As the Rave Party cyclone landed in Hong Kong in 1999, "party drugs" such as Ice, Ketamine, MDMA gradually took over the trend of psychotropic substance, and by now there is a substantial increase of party drug abusers.

Research on party drug abusers

In order to tackle the problem with this phenomenon, PS33-Centre for Psychotropic Substance Abusers conducted a research on party drug abusers at the end of last year. The report revealed the ignorance of the party drug abusers and their unawareness of the hidden danger of taking party drugs. A press conference was called to release the findings.

On top of the findings, Hong Kong Christian Service expressed the following concerns to the media and the public:

Open seminar for practitioners

Sharing of actual experiences and handling skills are equally valuable. This was the purpose of organizing the "Tango on String - Handling Party Drug Abusers" seminar, in which several groups were invited to give talks; the PS33-Centre for Psychotropic Substance Abusers, who was the organizer, shared their creative skills in helping their clients overcome the abuse; the Lutheran Social Service explained the use of outreaching skills in early intervention while the Kely Support Group introduced the use of harm reduction tactics to help the drug abusers.

In addition, since medical professional is a close partner in this matter, a medical psychiatrist was invited to share from the medical perspective. Two teenagers were also invited to share their experience in rave parties as well as their peer's stories.

The seminar was well received by all who are concerned about the young drug abusers - social workers, teachers, parents, the media and of course practitioners of the rehabilitation services for substance abusers. Their eagerness was shown when all the three hundred seats were booked within the first day of enrolment.