Iftar Dinner with Chinese U & HKUST Scholars

Posted on 4/7/2014

Iftar Dinner with Chinese U & HKUST Scholars

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Research shows that youths are most vulnerable to drugs.

Gurung Milan is a Hong Kong-born Nepalese. When his friends approached him with ‘cough syrup’ a year later, he just couldn’t resist. He started getting into it and, later, he progressed to heroin. Soon he was spending $400 every day on drugs. Then he quit his job and his life was on a downward spiral. “It was very painful at that time,” says Milan. “You just can’t handle it – not only your job, but relations and other things too. You just fail them. It takes you to that point where you can’t get things straight – and it just goes on and on.”

Some people may turn a blind eye to it – but there is a problem with young teenagers getting into hard drugs in the SAR. And stories like those from Gurung Milan show just how long that problem has been a part of our society.

Fermi Wong Wai-fun, executive director of Hong Kong Unison, a non-governmental organization focusing on groups, says “I’ve worked around 300 cases on youths under the age of 21 who have drug problems,” says Wong. “Although all youths could be attracted to drugs out of curiosity. They tend to use drugs to escape reality and to feel the happiness that they find it difficult to feel in real society.” According to Wong, marijuana, methamphetamine (ice), cough medicine and heroin are most commonly used by young

Yuen How-sin, co-ordinator at the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, believes there is a lack of community support for young drug users. She says. “There are not enough NGOs doing the community outreaching either. Many people have limited social connections. They don’t know where to look for help and have little access to relevant information.”

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