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!rinci!les. Personal information has been 'e!t strictly
confidential and !rofessional testing and su!!ort
services have been given to students. Since the
collection of the 5consent form5 in early December, about
67 more students and their !arents have oined the
scheme. The !artici!ation of students has delivered the
!ositive message of staying away from drugs.
3"s the scheme is an innovative attem!t done on a
trial basis, !artici!ation is entirely voluntary. The
!ositive res!onse from more than #2,777 students and
their !arents together giving their consent to oin the
scheme is conducive to the forging of a drugfree cam!us
culture.
34e welcome those students and !arents who have not
yet oined the scheme to oin in anytime. The
!rofessional testing team will continue to visit the
schools !artici!ating in the scheme on an irregular basis
and conduct screening tests for randomly selected
students until June this year.3
"ccording to social wor'ers of the 8ong 9ong
/utheran Social Service :heer /utheran :entre, since the
announcement of the scheme, there has been a rising trend
of cases see'ing assistance. The rise may be
attributable to the !ositive effect of !ublicity,
education and the drug testing scheme.
3The e;!erience gained and feedbac' collected in
this scheme will !rovide useful em!irical data to
facilitate research to be conducted in !arallel and
strategic !lanning of antidrug activities in the
future,3 the overnment s!o'esman said.
3"n e;!erienced research organisation has been
commissioned to underta'e a com!rehensive assessment of
the design, e;ecution !rocedure and effectiveness of the
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scheme, research into other local and overseas
e;!eriences in school drug testing and suggest
a!!ro!riate refinements and revision to the scheme and a
!ossible a!!roach for the gradual rolling out to other
schools in the territory. "t this stage, the overnment
has no definite !lan or timetable to e;tend the scheme to
more schools. The overnment will study the re!ort by
the research organisation and then decide on the way
forward,3 he said.
The s!o'esman said the school drug testing scheme
was not the only way to tac'le the !roblem of youth drug
abuse. The overnment was dedicating all its efforts to
im!lement a com!rehensive set of strengthened antidrug
strategies covering !reventive education and !ublicity,
treatment and rehabilitation, legislation and law
enforcement, e;ternal coo!eration and research,
combatting drug abuse under a 3five!ronged3 strategy.
-n addition, the overnment was fostering within the
community a culture of care for young !eo!le and
mobilising various sectors in society to su!!ort young
!eo!le5s healthy growth so that they will stay away from
drugs.
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