BERMUDA UNLIKELY TO FOLLOW UK'S LEAD ON CANNABIS LAW

BRITAIN moved closer to ease rules on cannabis yesterday ­ but a drug abuse
treatment expert said the same thing would not be acceptable in Bermuda,
though the island's top police officer and a Government MP said there was
scope for debate.

And the woman in charge of the National Drug Commission warned that if laws
on cannabis were softened here, many young people would misread it as
legalisation.

A report published in Britain yesterday, which drew on input from
politicians, medical experts and police, urged the UK Government to relax
rules on cannabis and ecstasy and to follow Dutch and Swiss models by
offering heroin addicts safe fixes in "injecting rooms".

Government backbencher Dale Butler opposed any softening of drug laws, but
conceded that the current approach was not winning the war against drugs
and the public should decide if they wanted changes through a referendum.

"I think we should have a national debate on this," said Mr. Butler.
"Personally, I would say, 'Let's not move in that direction', but at the
same time I can see that the current approach does not seem to be working
either. And I think the same thing is happening all over the world.

"Maybe we should be looking for alternatives and that is why I think we
should have a national debate, public discussions and then possibly a
referendum.

"We have tried the hard arm of the law and it has not delivered the type of
results we would like to see.

"We need to know whether the countries that have experimented have been
successful. From what I have read, there have been mixed results."

Christina Wineinger, chief executive of the National Drug Commission,
warned that Bermuda had a culture in which teens smoked more cannabis than
tobacco and consideration of a change in the law had to take the island's
specific circumstances into account.

"We at the NDC have formed the opinion from our connection with Bermuda's
youth that any move to lessen the penalties would be misunderstood by our
youth as a move to legalise cannabis," said Ms Wineinger. "Even now more
young people smoke cannabis than tobacco.

"There is plenty of evidence to show that cannabis is a major health risk
in this community. We know, for example, that the long-term use of cannabis
interferes with thinking and impairs judgment, memory and motivation.

"Chronic use can lead to motivational syndrome, which causes apathy and
decreased motivation.

"Cannabis can depress the immune system and is more harmful to the lungs
than tobacco."

Ms Wineinger added that the population survey taken in 1999 showed that
only six per cent of adults approved of regular cannabis use."

She added that heroin was a significant problem on the island and there was
a large ongoing methadone treatment for heroin addicts. And she did not
warm to the idea of 'safe injecting rooms'.

"Heroin is extremely addictive and tough to recover from," said Ms
Wineinger. "There are so many families suffering from its effects.

"Our strategy is to prevent people using it in the first place. For those
who do suffer, treatment is best, not providing ways for them to use the drug."

Joanne Dill, programme manager for Turning Point which treats those
suffering from drug abuse, said she did not believe that going "softer" on
drugs would help address the drugs problem on the island.

"Personally, I don't think it would come in here, I don't think Bermuda's
culture would facilitate it," she said. "I don't think it would be well
accepted and it's not something we are thinking of doing.

"Providing injection rooms for heroin addicts is more about harm reduction
than treatment and treatment is what we provide here.

"What harm reduction can do is to combat communicable diseases, like HIV
and hepatitis, which can be spread by dirty needles."

UK Home Secretary David Blunkett has already said he would be inclined to
downgrade cannabis to the lowest risk Class C drug category, making
possession of it in small amounts a non-arrestable offence.

But there are basic differences in the law between Bermuda and the UK with
regard to controlled drugs. The applicable law in Bermuda is the Misuse of
Drugs Act 1972.

Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith explained: "One is the fact that a
classification system exists for drugs ­ Class A, B and C, with Class A
drugs being the 'harder' drugs. There is no such distinction in Bermuda
legislation.

"The second difference is the fact that the 'softening' of the policy is
being led by the UK Government with the publication of Home Office
guidelines. No such guidelines exist here.

"The Service recognises that there is scope for a wide debate on the
subject. However, no policy changes are being considered by the Service
that would have the effect of 'softening' our approach towards drug
enforcement.

Indeed, we fully support the work of the National Drug Commission in their
work to educate the comunity on the dangers of drug use.

"We work steadfastly with many partners, including the United States Drug
Enforcement Administration, H.M. Customs and many other law enforcement
agencies to reduce the supply of drugs to our community."

Health & Family Services Minister Nelson Bascome did not answer messages
from this newspaper left at his office yesterday.