Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ20: Drugs containing Codeine
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 3):
Question:
Regarding the control and abuse of drugs containing Codeine, will the Government
inform this Council:
(a) of the quantities of drugs containing not less than 0.2% of Codeine that
have been sold by private registered pharmacies, private hospitals, public
hospitals or clinics and registered medical practitioners each year since 2001;
(b) as the authorities amended the legislation in November 2005 to require that
pharmaceutical products containing not less than 0.2% of Codeine must be sold in
pharmacies under the supervision of registered pharmacists and in their
presence, with the support of prescriptions, whether the Department of Health
has stepped up the inspection of pharmacies in order to ensure that the drugs
concerned are sold according to the above requirement; if it has, of the details
of inspection;
(c) whether research has been conducted on the reasons for the rising trend in
the abuse of drug containing Codeine since 2001; and
(d) of the effectiveness of drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation services
operated or funded by the Department of Health, Social Welfare Department,
Hospital Authority and non-government organisations for persons who abuse drugs
containing Codeine?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) At present, cough preparations containing Codeine available in the local
market are mostly produced by local manufacturers with imported Codeine
materials. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, importers are required to
apply for an import licence from the Department of Health (DH) before any
pharmaceutical products or drugs can be imported into Hong Kong. According to
DH's records, the quantities of the Codeine materials imported (in kilograms)
from 2001 to 2005 are set out in Table 1.
The Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance does not require importers to provide DH with
information on the business units or other institutions to which the imported
drugs are sold. DH does not require importers to furnish this information
either. Therefore we are unable to provide the data required by this part of the
question, except for public hospitals.
The quantities of pharmaceutical products containing not less than 0.2% of
Codeine which were dispensed to patients of HA during the period from 2001/02 to
2005/06 are set out in Table 2.
(b) The Administration introduced amendments to the Pharmacy and Poisons
Regulations in November 2005 to list drugs containing not less than 0.2% of
Codeine in the Third Schedule to the Regulations for Part I Poisons, so that
these pharmaceutical products must be sold with the support of prescription of a
medical practitioner under the supervision of a registered pharmacist. After the
amended Regulations came into effect, DH has stepped up supervision over the
sale of the drugs through test-purchases. The numbers of test-purchases of cough
preparations (with products containing Codeine as the main target) conducted
since 2004 are set out in Table 3.
Since the amendments came into operation, no pharmacies have been found in
breach of the legislation for selling drugs containing not less than 0.2% of
Codeine.
(c) Codeine is an active ingredient in cough medicine. According to the Central
Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA), the number of reported cough medicine abusers had
gradually increased from 291 in 2001 to 704 in 2005. In the past few years, the
number of cough medicine abusers accounted for approximately 2% to 5% of all
drug abusers (see Table 4).
According to CRDA, the reasons cited by abusers of cough medicine for drug abuse
are largely similar to those of abusers of other psychotropic drugs. They
include mainly "relief of boredom/depression/anxiety", "peer influence" and
"seeking ecstasy or sensual gratification". A study on cough medicine abuse
among young people in Hong Kong(*) has found that in addition to the personal
factors mentioned above, youngsters also have the misconception that abusing
cough medicine is unlikely to result in addiction. Besides, family reasons like
poor relationship with parents and social factors like the easier availability
of cough medicine relative to other drugs also account for the abuse of cough
medicine by youngsters.
(d) Hong Kong adopts a multi-modality approach in the provision of drug
treatment and rehabilitation services for drug abusers, including people abusing
cough medicine. Each modality has its own specific focus to cater for the
divergent needs of abusers from different backgrounds. At present,
government-funded voluntary residential treatment and rehabilitation centres
will submit regular reports of their services to the relevant departments. In
the reports, however, no breakdown is provided on the types of drugs abused.
Numbers of cases handled by various types of service providers in 2005 are
summarised as follows:
* residential services were provided to a total of 2,287 drug dependent persons
by 18 residential drug treatment and rehabilitation centres subsidised by DH and
the Social Welfare Department (SWD);
* 334 cases were handled by the five SWD subvented conselling centres for
psychotropic substance abusers; and
* the total caseload of the five substance abuse clinics under the Hospital
Authority amounted to 12,373, of which 888 were new cases and 11,485 were
follow-up cases.
Data regarding the services provided by non-subvented agencies are not available
as they are not under obligation to report to the Government.
Note (*): The relevant report was published jointly by the Tung Wah Group of
Hospitals and the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2004.
Ends/Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:23
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Annex:
Tables to LCQ20