In his opening address, NB Acting Chief Superintendent John Ribeiro indicated that this year saw an escalation in trafficking and abuse of cocaine, and one of the major concerns was the sign of crack cocaine creeping into the local market. During the first eight months of 2005, there were 136 cocaine arrests and one case of manufacturing crack cocaine, while in the whole year of 2004 there were only 103 arrests and three crack cocaine manufacturing cases.

He hoped that the seminar would enable officers to have a better understanding of cocaine and crack cocaine, as well as the occupational safety and health issues of anti-drugs operations.

At the seminar, Dr Cheng Yuk-ki and Dr Lo Kam-moon, both from the Government Laboratory, provided a very comprehensive presentation on how cocaine was produced, what crack cocaine was, crack cocaine manufacturing scenes and what exhibits would likely be found there. Their presentations were interesting, lively and vivid, and the seminar concluded with a big applause from the audience.

After the seminar, most attendants regarded the function as very impressive and useful because it not only made them more knowledgeable of cocaine, but also provided them with useful hints for dealing with its manufacturing scene.

NB Superintendent (Intelligence) Alfred Cheung Wing-fai, who arranged the seminar, re-iterated that NB is committed to raising officers' awareness of illicit drugs and working in unison with Regions and Districts in tackling drug trafficking and abuse.

To foster communication and knowledge sharing, NB will arrange more similar seminars in the near future and upload the presentation materials to its website on the Force Intranet.

NB Acting CSP John Ribeiro is grateful to Dr Cheng Yuk-ki (right) and Dr Lo Kam-moon (left) for their interesting presentations at the seminar