HONG KONG: The government will step up efforts to help young drug offenders start anew, said a top official.

Secretary for labor and welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said offenders aged below 21 sentenced to probation orders before the Kowloon City and Kwun Tong magistrates' courts may be able to join a pilot rehabilitation program that will start in October.

In November last year, a government-appointed panel that studied ways to stamp out youth drug abuse suggested authorities improve counseling services for juvenile probationers.

It proposed young offenders sentenced to probation take part in a tailor-made rehabilitation program of 12 to 18 months, that will offer treatment, require them to take urine drug tests from time to time and require participants to respect a curfew.

Currently, probation officers supervise various kinds of offenders.

Under the proposed scheme, a pool of probation officers will be designated to provide focused and intensive services for selected young drug offenders.

Cheung said the government will hire four new social workers for the initiative.

"The aim is to step up counseling and provide regular (checks), including urine tests and in-depth counseling," he said.

Tai Po district councilor and social worker Eric Tam Wing-fun said he backed the government's move.

"It is difficult for young drug offenders to kick the habit," he said. "They should be offered more thorough rehabilitation services and support."

Cheung also said authorities will add one more psychiatric nurse in each Counseling Centre for Psychotropic Substance Abusers under the Social Welfare Department from October to help provide checks and carry out speedy drug tests.

The government will also offer 60 more places at drug rehabilitation hostels by the end of this year, bringing the number to 356.

The issue of drug abuse and treatment has been the subject of heated debate recently following a proposed drug-testing trial program at secondary schools in Tai Po.

Tam said the government should at least deploy one more social worker to each school to help share the heavier workload the program would create.

Thomas Wong Yuen-sang, a committee member of the Tai Po Youths Association, which has about 500 members, mostly secondary school students, said some teens told him that it will be embarrassing for them to take the urine drug tests.

"Some also questioned: 'Why will we have to be subject to testing, even though we did nothing wrong?'" Wong said.

Tam said findings of a poll of about 500 Tai Po secondary school students and their parents about their views on the program will be available this Friday.

(HK Edition 08/18/2009 page1)