MAINLAND DRUG RAVES DRAW YOUNG TEENS

Teenagers as young as 14 and 15 have admitted crossing the border at weekends
for drugs and sex at rave parties, social workers said yesterday.
Three junior secondary school boys, aged 14 and 15, were among 18 young
people interviewed by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services who had been
to the mainland in the past year to take drugs.

Details of the interviews come amid growing concern about the trend in
youngsters crossing the border to Shenzhen. Last year, 2,600 Ecstasy
tablets were confiscated from mostly young travellers returning from
Shenzhen.

Eddie Leung Yin-man, convenor of a council group on substance abuse,
said: "One of them who is only 15 admits he has sex there." The
teenagers interviewed all said they started using drugs in Shenzhen.
They said they had increased their use of Ecstasy from half a tablet
to 1.5 a night. They spent $200 to $300 each on every weekend trip for
the cost of the drugs, drink and hotel room.

Ms Leung said the atmosphere, lower entertainment costs and fewer
public security raids were strong attractions. "At $100 a tablet, they
told us, Shenzhen's products, though not cheaper, have a heavier drug
content and stronger effects."

The interviews added to evidence that an increasing number of youths
are travelling to the mainland for party drugs and other recreation
such as video games and massages.

Seven of the 18 interviewees were aged between 14 and 17, 11 were
between 18 and 23. One was a housewife, 10 were blue-collar workers,
and four were unemployed.

Twelve started using drugs in Hong Kong and turned to Shenzhen for the
lower costs, easier access and the lower risk of being caught.

More than half used more than one kind of drug, mostly marijuana, the
survey showed. They usually went at the weekend in a crowd of up to 70
people and spent one or two nights there. Two, who claimed to have
triad links, said they brought drugs back to the SAR to sell.

"The situation is pretty serious," said Sharon Leung Shui-king, a
lecturer in the division of social studies at City University and a
member of the task group.

There was a fivefold increase last year in the number of people
registered as users of the rave drug Ecstasy - 334 compared with just
60 in 1998, she said quoting figures from the Government's Central
Registry of Drug Abuse.

The number of cases of people bringing drugs from the mainland last
year increased four times to more than 180 from 47 in 1998. Ms Leung
recommended the Government strengthen youth education on soft drugs,
and spend more on outreach counselling services for young soft-drug
users.