Rotary Club of Hong Kong South Meeting Report

resident Kishore welcomed Rotarians and Rotariannes to our regular Lunch Meeting.

Fellowship Chairman PP Gaston introduced the following Guests :

Mr Navl Rivenos, Guest of Rtn Simon

Mr Terrence Chung, Guest of President Kishore

Mr Tobias Doerwger, Miss Elizabeth Chang, Guests of Rtn Thomas

The following announcements were made :

December 15, 2001 (Saturday), Christmas Party at The HK Golf Club, Deep Water Bay at 7:30 p.m., there will be no lunch meeting on December 13, 2001 (Thursday)
December 20, 2001 (Thursday) is lunch meeting, not dinner meeting.
Club 888 1st Draw (November 15, 2001) will be postponed to December 27, 2001
Intercity Meeting on December 3, 2001 at Hotel Inter-Continental.
The 6th Directors' Meeting will be held on December 5, 2001 (Wednesday) 6:30 p.m. at President Kishore's office.

Sergeant-at-Arms PP Bob announced that fines and voluntary contributions totaled $760 with an additional $10 in U.S. currency, for a combined total of $838 and the raffle collected $420 for a grand total $1,258.

Speaker

President Kishore introduced Mr Joe Pianpiano, Director of the International Service at the Community Drug Advisory Council, the speaker for the luncheon meeting. He has had experience as a trainer / counselor / manager in a variety of settings. He is currently the president of the Board of Directors for Medecins Sans Frontieres Hong Kong and is conducting research on drug policy issues at the University of Hong Kong.

The topic Mr Pianpiano talked on was "Raving On In Hong Kong" a discussion of recent drug trends in Hong Kong and the challenge for drug education. As Director he has been actively involved in drug education and awareness focusing on teachers, students and parents.

Previously in Hong Kong, heroin had been the big challenge. Services available for drug abuse were mostly for heroin addicts. Over the past ten years the drug scene has changed somewhat to "Rave" drugs commonly referred to as dance drugs or party drugs. Drugs listed in this category are Ecstasy, a stimulant that causes stress on the cardiovascular system, Ketamine, which has a hallucinogenic effect, and Ice, an amphetamine that accelerates respiration. All of these drugs have become popular with young people in Hong Kong in the 1990's. Services to educate and assist people regarding these popular drugs are now only developing in Hong Kong. Problems of illegal drugs for those who use them are the purity and the dosage. The speaker indicated in a random sample, one-third of the drugs was impure and consisted of Excedrin or deworming pills. The dosage also varied from 80-300 milligrams.

The Central Registry of Drug Abusers has recorded a significant decline in heroin users and a steady increase in Rave drug users. The users of alcohol, a legal drug, still dwarf the number of users of illegal drugs. Mr Pianpiano believes the strongest approach to reducing the number of drug abusers is through drug education. By working with students and the school community in a prevention mode it is hoped that fewer individuals will experiment and become addicted.

President Elect Bernie thanked Mr Pianpiano for his talk and encouraged him to continue his campaign against this evil which effects so many in our society.

Rotarian John won the Raffle prize.

President Kishore advised that the Speaker for the next week's Lunch Meeting would be Mr Daniel Wagner, Regional Manager-Political Risks, American International Underwriters and the topic would be Political Risk Insurance: It's relevance in Asia and the post September 11th World.

Customary toast was given to RI and to PE Bernie's new son.