Task Force on Prescription Privileges Liaison to Division 28 (Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse)

In the 2007 Policy Address, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, P.R.C. expressed the Administration’s concern about adolescent substance abuse and proposed to form a high-level interdepartmental task force to tackle the problem in a holistic manner. In this paper, the author presents his observations about adolescent substance abuse in Hong Kong, and outlines the risk factors and related strategies based on the ecological perspective that the Government should consider in order to tackle the problem of adolescent substance abuse in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the directions where the Government should and should not go are discussed.

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Program Evaluation of Drug Task Force Recommendations: A High School Draws on Community Assets to Heal and Reform

Practicing Anthropology ◽

10.17730/praa.32.4.fxu3844627323071 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 29-34

Author(s):

Ann Pitts

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Substance Abuse ◽

Program Evaluation ◽

School District ◽

Drug Overdose ◽

Task Force ◽

School Administrators ◽

Public High School ◽

Community Members ◽

Community Assets

When a high school junior suffered a drug overdose and died at home on October 30, 2004, the community of Manhattan Beach, California, struggled to understand. Parents gathered informally in living rooms looking for answers, afraid for their own children. The victim's family blamed the friends who accompanied him that night, the parents who hosted a party he had attended earlier in the evening, and, eventually, his public high school. They accused school administrators of turning a blind eye to student alcohol and other drug use, and doing nothing to save or prevent his death, and eventually filed a law-suit against the school district. The superintendent called an emergency meeting and established a task force to analyze district substance abuse programs. School administrators and community members came together to institute reforms that could prevent future tragedies.

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