Hong Kong's psychiatrists have strongly criticised the drug-testing programme about to be launched in Tai Po schools, saying its effectiveness is in serious doubt and it is likely to be a waste of money.
In the strongest public criticism of the scheme by a professional body, the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists said there was evidence the two objectives - deterrence and finding young abusers early - would not be achieved.
Its position paper, published in the Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry just days before the voluntary tests are to start, came as two court cases - one involving a teenage model caught with drugs at school and the other a young addict who killed his stepfather - further illustrated the youth drug problem the scheme aims to combat.
'The government has two aims. One is to lower the number of drug abusers via the programme's deterrent effect, the other is to identify abusers in an early stage, but there is evidence showing that neither of them can be achieved,' said Dr Lam Ming, a consultant psychiatrist in Castle Peak Hospital's substance-abuse clinic who co-wrote the paper with fellow psychiatrist Dr Cheung Wai-him.
The paper cited a study in the US state of Michigan of 75,000 schoolchildren from 1998 to 2001 that indicated a testing programme was not associated with the prevalence or frequency of drug use in schools. It said there was little evidence that a voluntary drug-testing programme could identify users early.
'What is more, only 60 per cent of students signed up for the Tai Po scheme,' Lam said. 'The other 40 per cent may be active drug users who might never be tested.'
