JULIAN sports a tiny, new scar. Few would ever notice it but the two-centimetre length of puckered skin on his lower abdomen is a landmark in the 24-year-old's life. Embedded beneath the stitches is a pellet containing the anti-opiate drug, Naltrexone. The ridge is still slightly raised but the small, powerful bullet has already begun melting into his tissue, releasing a steady dose of chemicals into his blood stream.
At the age of 13 or 14 - when, exactly, he cannot remember - Julian started using heroin. His expatriate father and Hong Kong mother had enrolled him at an English Schools Foundation school, where he managed to get himself out of one scrape and into another. He was soon expelled, later switching schools for his A levels.
'I was 14 and we were just kicked out straight away,' he recalls. 'They didn't really have an understanding of how kids grow up in Hong Kong, especially when kids have a lot of money as well.
'They didn't want me there. Looking at my track-record, it wasn't the most brilliant. They had every reason to throw me out. It could have ranged from assault to theft.
'Heroin is bad in Hong Kong. It's a drug you can be normal on. You can live with your parents, without them knowing you're using it, and go to school.
'Of course, you'll have needle marks, you'll be falling asleep, your pupils will be pinpoints and so on, but you can still carry on a fairly normal life.' Julian says he has paid almost $50,000 in hospital and other bills to pursue the latest drug therapy against his addiction. Without Naltrexone, he doubts he could stay clean.
The treatment he underwent is available in only a few countries; others have closed their doors to the process. Its effectiveness and side effects are hotly debated wherever it is used.