The social welfare authorities of Macao Thursday released the drug user data collected in the first half of 2009, which indicated that the youngest local drug user was only 13 years old.

A total of 417 drug users were recorded by the system in Macao in the period, of which 75 percent were male, according to the data collected by an electronic registry system run by the SAR government's Social Welfare Bureau.

Over 30 percent of these drug users were 16-to-20-years-old andabove-40-year-old, while 13 of them were less than 16 years old, the data showed.

Regarding the results, the Bureau said it was believed that many of the drug-abusing cases were not recorded by the system, and the authorities will step up its effort to collect more data.

The data collected, which is submitted to the SAR government on a six-month basis twice a year, will help the government to establish better and more effectively future policies in the prevention of drug abuse, said Ip Peng Kin, president of the Social Welfare Bureau, at a previous occasion.