city are inadequate and that creates obstacles to treating youngsters and helping them to kick the habit.

He said the normal waiting time for drug rehabilitation services is three months or longer. He suggested establishment of a drug rehabilitation school or referral center manned by psychiatrists and social workers in each district.

Anti-drug education in the schools should also be strengthened, he added.

Commissioner for Narcotics Sally Wong Pik-yee said in the past four years, the number of drug addicts aged under 21 had surged by almost 60 percent.

Among drug users the average age at the time of their first experience with drugs was 15, said Wong.

She said authorities had already prepared teaching kits for schools to help them identify drug abusers so as to correct students' wrongdoing as early as possible.

Teddy Tang, the chairman of Yuen Long District Fight Crime Committee, said it had liaised with 30 schools to train some 150 leaders to spread anti-drug messages.

(HK Edition 06/05/2009 page1)