Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) President Wilson Hon Wai said yesterday that the number of registered drug users in Macau last year was 119, an increase of 40 percent compared to 2022, including five young people under the age of 21, according to an IAS statement yesterday.
Hon made the remarks during this year’s first plenary meeting of the government-appointed Narcotics Control Committee yesterday, adding that methamphetamine (commonly known as “ice”) was the most used drug, followed by cannabis (marijuana), with nearly 80 percent of the users’ reported drug-taking places being at their own and friends’ homes as well as hotels.
During yesterday’s meeting, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U said that the challenges of anti-drug work nowadays are different to those in the past, adding she hoped that the committee would continue to give advice and assist in formulating an overall anti-drug policy.
Hon noted that his bureau has commissioned a third party to review and optimise the Social Affairs Bureau’s Drug Users Central Registry System, including collecting feedback from reporting organisations, and refining the content and scope of reporting, so as to enable the system to gain a more accurate understanding of the trend of drug abuse in Macau, and to serve as a reference basis for policy formulation.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U (centre), Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) President Wilson Hon Wai (right) and Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture representative Leong Veng Hang pose during this year’s first plenary meeting of the government-appointed Narcotics Control Committee yesterday. – Photo: IAS
