HONG KONG: In the classroom of a secondary school in Tai Po a class of Form 1 students listens as the teacher distributes and explains the consent letters of the trial scheme on school drug testing. To reinforce the message, in their hands are copies of a letter from Chief Executive Donald Tsang, appealing for support for the scheme from all the students and parents.

In the letter, Tsang said he understood some students who are not taking drugs might question the necessity of the program. He explained the drug testing scheme could engender a "Say no to drugs!" culture on campuses, and that it is vital to helping fellow students resist drugs.

"Prevention of drug abuse begins at home. Better communication with our children is the most effective way to prevent juvenile drug abuse," Tsang said to parents.

After Tsang's letter, the protocol of the scheme and consent letters were sent to all the students and parents in Tai Po.

The light yellow consent letters in each student's hands requires signatures of the student and parents, to confirm their decision as to whether to take part in the scheme, with a period of validity of one year.

Under the provisions of the program, 5 percent of students who have agreed to take part in the scheme will be randomly selected for the drug testing.

All the consent letters will be collected by the end of November, said Under Secretary for Education Bureau Kenneth Chen Wei-on.

Chen also demonstrated the drug testing process by volunteering himself in a secondary school demonstration in Tai Po. After a brief interview session with social workers, he was led by a nurse to a toilet to collect the urine sample for testing, which took only several minutes to get the testing result. Normally, another interview will be conducted after that, depending on the result, with the total time of the testing procedure taking, on average, about 15 minutes.

"The testing can test for five kinds of drugs: ketamine (aka K Tsai), ecstasy, ice, cannabis, and cocaine," the nurse told Chan while doing the testing.

However, a Form 7 student said he would not take part in the scheme, unless his parents insisted. He believed it was not necessary for him to do so since he wasn't a drug user. A Form 2 student said she won't take part in the scheme either. She said the urine testing made her feel uncomfortable. Another Form 2 student said she believed that only a small number of her classmates would not participate.

The trial scheme of voluntary drug testing is to be launched in all the 23 secondary schools in Tai Po within the 2009-10 school year. In parallel, a research study will be conducted on the effectiveness of the trial scheme and appropriate refinements. After that, the scheme will possibly be expanded to more than 460 public-sector secondary schools.

(HK Edition 11/17/2009 page1)