Marijuana users are unlikely to be spared from the stop list despite a new policy letting them escape prosecution for minor drug offences, Government Senator Walton Brown said yesterday.

Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field says people caught for minor crimes like possessing small amounts of cannabis are now being offered Police cautions instead of being criminally convicted.

But Sen. Brown — who backed the new direction — warned it's still up to the US to decide who can enter its country.

"No-one should interpret any change of policy as being somehow connected to the US stop list. They may still say you are an undesirable person," the senator told The Royal Gazette.

"It may well be that the US Government will continue to put people on the stop list based on their use of marijuana."

US immigration laws state anybody who admits a drug offence is not allowed entry without a waiver, while the Consulate yesterday couldn't confirm whether anyone would escape the stop list because they've been "cautioned" instead.

Spokesman Doug Boudreau stressed the Consulate had not seen any details of the initiative.

Sen. Brown said Bermuda worries too much about the stop list anyway, saying: "I don't think we should be spending our resources addressing the US and how they should allow people into their country.

"No-one on the US stop list is held hostage in Bermuda. I still don't get why we focus so much of our time and energy on the US stop list when there are many, many countries Bermudians can go to."

Defence lawyers have frequently cited the stop list as a reason why magistrates should give a conditional discharge to people guilty of minor offences.

Sen. Brown dismissed that as a "daft argument"; the Consulate confirmed that, under US immigration law, an individual receiving a conditional discharge in another country is still classed as a criminal anyway.

In Bermuda, a conditional discharge means the individual is not convicted if they don't get into further trouble during the period of the order.

Mr. Bourdeau would not say what sources the US uses to compile its stop list, but he objected to the term 'stop list'.

"It gives the impression that there is some list we keep that we can check whether a name is on it," he said.

"The issue is whether somebody has committed a crime that results in them being ineligible to enter the United States thus requiring a waiver.

Mr. Field says the cautioning policy is based on a matrix taking into account the defendant's age, background and offending history. Sen. Brown has previously said people caught in possession of tiny amounts of marijuana for personal use should not be prosecuted, but urged against decriminalisation or legalisation.

He said of the new cautioning policy: "We should become a less punitive society whilst at the same time advocating greater responsibility over the use of marijuana.

"In my view, no-one should be smoking anything — it's just a question of how you treat the use of it. I can't see myself ever supporting the decriminalisation of marijuana. Marijuana is an extremely unhealthy drug. Long-term use creates serious challenges for the user. We have to be careful in our quest to have a society more just and less punitive we don't somehow send a message that the use of marijuana is somehow a good thing."