Hong Kong's Department of Information Services has been producing and systematically airing public service announcements (known as announcements in the public interest, or APIs) on a variety of selected themes such as cleaning up Hong Kong, road safety, crime, drugs, and health issues for over 20 years. The television announcements are shown every day during mandatory time slots within every prime time commercial break period. These announcements represent the most important means by which the Hong Kong government has consistently communicated directly to the public. In carrying out their task of encouraging citizen cooperation with anti-drug efforts, the APIs produce particular characterizations of drug users, potential drug users, and families of those who use drugs. These characterizations are central to the ability of APIs to engage members of their audience and work persuasively. This paper traces the development of depictions of the drug addict in Hong Kong's anti-drug API campaign from its inception in 1976 to the present, illustrating various stages of alteration that this image has undergone. The paper argues that the depiction of drug addicts in the earlier examples was very similar to the historically shameful image of the opium addict, which had been widely circulated throughout earlier decades of the 20th century. It finds that later announcements that make use of other visual and persuasive strategies such as metaphors and testimonials (which allow for some discussion of physical and health effects) do not directly call to mind the history of opium use by the Chinese. Contains 13 references and 2 illustrations. (NKA)