A cannabis campaigner told MPs that marijuana should no longer be banned by law and instead be “reclassified as a food”.Gershwyn Smith, of community activist group The Young Progressives, said the Island’s drug laws had increased the community’s problems and created “gang warfare and anarchy”.During a presentation to the joint select committee on violent crime and gun violence on Friday, the 61-year-old said marijuana was a natural plant and used to heal certain ailments like paralysis.He said: “God doesn’t make drugs,” adding that the ultimate solution was to change laws and policy and implement programmes that would remove hard drugs from the streets and away from the general community.Mr Smith said other illegal substances like cocaine and heroine should be medicalised and placed in hospitals, clinics and public centres and totally controlled by Government.He said this would get illegal substances out of the wrong hands by taking the profit away from drug dealers on the streets.“Sick people or addicts or patients can register with the programme and get their medicine at a [reduced] price, which may be 60 cents a day instead of $50 to $500 a day at street level, depending on the extent of the individual’s addiction,” he said.“Now we have the opportunity to encourage the addicts in their own time to try and clean up their addiction and other programmes made available.“When there is no price in the street the product has lost its value and all crimes and social activity associated with illegal drugs comes to a stop.”He said patients registered with the programme must be treated with respect and their identity protected.Mr Smith was caught with 545 cannabis plants at his home in Smiths in 2002. He told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner at that time the marijuana was part of his religion and was spared jail, but fined $30,000 for the offence. After appeal, he was sentenced to spend four years behind bars.On Friday, Mr Smith said he ate marijuana as a vegetable and drank it in his tea.He said: “Marijuana must be removed from the criminal law and reclassified as a food.”Committee member and independent Senator Joan Dillas Wright said research showed marijuana use often caused young people to fall off with their schooling.She asked whether legalising the drug on the Island could result in students doing poorly in their school work.Mr Smith said young people needed to be educated from a young age about the ills and troubles that come along with substance abuse. He also said there should be age regulations, like for alcohol.Alcohol abuse was another topic of discussion at the meeting as addiction counsellor Sylvia Hayward-Harris spoke of the ills it caused on the Island.She said it had become an integral part of almost every activity in the community and its impact had real consequences in Bermuda.Pastor Hayward-Harris, who has a masters in addiction counselling, said nearly all functions outside church involved alcohol, from dinner dates and cruises to sporting events.She told the joint select committee Bermuda was “a drinking community”.But she said young women of child-bearing age should be educated about the dangers of drinking on an unborn child.The illness, known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), could lead to a variety of negative behaviours later on in life and may explain why some people take part in anti-social behaviours.She said sexual acting out like promiscuity, early pregnancy and sexual assault, as well as violence and crimes against property, were all symptoms of FAS.Pastor Hayward-Harris said many people had unhealthy relationships with alcohol and this has prevented the family from functioning as best it could.She also said the Island needed ongoing campaigns, public education forums and detailed, graphic pamphlets at every doctor’s office and clinic.Women and girls particularly needed to be educated about FAS and supported in choosing not to drink.Those with a history of alcohol abuse, including those in jail, also needed to take part in a help programme, she said.