Premier Alex Scott’s appointment this week of a Cabinet-level “drugs czar” deserves two cheers, but not three. Drugs are one of the most serious problems facing the community.

They are, in the words of Mr. Scott, at the root of much of crime. The costs of the damage done as a result of addiction to individuals, families, businesses and the social fabric are immeasurable. The Government budget devoted directly and indirectly to drug interdiction, drug-related crime and demand reduction must be in the tens of millions of dollars, if not the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Much has been written about how disaffected youth are drawn to the drug trade, tempted both by the easy financial rewards and the street credibility that goes with the drugs culture. Often it takes years for people to realise what a disastrous choice that is, if it ever happens. So a single agency or Ministry dedicated to dealing with the problem is a step in the right direction. That is why this newspaper objected to the decision to fold the National Drugs Commission into the Ministry of Health and Family Services earlier this year. The reversal of that decision is welcome.

And Wayne Perinchief, the new Minister, comes fairly well qualified. A former senior Police officer and head of the narcotics department, he was also a member of the National Drugs Commission, so he is well acquainted with the need to reduce both demand and supply. Having said that, it is far from clear what Mr. Perinchief will be able to do in his new post, since he controls few of the agencies that are on the front lines of the so-called war on drugs.

It would appear that he will have control over the NDC, so at least he will be able to direct policy on rehabilitation and public awareness. But the Police will remain under Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton, so Mr. Perinchief’s influence there will be indirect.

Nor will he have any direct control over the Customs Service, which shares responsibility with the Police for stopping drugs shipments at the Island’s shores.

Given the necessary separation between the courts and the executive of Government, he will not have control over the drugs court or the Bermuda Assessment and Referral Centre. Much the same problems have faced the “drugs czars” appointed in the US, whose ability to effect change in that country’s massive drug habit has been relatively minimal.

Mr. Perinchief may have sufficient respect among his colleagues and the community at large to forge an alliance that will really combat drugs. But he will have to do that more through his powers of persuasion than through the tools at hand.

All of that supports the cynical view that Mr. Perinchief’s appointment had more to do with politics than drugs, and that this is a sop to the “Brown wing” following the appointment of Lt. Col. David Burch as Works and Housing Minister last week. Mr. Perinchief has been one of the more independent Progressive Labour Party backbenchers, and with a now presumably disaffected Ashfield DeVent on the backbenches, Mr. Scott may have felt the need to bring at least one maverick into the tent.

There might have been an opportunity here to split the Works and Housing Ministries, given that housing is another crisis issue for the community, or to do that and to create the drugs czar post.

That would have been possible because Walter Lister remains a Minister without Portfolio. Mr. Lister is a strong MP and a PLP stalwart, but one wonders why it is necessary to have a Minister without a Ministry when there are so many pressing issues to be tackled.