Government Laboratory - Controlled Drugs Sections

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Controlled Drugs Sections

	Drug Information Bulletin on Selected Abused Drugs in Hong Kong

The Controlled Drugs Sections undertake analysis of substances suspected to be controlled under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance, the Antibiotics Ordinance or the Control of Chemicals Ordinance.

Cases submitted to the sections contain items ranging from drugs of abuse seized from addicts to large consignments of pharmaceutical products seized from illegal clinics and unauthorised sellers, as well as drugs, chemicals and paraphernalia from illicit drugs manufacturing scenes. The major clients are the Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department and the Pharmaceutical Service of the Department of Health.

Liquid Chromatograph - Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer

Every effort is made in the analytical procedure to eliminate error by improving analytical techniques and enforcing a rigorous checking procedure to ensure that accuracy is of the highest standard. Every item is screened systematically for any controlled substances. Each suspicious drug substance is then structurally confirmed by infrared spectrometry and/or mass spectroscopy and quantified by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. All results are subjected to a rigorous two-tier checking system.

Key Personnel

The professional staff in the sections are as follows:

Controlled Drugs A Section

Senior Chemist and Chemist (E-mail address)	Tel. No.
Mr. C W Lee, Senior Chemist (cwlee@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3804
Mr. C W Hung , Chemist (cwhung@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3803
Dr. C F Lo, Chemist (cflo@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3803
Dr. K M Lo, Chemist (kmlo@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3801

Controlled Drugs B Section

Senior Chemist and Chemist (E-mail address)	Tel. No.
Ms. Nora S W Shum, Senior Chemist (Acting) (norashum@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3815
Dr. David T W Chan, Chemist (twdchan@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3805
Mr. N C Kwok, Chemist (nckwok@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3805
Ms. S M Leung , Chemist (smleung@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3802
Dr. P K Ng, Chemist (diorng@govtlab.gov.hk)	2762-3802

Key Instruments

The key instruments of the Controlled Drugs Sections are Gas chromatograph - mass spectrometers and High performance liquid chromatograph - mass spectrometers.

Liquid Chromatograph - Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer

Liquid Chromatograph - Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer

High performance liquid chromatograph - mass spectrometer

Gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer

Targets and Key Indicators

Key Performance Measures Relating to the Forensic Science Services

Targets

Targets are defined as the percentage of completed cases whose individual case-completion time does not exceed a specified number of working day(s).

Category	Targets	2008 (Actual)	2009 (Actual)	2010 (Plan)
Illicit drug seizures completed within 11 working days (%)^@*	90	84	88	90
Major illicit drug seizures and manufacturing completed within 44 working days (%)^@#	90	90	82	90
Other illegal drug activities completed within 120 working days (%)^@#	90	88	100	90

@	From 2009 onwards, the targets are re-defined to be the percentage of completed cases whose individual case-completion time does not exceed a specified number of working day(s), instead of a targeted case-completion time (in working days) which is expected to be met in 80 per cent of the examined cases, in order to better reflect the work performance of the forensic services.
*	From 2009 onwards, the previous target of “routine illicit drug seizures” has been re-named as “illicit drug seizures completed within 11 working days” for simplicity.
#	From 2009 onwards, the previous target of “major drug seizures and manufacturing” has been re-grouped into “major illicit drug seizures and manufacturing completed within 44 working days” and “other illegal drug activities completed within 120 working days” to reflect the different turnaround time requirements.

Key Indicators

Key indicators are the number of cases completed

Number of Cases Investigated	2008 (Actual)	2009 (Actual)	2010 (Estimate)
Controlled drugs	7,681	7,403	7,700

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