History of development
1. Mission:
With the economic and social changes, widespread use of drugs has become a global crisis. In Taiwan, drug abuse has also become more and more prevalent. Apparently, the problem of substance abuse should not be neglected. Upholding the ideal of “saving a person is saving a family” and the principle of human oriented service, the City Government has consulted the experience of different countries in the world and took the lead in Taiwan to establish the “Department of Substance Abuse, Control and Prevention of Kaohsiung City Government” on January 1, 2018, a first-level agency of the City Government. The role of the Department has changed from a coordinating role as Substance Abuse Prevention Center to be an overall planner and leader. Based on the existing foundation, it operates from the beginning of the prevention to counseling and intervention at the end, the Department fills the gap, integrates, and plans drug abuse prevention and control work of the City, demonstrating the City’s anti-drug determination and zero-tolerance stance against drugs.
2. Vision:
The drug abuse prevention and control of Kaohsiung City mainly focuses on 3 major tasks: “combination with private sector resources to strengthen prevention on the front end,” “Diverse counseling and intervention methods to facilitate reintegration into society” and “Intensively promote anti-drug measures to all citizens.” The City Government also implements 4 parts of work: drug abuse prevention, drug refusal, detoxification, and cooperation with the Police Bureau to investigate drug smuggling cases. It is important to trace the sources of drugs and conduct counseling and intervention projects. Drug abuse prevention network has been established so sources of drugs are traced and drug distribution is prohibited on campus, setting up the policy goal of a peace and safe society.
3. Major policies of administration:
(1) Combine the strength of police districts, school districts and communities to strengthen drug abuse prevention and control on the campuses, promote and active anti-drug campaign in the community and on the campus, establish consultation stations of drug abuse prevention and control, hold training courses for educators, co-hold large-scale campaign activities by bureaus and departments in order to establish a sound network of drug abuse prevention and control.
(2) Hold a special counseling project of zero-tolerance of drug involvement among children and teenagers on the campuses, establish united distribution window of children and teenagers’ cases with drug involvement and integrated medical-service single window of addicted children and teenager cases, and provide effective counseling and offer appropriate medical detoxification service.
(3) Both the public and private sector promote projects of diverse community consulting and intervention for drug addicts. They ask the friendly enterprises to offer employment opportunities, help drug addicts reintegrate into the society, and establish community support service spots for drug addiction families. Fixed-location and outreach services are provided to make drug abuse prevention and control work solidified and localized.
(4) Connect with the judicial unit to establish consulting service spots so as to provide counseling service to drug addiction cases under deferred prosecution program. Through professional diversionary assessment by medical institutions, “diverse judicial intervention projects for zero tolerance of drug” are promoted to increase the effect of detoxification treatment.
(5) Offer training for execution of drug abuse prevention and control measures in specific business premises, provide counseling and carry out inspection, improve the drug abuse prevention and control mechanism for the staff working at specific business premises, urge the proprietors to be held responsible for anti-drug management, and encourage the non-restricted proprietors to participate in these activities so as to co-establish healthy recreational and residential areas.
(6) Carry out special group service projects, to strengthen the care and support services for drug-addicted families, women and children, and to ensure the care and counseling among families and minors with drug involvement, strengthen the drug-prevention counseling work on the front end, and decrease drug addiction population.
(7) “Firefly Family” is empowered by letting ex-offenders become the anti-drug educators. As the persons having had the same experience, they share their stories with the drug addicts and their families, accompany them, and prove to them the positive changes. Campaign for anti-drug should be extended widely to campuses, communities and prisons.
(8) Make use of anti-drug integrated information platform to compile the related drug abuse prevention and control information of the City, and monitor and analyze the trend of drug problems.
(9) Hold academic seminars on drug abuse prevention and control, facilitate academic exchange of drug abuse prevention and control measures, study and monitor the trend of and actions taken against drug abuse prevention and control in the City, and implement the policies based on the empirical studies.