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Bahamas: Marijuana Drug Of Choice
Quincy Parker Bahama Journal
Wednesday 01 Mar 2006 Bill Weeks, co-chairman of the National Drug Council, said on Tuesday that marijuana is now the "drug of choice" in The Bahamas, with ecstasy – a man-made oral drug that acts as both a stimulant and an hallucinogen – "creeping in." While The Bahamas faces a marked increase in marijuana use, Mr. Weeks noted that new users of cocaine in any form have declined. Drug Council member, Carlos Reid, is the founder of Operation Redemption and Youth Against Violence, organizations that work with so-called "troubled youth," such as ex-gangsters and drug addicts. Mr. Reid confirmed that the use of marijuana, ecstasy and "date rape drugs" seems to be on the rise among Bahamian youth. "One of the struggles that we have on the street is the fact that marijuana is being celebrated as a ‘normal’ drug (a drug with no negative effects)…Ecstasy is considered to be a night-time drug…that club-goers use most and we’re seeing it used more and more by our young people," he said. Mr. Reid took aim at both the educational and political responses to drug interdiction in the Bahamas, noting that while education has played a positive role in reducing the incidence of cocaine use, the same did not hold true for marijuana. "Our major problem is that we’re not getting the right type of education. I believe that it’s time now for us to look at how we do school," Mr. Reid said. On the political front, Mr. Reid called on the government to put the resources behind the organizations fighting the drug war and "stop playing politics with the future of our nation." Ministry of Health statistics from the Community Counseling and Assessment Centre seem to show that marijuana use is indeed more prevalent now than cocaine use. In 2003, cocaine abuse amounted to only five percent of the new patients treated at the centre, a government outpatient facility. In the same year, 34 percent of the new patients were treated for marijuana use. A nationwide drug use prevalence survey among high school students shows similar results. Whereas alcohol was by far the most prevalent of the drugs the students admitted to sampling in their lifetime, marijuana ranked higher than cocaine in each grade surveyed, 8th, 10th, and 12th. According to Mr. Weeks, the Family Islands are now the frontline of the nation’s war on drugs. He said the many innovative and creative ways drug traffickers find to transport their drugs make interdiction difficult, especially in the Family Islands. "The onslaught of traffickers and drug pushers continues unrelentingly to impact (the Family Islands)," Mr. Weeks said. "It’s the new frontier, and that’s where we’re focusing a lot of our efforts now." Mr. Reid also weighed in on the matter of the Family Islands being an area of concern. "The work must be carried out in the Family Islands now, the preventative (work)," he said. "See we’re dealing with intervention and rehabilitation in New Providence; we need to do more prevention work in our Family Islands." Mr. Reid also asserted that the "increased" violence in the Bahamas must be connected in some way to the country’s drug problem. He was quick to point out, however, that very few of the 54 "youth gangs" he said existed are funded directly by drug dealers. Mr. Reid questioned the effectiveness of the methods of education in the Bahamas, noting that schoolchildren are educated for success, but not prepared to deal with failure. He said the education system seems out of touch with young people’s needs, and called for "conflict resolution" to be included in the school curriculum among other things. "I’d like to see conflict resolution become part of the academics. We could move out certain things that we don’t use," he suggested. Both Mr. Weeks and Mr. Reid noted that the Bahamas’ location continues to make it a drug transshipment nexus. Mr. Weeks said, however, that the situation is nowhere near as dire as it was in the 1980s. ""We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go, and it’s because the persons who perpetrate the pushing and trafficking of drugs are unrelenting, and they’re not giving up…So the fight is unyielding and relentless," Mr. Weeks said. March is Bahamas National Drug Council’s Month, during which the council will hold a number of events promoting drug prevention initiatives, both locally and regionally.
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