Research Paper on Drug Abuse: Hong Kong Government Takes Strict Action Against Violators

Introduction

Illicit drug abuse refers to actions involving the use of drugs prohibited by the government or have controlled and strict regulations on usage since they might alter an individual's emotions and consciousness. It can be considered as a crime since it only affects the physical, emotional, and psychological health of the individual using the drugs but also that of other surrounding individuals as well. The Hong Kong government is one of the governments which is very strict on drug abusers and has zero-tolerance policies and regulations against drug abuse. Some of the drugs, such as ecstasy and cannabis, which are taken as recreational drugs in other countries, are strictly prohibited by the Hong Kong government. The social learning theory which posits that individuals learn from each other through modeling, imitation, and observation can effectively help in explaining the trends of drug abuse in Hong Kong as well as coming up with various recommendations which can help reduce the issue of drug abuse in the country as discussed below.

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Literature Review

The illegal use of drugs in Hong Kong is one of the significant challenges facing the country today, even though Hong Kong is among the most developed and safest society in the world today. Some of the common illicit drugs in Hong Kong include; ketamine, which is a general anesthetic, cannabis, which is majorly used for its psychological and psychoactive effects and Cocaine, one of the natural stimulants. Although the trend of drug abuse offense decreased in the 1990s in Hong Kong, the crime appeared again at the start of the 21st century with the illegal consumption of these drugs been more among the youths in the country. According to reports from the Hong Kong Security Bureau of Narcotic Divisions (2015), the number of cases about drug abuse steadily decreased since 2008, and a drop of about 40% was recorded in that year from 14,241 to around 8,777 in 2015. The number dropped further in 2016 to 8,239 and 6725 in 2017 (Central Registry of Drug Abuse, 2016).

The Central Registry of Drug Abuse (2016) claims that despite the overall decrease in cases of drug abuse, the country has witnessed a worrying shift in crimes associated with the number of hidden drug abuse with a continuous change in the history and age of the newly reported incidences. On the other hand, psychotropic substances have replaced heroin as the commonly abused drugs in Hong Kong (Narcotic Division, 2015). These substances have less apparent bodily signs and dependence symptoms hence lowering the abusers' motivation to seek help until the continuous abuse of drugs causes severe problems in their everyday life and in their general health.

According to Ariel and Patridge ( 2017), factors like demand focused prohibitions by law enforcers, the authority measures against drug abuse, the changes from the public use of drugs to the private use, change in drug preferences as well as the increased supply of the drugs over the years have contributed to increasing concealed drug abuse. The unintended consequences can be explained like some kind of displacement, which is one of the significant measures launched by the police measures and also the major prevalent criticism referred to as "hot spots policing" in Hong Kong (Ariel & Partridge, 2017). This quantifying displacement needs some intricate measurements which are as a result of the most focused police activities.

The rise in concealed drug abuse can be attributed to the worldwide trend of using recreational drugs in rave parties and night clubs. The popularization of rave cultures and nightclubs in Hong Kong has greatly contributed to the abuse of party drugs like ketamine and ecstasy since 2000(Ariel & Partridge, 2017). This phenomenon has had significant impacts on adolescents since drug abuse impacts both their physical and emotional health hence causing long lasting damage to them. The government's efforts to control the illegal abuse of drugs are a major prevailing issue in Hong Kong since every year, about 2000 individuals are reported to have committed the crime of abusing illicit drugs for their first time. According to reports from different authors, such cases can be attributed to the Hong Kong's lenient punishments for the drug abusers like fining the offenders after conviction or just asking the offender to bind over( Ariel & Partridge, 2017). Additionally, the drugs also are easily accessed in the party and club settings.

The trend of Drug Abuse in Hong Kong

Ancient Hard Drug Era

This was the era before 1996 during which heroin was the commonly abused drug in Hong Kong over the other illicit drugs like morphine and opium. Unlike the other group of immigrants from China who liked smoking Opium, the young addicts born in Hong Kong considered smoking heroin-like cigarettes. These addicts started using heroin in their teenage years, and their friends could help them learn how heroin can be added at the cigarette tips to enhance the stimulation ( Lau &Yap, 1967). After sometimes, some of the abusers shifted to inhaling the drug, which was commonly referred to as "dragon chasing" and intramuscular and intravenous injections for stronger sensational feelings.

Heroin prevalence during that period stemmed due to various factors. First, the fast physical heroin dependence made most of the abusers to spend excess money on heroin and cigarettes easily. Second, psychological factors like sensational seeking, peer drug abuse, family drug abuse, and distorted perceptions were majorly associated with the heroin drug. Although the popularity of this drug continued up to the 1980s and also in the 1990s, the prevalence significantly declined, and other drugs like marijuana, pethidine, barbiturates, among other illegal drugs emerged ( Lau &Yap, 1967). Since then, the use of polysubstance drugs started along with rave culture.

Cultural Rave Era

This era was between 1996 and 2001. The rave culture is a combination of youth culture, drugs, deviance culture, music, and dance, and it first started in the 1980s at the Western Countries late in 1990s it was introduced in Hong Kong(Census and Statistics Department, 2003). During this time, there were no specific regulations against this type of party culture, and this gave individuals more freedom hence facilitating the popularity and growth of drug abuse in Hong Kong. This was due to increased rave parties and drug users in that the cases of individuals who were abusing drugs under the age of twenty-one years raised from about 18% in 1996 to around 22% in 2001 (Census and Statistics Department, 2003). The rave culture led to the shift in the drug abusers' tastes and preferences, and this made the psychotropic substances, also known as the party drugs or the club drugs, to becoming more popular. Even though heroin was the conventional drug at this time in Hong Kong, the use of club drugs like ecstasy or MDMA significantly rose at an exponential rate. According to Lam, Boey, Wong, and Tse, most of the youths considered raves and drug abuse as the only pathway to their social lives since drug abuse and raving brought social activities, recreation and helped them cope with various life frustrations.

Dispersed Party Era

This was the period between 2001 and 2007. During this time, a range of operations and legislations rose in response to the start of the drug-related issues. Some of the most influential task forces during this era, like Youth Drug Abuse and Psychotropic Substance Abuse, helped in investigations and in the formulation of plans to curb the worrying increase of illicit drug abuse crime (Lam, Boey, Wong & Tse, 2004). However, it was later discovered that these legislative police activities and departments brought more harm than good since the drug abusers spread in the city and became smaller parties. When the discos and large parties have been monitored harshly, the disco/party owners moved to other parts. They opened small scale clubs in remote or resort areas, making the efforts by the legislative not to yield any positive results ( Lam, Boey, Wong & Tse, 2004). Comparing this era to the rave culture era, the drugs commonly abused as well as the reasons for abusing these drugs were all the same; however, the parties became more secretive, making the control over illicit substance abuse more uncontrollable and undetectable.

Hidden Drug Era

This period began in 2007 to date. In the past decade, residential rental, property prices, and commercial rentals in Hong Kong have significantly raised to unaffordable levels. This has contributed to the change of the drug dealers' activities to become small, localized, and dispersed in all the places. Smart technology development, as well as the internet, has made drug dealing and drug abuse tailor-made, convenient, and user-friendly since individuals can make orders through online platforms and get home-based services where the drugs are delivered at their doorsteps. According to recent research findings, the drug abusers have changed their localities from karaoke parties and discos to home abusers and friend's home abusers. The number of individuals taking illicit drugs at their homes increased from 70% to 80.7% between 2007 and 2015 in Hong Kong (Lam, Boey, Wong & Tse, 2004). The accessibility, affordability, and availability of illicit drugs in this era has contributed to the significant increase in drug abuse in Hong Kong.

Recent statistics have also shown that the detectable illegal drug abuse scenes have turned undetectable. The report also indicates that most of the new abusers, as in 2015, were in the average age of about 29 years as compared to 2006 when most of the newly reported illegal drug users were around the age of 26 years. Such changes indicate that enhanced government legislative measures in Hong Kong might defer the abusers' willingness to report their problems and receive rehabilitation services (Cheung & Ch'ien, 1996). This clearly shows that the cases of drug abuse have not just stopped, but instead, they have been distorted by the advanced methods of taking the drugs in hidden places. This has, therefore, made the efforts made by the social workers and police detectors seem increasingly fruitless.

Explanations for the Trend Using Social learning Theories

The trends of the gradual shift of drug abuse offense in Hong Kong since the hard drug time to the hidden drug era can validly be explained using the social learning theory of criminal behaviors. This theory was established by Albert Bandura during the 1970s, and it focuses on giving explanations on the actual drug abuse like the frequency and the level of the drug abuse offense (Bandura, Evans, & Huberman, 1988). Although the social learning theory does not study the drug-related roles and behaviors or the identities of the deviant lifestyles, the approach is beneficial since it tries to give explanations as to what the general public and the policymakers care about, which is the actual act of individual drug abuse.

Since the significant element of this theory is reinforcement, a person copies the behavior which he or she gets rewarded for. For instance, the individuals in Hong Kong might get motivated to use cocaine because of the rush and pleasure associated with it and take alcohol since they believe that it will take away their anxiety and stress. According to this model, the more substance or drug an individual uses, the more they became used to this habit. When the individuals born in Hong Kong started using heroin at their teenage years after their friends had helped them learn how heroin can be added at the cigarette tips to enhance the stimulation. Considering the cases and the changes in drug abuse in Hong Kong, it can be argued that most of th...