The number of arrests for drug offences in the first nine months of 2021 also went up by 28 per cent from last year to 3,423, while those aged under 21 among them jumped by 40 per cent to 518.

The Post speaks to rehabilitating addicts recounting their spiral into the abyss of abuse:

‘I have to go to the toilet every five to 10 minutes’

Ip Cheuk-lam, 32, grew up watching his sister, who is three years older, getting high with her friends in Cheung Chau.

Under her influence, he succumbed to the lure of ketamine at 12, not only consuming it but also becoming a trafficker.

“At 12, I was already spending more than HK$1,000 (US$128) a day on drugs,” he said.

“I would be riding my bicycle around the island and delivering drugs … I had to earn money for the drugs that my sister and I would use.”

At 17, he reached the point where he was ingesting cough syrup, marijuana, diazepam or Ecstasy, along with ketamine, just to get a rush from the after-effects.

He was later arrested and sent to a rehabilitation centre for 18 months, but relapsed.

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Years of addiction had led to memory loss and opened a Pandora’s Box of health horrors for Ip.

“After drinking coke or coffee, I have to go to the toilet every five to 10 minutes. I cannot even take long bus rides. It’s painful and hard to pee,” he said.

“People at my age can work the whole day without feeling very tired. But my back hurts after working for a day.”

Epiphany struck when he found his four-year-old daughter one day playing with his drugs out of curiosity. In October, Ip decided to clean up his act, returning to a rehabilitation centre.

Ip said his loved ones had grown disheartened and distant over the years, given his failure to break the cycle of abuse.

“When I went into rehabilitation in the past, 20 to 30 of my family members would come to visit me. But there is no one this time … I have not seen them in the past two years,” he said.

“The relationship with my wife has greatly worsened. She says she may not wait for me to get out this time.”

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‘I put drugs before family’

Kit Kit, 37, runs a dessert shop with a partner, but struggles in his job, haunted still by the demons of drug addiction that have plagued him for more than two decades.

At 16, he was invited to smoke free marijuana at a disco club in Yau Tsim Mong district, and a month later tried cocaine and Ecstasy.

“I thought I could control myself. But after all the disco clubs were closed, I began to miss the drugs,” he said.

Through the years, as he battled his addiction, he also committed other crimes, including keeping a vice establishment, assault and drug trafficking. He has been arrested and jailed four times.

He said his family’s trust in him was destroyed because of his ways. “I put drugs before them. We often argued.”

Kit would spend HK$2,500 on ketamine and up to HK$20,000 on cocaine each time just to get high. At his worst, he was unable to go to work, while being “paranoid all the time”.

Finding his own addiction intolerable, he decided to hand himself over to police this year and was sent to a rehabilitation facility where he started his 18-month stay in May.

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‘My parents asked me to leave’

Chloe, a 34-year-old beautician who refused to reveal her full name, was 18 when friends introduced her to marijuana and ketamine, and later methamphetamine, cocaine and diazepam.

She said she suffered from urethritis, resulting in frequent and painful urination, and was arrested once for possessing drugs.

“My parents once asked me to leave home … My sister hated me a lot after knowing I asked my family for money to buy drugs,” she said. “My drug addiction was also one of the reasons I separated from my husband.”

She added that she was fired at least 10 times as she had been “slow and drowsy” at work under the influence of drugs.

After giving birth to her son, now four, her life still revolved around her addiction.

“I think my son knows about the drugs. Sometimes I would bring him to get a new batch of drugs with me. Once, when I wanted to go to the toilet [to consume drugs], he stood in my way.”

Fearing her drug consumption would take a toll on the relationship with her son, she enrolled in a rehabilitation programme in September.

Her message for young people: “Please do not try any drugs. Never take the first bite. You will regret it for sure.”

‘I ended up losing everything’

Lam Shuk-man, 32, saw ketamine for the first time at 16 when she caught her friend snorting some white powder in a toilet.

For the next two years, she would become a regular club-goer on the mainland, going there to party after work and joining others in consuming drugs.

The former luxury handbag buyer said she later came down with urethritis, and sought medical help. She kicked her drug habit, only to relapse months later.

Upon discovering her vice, Lam’s family tried to stop her, their confrontations at times even descending into physical altercations.

Her mother ended up calling police four times, and had sent Lam to rehabilitation facilities twice, but she always relapsed.

“Every time I’m out of rehabilitation, I would think [my addiction] was nothing. I would relapse once I went out and had fun,” she added. “I always thought I could control it.”

After her boyfriend left her over her addiction, Lam, realising her mother was growing old, voluntarily applied to a rehabilitation programme. The 155cm-tall Lam was 31.8kg at the time of her arrival into rehab.

“He bought a ring and flat for me. But I failed and went out to have fun again. I ended up losing everything,” she said of her ex. “I can’t be like this any more.

“Don’t be like us, wasting years of our lives on drugs. If you look back, life is short,” Lam warned.