WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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No two places could be more different

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the modern (inaudible) of Hong Kong
and the waves of Burmese mountains,

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which produce two-thirds
of the world’s opium.

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But agricultural producer

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and urban consumer had
joined by the feeding canal

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of an ever hungry traffic.

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The pusher of smack and the producer
of opium forming the opposite poles

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of a world wide magnetic field.

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[sil.]

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So last week we showed how we followed for 30
years the war against the Burmese conveys,

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the largest source of the
turbo trade in heroin.

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Tonight we followed the British let
police in the drug war of Hong Kong.

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[sil.]

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A world heroin markets, Hong Kong
is traditionally the most addicted

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the epitome of the urban narcotic jungle.

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[music]

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[music]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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[music]

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One of the world’s most beautiful harbors…

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[music]

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Built by smugglers for smuggling opium.

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[music]

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Hong Kong’s leading company (inaudible) help make
this the world’s opium capital a century ago.

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Trading opium produced by the
British government in India.

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Smuggling Opium to China

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in faster better arm ships
than the Chinese navy.

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[music]

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Chinese authorities seized the opium,

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return retaliated started the opium war.

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[music]

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Opium was the pretext with the
defeat of the Chinese empire.

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[sil.]

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Hong Kong was seated to harbor the opium
fleet and opium was sowed in Hong Kong

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under government license
making it the original

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and eventually the most
addicted Smack City.

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Opium is addictive, but the low
rate 19th Century publicity

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obscured the fact that it’s
less harmful than alcohol

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and less addictive than heroin.

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So Hong Kong’s opium addicts
were relatively fortunate

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until Britain enforced the UN Treaty
against narcotics after World War II.

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The Treaty outlawed opium

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largely because heroin is made from it

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and this film is about what that did to succeeding generations
of addicts in their struggle with the Hong Kong police.

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[sil.]

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In the 1950s and 60s, Hong Kong was flooded
with refugees from communist China.

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When we first filmed there, the
slums were in a maze of shacks,

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(inaudible).

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[sil.]

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Children grew up in this and
adults sort escaping opium,

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so that roughly 10% of all
working men were addicts.

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[sil.]

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The jungle of Hong Kong’s war on drugs.

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The plain-clothes police
suddenly ran for the opium den.

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[sil.]

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One client tried to escape,
but didn’t get far.

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Inside they caught three more

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and essentially what led to their arrest was
that opium requires specialized equipment

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also a den to smoke in and
several hours to do it.

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[sil.]

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Opium dens were therefore often in
buildings where the lift door stairs

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was the only way up making
surprise impossible.

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[sil.]

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By the time the police got in, the clients
would slipped out to another floor.

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[sil.]

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Gradually it became apparent that though
opium was much less harmful than heroin,

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it was much more vulnerable to the police.

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[sil.]

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Every den had its escape root.

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It’s an alarm bell and safety door,

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but as opium clients were increasingly caught,
they were put on the mounting pressure

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to look for an alternative drug.

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[sil.]

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A massive narcotic seizure

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was in the bamboo bundles,
three tons of opium

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but what was relatively new was
378 pounds of morphine base.

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The narcotic and opium refined to it
10th of its size in odorless form

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with no other use but smuggling.

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[sil.]

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Morphine was compact enough to be
concealed under the skin of buffalos.

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[sil.]

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An odorless powder, it was
almost impossible to detect

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in the 13 million tons of rice and
6000 ships unloading every year.

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And the factories which converted
the morphine to heroin

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could be in any apartment because
the process was relatively simple.

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[sil.]

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How did the morphine was cooked with
ether and acetic anhydride over a stove?

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[sil.]

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The mixture was tilted with
a help of a foot pump.

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[sil.]

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A pound of morphine produced
roughly a pound of heroin

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and provided a hundred percent profit when whole
sale to syndicates at street corners like this.

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[sil.]

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The please filmed what
follows from this window.

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[sil.]

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Even at the retail point, heroin was less
risky. It required no den, no equipment.

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[sil.]

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A 24 hours service selling
5000 packets a day.

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[sil.]

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The whole system functions only
because the seller is an addict,

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you can just see him pick up his tinfoil

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for what he probably believes
will be his last smoke.

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For the sellers, expandability was
the principle behind the syndicate

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with 30 packets of heroin he was exposed

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as shown by diagram to police arrests.
Watchers gave some warning,

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but never touched heroin and
was thus hard to convict.

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The overseer also never touched and fresh suppliers
were brought by a special carrier from a hiding place.

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600 packets under some rubbish, finally the main
stalk and the packers were in a hotel room,

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so usually only the seller was arrested

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and business started as soon as police
had gone and much more flexible

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and sophisticated system an opium.

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This woman is the head of the syndicate

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and her profit could be then
about 100 pounds a day.

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[sil.]

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This depended on addict
workers so desperate

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that they would take any risk for the 35p she
paid watchers and (inaudible) for a seller,

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but it took dozens of police, weeks of work

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to get enough evidence for just one raid.

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[sil.]

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They go for her first then
others in the syndicate.

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[sil.]

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The crowd doesn’t help for the Chinese
have a traditional tolerance of opium

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similar to the European tolerance of alcohol
and this helped the transition to heroin

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which gave Hong Kong possibly the
worst narcotics problem in the world.

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[sil.]

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The docks became the center of addiction
where 60% of the dockers were on heroin.

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They slept on the pavements

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and spent two-thirds of
their wages on smack.

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[sil.]

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The addicts prefer the docks because the police
could only enter through the dock gates,

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so it was easy to warn the addicts waiting
outside the laboratories for a smoke.

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[sil.]

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When the police broke in, the
heroin was already flushed away.

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The paper tube is to suck the smoke

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and the flame melts the heroin and
barbitone into a black tuffy like drop

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that vaporizes into smoke.

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[sil.]

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At first, it can bring a golden dream of well
being, but once hooked each smoke does little more

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then pacify the craving until the next.

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[sil.]

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The average docker needed
three smokes a day

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and they went for heroin
immediately after they repaid.

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[sil.]

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They knew we were filming, but didn’t
care, but they just won’t enough police

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to arrest every seller. So in Smack City

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the estimated 100,000 addicts went 90% safe

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since the police only managed
to arrest 10,000 a year.

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And by the end of the 1960s,

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it was evident that the UN Treaty banning
opium and being disastrously effective.

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[sil.]

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The 10% of Hong Kong’s male working population
which had previously been smoking opium

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was now smoking the much more
addictive and dangerous heroin.

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[sil.]

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And these heroin smokers of
the 60s were truly fortunate

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because they could not die
from overdose nor hepatitis.

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[music]

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That was to lie in the future
of Hong Kong’s war on drugs.

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[music]

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The western water front was one of Hong Kong’s
heroin centers when we returned in 1975.

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[sil.]

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The addicts do sleep by the docks

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and well other 50% of the dockers were still
addicted, but there had been a major change.

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[sil.]

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A year before 6000 packets of heroin a day

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was sowed by large syndicate
along this water front.

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The syndicates had had many guards and
watchers including this man Sai So,

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until the police broke it up
driving the business in land

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for instance to first treat where
Sai So’s small gang set up.

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The police campaign was directed by an ex-patriot
British officer in the narcotics bureau

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who we would to follow for 20 years.

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And this was the first case ever taken against the
distribution syndicate getting from the bus people died.

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We moved in and caught the principle share holder first
and then started to go down to this other share holders

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and down and (inaudible) effect because I don’t
need to be get only principle people involved,

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but we got (inaudible) bank accounts

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so the effect has been to
decentralize distribution

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so you get many more freelance services
(inaudible) stuff on the streets.

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[sil.]

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So the stuff on First Street it’s availability that
came the bottom line of our filming in the 1970s.

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[sil.]

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The gang knew we were filming,

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but the camera was concealed, so police
and passers by wouldn’t interfere.

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[sil.]

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Everywhere heroin was now sold by
small gangs operating like this.

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The latest evolution from the opium
den and the large syndicate.

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[sil.]

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As the leader Sai So watched
for plain-clothes police.

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He was the surest of the group
and seldom touched the heroin.

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[sil.]

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The seller Sai So’s brother Dai So

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only touched heroin when handing it over,
but everyone knew Dai So was the one

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who would be arrested.

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Ah Sing was the fighter

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and guarded the heroin store inside the
door way. He was just out of the jail.

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[sil.]

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First street was only two miles
from police headquarters

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where we were also filming with the Narcotics
Bureau. The question that really left is,

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which is the best approach to
disorganize organized drug trafficking

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or to leave organized drug trafficking
organized to try to minimize it.

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Uh… Because whatever happens you can have… let to drug trafficking,
as long as you got drug addiction you can have drug trafficking

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and it is very, very arguable, of course the
danger if you leave it organized and minimize it,

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it is a problem of corruption etc. Right?

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But if you disorganize, you end up
with probably a worse problem in a…

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in the first space because you switch
it and it gets into a street gangs

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and then (inaudible) to control.

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But though the Narcotics Bureau concentrated
on the big importers and distributors,

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the barometer of its success was the
mount of heroin reaching street level.

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[music]

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To understand the brothers, it helps to know that
Dai So seemed a genuine victim of his addiction,

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where as Sai So (inaudible).

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His favorite song was mack the knife and he
projected himself with deliberate machismo.

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[music]

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Sai So let the protection
money from this more traders

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and claimed that all his friends
always called him a bad man.

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[music]

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What would be a chief by chasing (inaudible) people in the
street apart from chasing the (inaudible) people in the street.

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It is sad that the matter is, but
as long as you have consumers,

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you’re going to have suppliers
that’s just a hard reality of life.

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And of course there were
much bigger people to chase.

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I think that’s it, everybody got
(inaudible) supplied by (inaudible).

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Our information is (inaudible) I stopped manufacturing
until 11 o’clock so by the time we get (inaudible)

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they should have finish the initial
part of the manufacturing.

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[sil.]

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Heroin factories with a bureaus main target and their
raids eventually drove away all Hong Kong’s factories

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to Thailand and Burma.

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Morphine. That is morphine.

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Uh… Case contains everything
about 15 inches of ♪3.

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[sil.]

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Two morphine (inaudible).

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Yeah, (inaudible) and this seems
there is enough equipments

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in the chemicals etc.,
to put a case together.

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[sil.]

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(inaudible) Texas. Yes each packet I see

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a lot about weight of 1 piece 5 ounces.

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Four kilos was then more than
Britain’s total annual seizes

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most years, but in Hong Kong, these
people were just the managers

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of a minor distribution center and they
arrest the early interrupted business.

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[sil.]

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What we decided is that
if they are going east

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to the state sowed to Canada then
we will stop from searching them,

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but if they are going to Bangkok then we will let them go, because
from (inaudible) they’re picking up the heroin in Bangkok

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and not in Hong Kong but our assessment
certifies they picked up it.

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[sil.]

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Come on. (inaudible).

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[sil.]

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There he goes, okay let us go.

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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And you earn enough money in a job to…

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to buy heroin for smoke or not?

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
[non-English narration]

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
No, it’s (inaudible).

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Does he think it’s a good thing
to start heroin. Is it good?

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[non-English narration]

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It’s just for his life.

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[sil.]

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(inaudible) gets him arrested
for starting heroin.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:58.000
[sil.]

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[sil.]

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Smoking heroin has the advantage
that unlike injection,

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
it does not kill from
overdose and hepatitis.

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But as police success grows prices up,
there was increasing pressure to inject

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because it gives a higher
kick for less heroin.

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During that night, half of
Sai So’s gang was arrested.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:00.000
[non-English narration]

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
[non-English narration]

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
Sai So was wanted by the police

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
and his brother was in jail.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
But Ah Sing and his girl
friend got out on bail

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:40.000
and told us what happened.
Why did you fight with him?

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:08.000
[sil.]

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:43.000
[music]

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
The seller who took off within a few
hours from Dai So was called a plea

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
and on First Street it was an addict saying

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.000
that shooting (inaudible)
never stops the opera.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
[non-English narration]

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
[sil.]

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
Summit sent the police? Yeah.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
(inaudible) looked that
in terms of a business,

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
if you cut down on supply and laid the demand in
constant prices give up, so (inaudible) smuggling

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
and which would favors the unacceptable, now becoming
acceptable. Risks which would previously unacceptable

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
because of the profit margin, now became
acceptable because of the increased profit margin

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
and new methods will be adopted. The drug traffic
is what we get the initiative preparing time

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
until the place can find out what they are up to and
then you will have a raid of police initiative.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
No one kicks themselves that the
police can anyway solve the problem.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
There is a question of evolution

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
of what you are saying is
evolution, evolution of home.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:53.000
[music]

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
The addicts saw less as evolution

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
more as a black comedy.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:13.000
[music]

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
By the 1990’s, Hong Kong property boom
had (inaudible) police headquarters.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
But the police officers

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
we have been following had
had boom of their own.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
As I assumed command of bureau in February last year to cut taking
(inaudible). So when were you had an Narcotic Bureau David?

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
I started at end of 1989

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
and I had handed over to Keith. And you are now
head of all crime? No, (inaudible) not. No.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
I’m the… I’m the chief assistant
to the head… head of all crime.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
And crime of course was still evolving.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
[sil.]

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
evolving from heroin to other drugs

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
as we found on this buildings
blood spotted on 19th floor.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
[sil.]

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
There is got lot of blood, but the cuts
are not too bad, we can stitched up.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:50.000
(inaudible) climbing down,
there was a piping here.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Use this gun to break a hole in the glass,

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
we looked out, we saw the man, we shouted
to him stop, don’t move, we’re the police,

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
but he carried on moving down so we
kicked opened the rest of the window

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
shouted to the man again, this time the man stopped and the
man was obviously fearful that he was going to be fall

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
and he passed his hand through and
so I did challenge the others

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
manage to pull him through the
window again. All these the drugs

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
not used in Hong Kong in the 1970s.
And then when we used his keys

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
to enter this premises and we found this.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
All the orange boxes we believe that

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
they are full of cannabis.
Cannabis from where?

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
From Thailand and in this… this room we can see
that this is used for enhancing the cannabis.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
The cannabis was for some reasons wet,

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
so they break down the cannabis, which were originally in
block form and then they used these (inaudible) made racks

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
to dry it. You can see that they put it

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
right in front of the air conditioner.
And the next part of the process

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
is to compress it back into block
form just like that they used to jet

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
and they would then re-seal
it into a plastic bag

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
as if they had obtained it from Thailand.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
So this is probably the biggest ever
cutting center of cannabis in Hong Kong.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
If we say 500 kilos whole sale
it’s worth about 7 million

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
and may be double or triple
that if we retail it.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
[sil.]

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
First Street has also been evolving up with reflecting
the greater effluence spreading through Hong Kong.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
[sil.]

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
But some of the old tenements
are still standing.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:08.000
[music]

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
The stair case with the First Street
gang operated is still there.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
[music]

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
And so surprisingly are the gang.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
[music]

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
Is he still smoking?

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
Cigar. Yeah.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
Do they think they will ever get of heroin?

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
[non-English narration]

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:58.000
[music]

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
To make the contrast with modern conditions

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
we showed the film we made of them.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:18.000
[music]

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
Then to illustrate the
evolution in addiction,

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:45.000
we played government anti-drug commercials.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
Addiction has moved from the street gangs

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
into the middle class schools.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:15.000
[music]

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
[non-English narration]

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
Drug counselors now teach in the schools.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
[non-English narration]

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
Obviously a step in the right direction,
but is no one can say definitely

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
what induces a particular child to
become an addict so no one can be sure

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
what campaign will in
fact reduce addiction.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
[non-English narration]

00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:03.000
[music]

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
In Hong Kong cutting centers have
now replaced heroin factories.

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
So I’m carrying something from the boot into the premises
and after one hour using our special duties unit

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
crushed through the iron grill and went on
ladders up into the first and second floors.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
[sil.]

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
(inaudible) for long time.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
We knew he was importing heroin from
China distributing in Hong Kong.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
It was probably a lot of
noise going on with a jack

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
which they used to compress the drugs and
they also break off the drugs using hammer,

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
so I have still didn’t hear exactly
what happened from the staff.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
[sil.]

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
So we caught (inaudible)

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
in a bedroom actually cutting the drugs.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
They import these drugs in this form.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
It’s approximately 350 grams
of virtually pure heroin,

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
they then smash it up simply using hammers

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
and break it into a granular
form, they then cut that

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
or mix it with the (inaudible)

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Caffeine, paracetamol, and Antipyrine.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
They mix it together and they put
it in a standard home used blender,

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
mix it all up together into
a fully mixed powder form,

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
they will then sell this the converted
street level heroin to other dealers,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
who will then package it and
they will sell it to the addict.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
Is there more heroin now.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
And does the heroin still
come from Thailand

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
or is it come from somewhere else.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
Comes down from china.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
Have the police ever stopped the
selling of heroin in this heroin?

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:38.000
[sil.]

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
To help addicts Hong Kong now
has many types of clinic.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:53.000
[non-English narration]

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
The St. Stephen’s Society is run by a Christian
church and staffed mainly by ex-addicts.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
[sil.]

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
With their help, one of the gang Ah Sing

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
made an attempt to get off heroin.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:23.000
[non-English narration]

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
Jackie how long if you know Ah Sing?

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
18 years? 18 years. 18 years.
And you know that time

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
has he ever tried to get off
heroin before that you know?

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
No. In fact most times in the past he
never really admitted he had a problem.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
He was… he was on… he was (inaudible).

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
He has come, because he trusts us. If you come with
the heart like that, your chances are very high.

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
Ah Sing why do you want to get of heroin?

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
I think that it… it hurt… hurt
me and my family very much,

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
my parents very sad for me.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
Two weeks later, Ah Sing
went back to heroin

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
and this caused his wife to leave him.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
Ah Sing became so depressed
that he overdosed,

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
he died at age 40 after we had known
him for 20 years as an addict.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:38.000
[music]

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
How many of your friends who
were heroin addicts died young?

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
Yes.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
How did your brother (inaudible) died.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:18.000
[non-English narration]

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
He died like Ah Sing with mixture of
heroin (inaudible) and tranquillisers.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
Is Sai So frightened of ever overdosing
taking too much of the mixture?

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
Of course, I’m scared.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
As if we could say that we have had a
consistent rational policy that is not failed.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
How it is successful, if it has never met.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
But it is not failed. You look at the alternatives and the
alternatives is their being experiment within some European countries,

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
which is really looking at
decriminalizing or tolerating their use

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
and how successful is that being. Because that
is… that is the real alternative, isn’t it?

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
If you could get pure legal heroin,

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
would that be less risk of overdosing. Yes.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:15.000
If heroin was legalized would many
more young people become addict?

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:38.000
[sil.]

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
The government’s clinics for addicts have
identified what may be a promising trend.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
Each day 7000 patients attend this clinic. Roughly
the average of attendances are rather stable.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
[sil.]

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
I think the total size of the
addict pollution is rather stable,

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
but the percentage of patients

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
under 21 years of age is increasing.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
This last worrying development is confirmed
by Hong Kong’s computerized data base.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
This graph reveals that

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
over the last 15 years, Hong
Kong’s addict population

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
has indeed remained more or less stable.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
The drug abusers under 21 have
gone up in the last three years.

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
[sil.]

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
The Hong Kong re-filmed in the 60’s

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
was one of the most addicted cities on earth but
surprisingly its addiction has not increased much

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
since we made our film on First Street
while the rest of the worlds has sowed.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
The reasons are hard to pen down

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
but visibly the First Street
re-filmed in the 70’s

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
is increasingly been replaced by fly of
the walk ways of a much more effluent

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
and educated population.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
[sil.]

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
What’s impossible to project

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
is whether improvements in life styles will continue
holding down addiction or just lead to another evolution

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
in the narcotic merry-go-round.
I’m not sure that

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
I will say it is a merry-go-round
but one shouldn’t see it

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
as looking for victory and what we all
trying to do is reduce a problem and I…

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
I think that law enforcement
has an important role to play

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
in an overall strategy for
trying to minimize the problem,

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
I don’t think any other approach or anybody
else is taking his work any better.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
But despite decades of evolution,
no approach is found an answer

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
to the key problem of addiction.
Sai So what can anyone do

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
to make the life better
for addicts like you?

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
[non-English narration]

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
The best thing is to go to our
place and kick the habit.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
But Sai So has never been?
(inaudible) tried to kick the habit?

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:38.000
Yes

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
You both tried to get off heroin

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
and both have failed, is that
mean that you’re caught in a trap

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
that just goes round and round? Yes.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
[music]

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
So the war on drugs goes on

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
changing an evolving is much amongst the
producers of opium who will return to next week

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
as on the ever shifting
battle field of the consumer.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:25.000
[music]