Ask Kuni Frith-Black how she would like to be remembered and it probably won't be for winning the Miss Bermuda title in 1977- as proud as she is of the achievement.

No, the Director of the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme at Westgate would most like to be remembered for something that has become her passion over the last few years, making an impact in Bermuda's fight against the scourge of drugs.

A few months after winning the Miss Bermuda title - as well as Miss Photogenic - Miss Frith told a Royal Gazette reporter "sometimes I forget I'm Miss Bermuda, nothing has changed".

She says she still forgets, though people like to remind her, as did a graduate of the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme when he announced it to the audience. It left her totally embarrassed.

"I really don't think of myself as Miss Bermuda," she said in her most recent interview. "People remember it more than I do."

That year she became the first Miss Bermuda to hold that title and the Miss Photogenic title at the same time (she was also first runner-up and Miss Tournament in the 1976 Pageant). But she appears more at ease talking about the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme she runs at WestGate.

In the 20 months of its existence some 49 inmates have completed the six month programme. There have been five completion ceremonies during that time.

"People were so good to me when I won Miss Bermuda, that I want to give back to the community," said Mrs. Frith-Black.

"When I pass through this life I would really like to know I had been able to touch people's hearts in a positive way, as opposed to being some famous personality. I want to make a contribution to society."

Mrs. Frith-Black has been a practising Budhist for 19 years, having begun studying Eastern Philosophy before she even won Miss Bermuda.

At the time she was working as a social hostess at the Hamilton Princess hotel with dreams of becoming a psychologist. Now she helps tackle one of the Island's major social ills - drug addiction.

"I made a decision to change careers and go back to school and obtain a degree in Counselling Psychology and Holistic Studies from Vermont College at Norwich University," explained Mrs. Frith-Black who owned a ladies clothing boutique in Dockyard for about seven years before that.

"I actually started to volunteer at Focus (Counselling Services) that same year. While volunteering at Focus and pursuing my degree in Counselling Psychology, Jerry Griffiths died that same year. Sandy Butterfield (Executive Director) needed someone and she asked me if I would be interested in staying on because I had already built a rapport with the clients.

"I stayed on and worked for Focus for four years and completed my Bachelor's Degree in Counselling Psychology and Holistic Studies. Then when Focus ran into funding difficulties, I was approached by Mr. (Randall) Woolridge (Assistant Commissioner) to put a programme together here at the WestGate Correctional Facility."

Mrs. Frith-Black has run the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme at WestGate for almost two years with acupuncture a part of the treatment. Plans are in place to extend the programme to the Prison Farm, which will require additional help.

"For the last 20 months I have been here at WestGate and the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme has really grown," said Mrs. Frith-Black.

"I never really planned to get into this type of work. I just kind of fell into it because I happened to be volunteering at Focus and was doing deep relaxation and stress reduction techniques with the clients there. Every week I came they would show up, quite a few of them.

"I developed a relationship with them and began to understand what raw addiction was and began to relate to the street addict, because working at Focus you are working in the trenches. At that time we would see anywhere from 20 to 38 clients pass through the doors of Focus on a daily basis."

It was while at Focus that she began to get a grasp at the magnitude of Bermuda's drug problem, a problem that continues to escalate.

"It was quite an eye opener, I never worked in an environment like that before," she admitted.

"I'm a humantarian by nature so it was easy for me to reach out. I learned so much from them and still do learn from my clients. I don't take the role of a professional who feels they know it all and the client needs to take direction from them all the time.

"Each client that I work with at WestGate teaches me something, a very valuable lesson that I can pass onto the next client."

Challenging though the job is, Mrs. Frith-Black looks forward to going to work every day at the maximum security facility.

"My coming to WestGate was a dream, my really good friends call me a dreamer, so I dreamed my way into WestGate, is what I did," she explained.

"I dreamed that dream two or three years after working at Focus. I didn't focus on whether it was possible or not, I just dreamed it...and here I am. When I was Miss Bermuda I certainly had no idea I would be here today."

She admits the alternative treatment met with some apprehension initially from certain people.

"There have been many, many challenges in terms of acceptance for the ASAP Programme because it deviates from traditional methods of treatment," she explained.

"People have a tendancy to step back, step away from or become very suspicious of anything that's new. The only treatment agency that I knew at the time that was using acupuncture was Focus, where I was supervised by Sandy Butterfield for Auricular Acupuncture for a year-and-a-half until I went to Lincoln Detox Centre at Lincoln Hospital (South Bronx, New York) to get my certification."

Mrs. Frith-Black has a BA in Couselling Psychology and Holistic Studies, is a clinically certified Hypnotherapist, has as ADS in Auricular Acupuncture, is an Associate Counsellor of Alcohol and other Drugs (ACAD) and is presently pursuing a Doctor of Naturapathy.

"I really love my work, I couldn't see me doing anything else," she admits.

"I know everything has its season and I really think that this is my season, the time for me to grow, to see the programme grow. And it is, by leaps and bounds.

"We've had 49 inmates complete the Alternative Substance Abuse Programme in 20 months. Many of them are at the (Prison) Farm, a few of them are still here at WestGate and some are over at TLC (Transitional Living Centre).

"There has been a demand for ASAP out in the community and there is a discussion about ASAP having a follow-up programme at the Farm. We've had a request from people in the community who want to get into the field of substance abuse, to come in and gain clinical hours and valuable experience from us here at WestGate in the ASAP Programme. I think that's an honour, that they would want to do their training here."

Over the last few years Mrs. Frith-Black has come into contact with many of the Island's addicts. She isn't surprised, at all, at the magnitude of the problem, a problem that she sees as being very difficult to control because of the profit involved in the trade.

"I'm not surprised because there are so many members of the community who contribute to the drug problem in Bermuda," she stated.

"Bermuda is one of the few countries in the world where drugs are so expensive. You can make a ton of money off a shipment, and for every person who gets caught there are ten others who don't.

"There is a demand for it here and I'm not thinking negatively but realistically when I say we'll never address the drug problem. The best we can hope for right now is education, treatment centres and transitional living for those who go through treatment and have nowhere to go to live afterwards which is our biggest, biggest, biggest problem. It also contributes to our recidivism rate."

And Mrs. Frith-Black isn't just talking about cocaine and heroin when speaking about drugs, but also alcohol and marijuana. She believes the latter is also an addictive drug despite opinions to the contrary.

"We have parents and grandparents who feel that marijuana is not a drug and they do not feel that it is harmful mentally, physically or spiritually to smoke with young people," said Mrs. Frith-Black, the mother of 16-year-old Alexis who is at boarding school in Maine.

"She is doing well, I'm so proud of her,' says mom.

She is pleased, too, with the way the National Drug Commission supports the ASAP programme at WestGate. In fact the NDC helped bring in two officials from the Miami Dade County Supreme Court to speak at the last completion ceremony.

"I feel that under the direction of Rev. Andrew Doughty and Dr. (Don Quidelle) Phillip there is new energy there," she said.

"They are very eager to do things in the community and eager to bring the message to people from all walks of life that drugs do not work. I know they've had their trials and tribulations in the past, but I feel this time they are making an honest effort to do good work.

"The National Drug Commission is launching an anti-marijuana campaign right now and it's about time. There is always going to be controversy where marijuana smoking is concerned but how can you justify a child at the age of eight, nine, ten, 11 years old smoking marijuana?

"The body and the brain have not completely developed and so this child is in school, high, and how can he or she learn."

Mrs. Frith-Black has no doubts marijuana is addictive and is a gateway drug.

"Our youth get very, very rowdy when there is no herb on the Island," she pointed out.

"So if marijuana does not cause violent behaviour then why is it that we have outbursts of violence from our youth when there is no marijuana? At $25 a bag it is expensive to smoke and to me that is an addiction when you have to buy marijuana and are paying that kind of money.

"And if you smoke four joints a day that is a habit! Not only that but marijuana is a business and to meet the demand it is force grown, has chemicals in it and in order to keep people addicted it is mixed with other drugs - same as the tobacco industry.

"I have heard so many stories about young people taking marijuana to school to sell to other students for their brother or uncle. The war on drugs will be like any other war because of the money that is involved.

"At one point tourism was Bermuda's main source of income, now it is international business. But I am willing to bet that drug trafficking generates more than international business, just by the resources that I have out there."

The counsellor believes Bermuda is paying a big price for its affluence.

"When you look at the average cost of a two-bedroom home you are talking $750,000 to $850,000," she said.

"People want to have a home, something to leave to their children, so we're playing the price for being an affluent society. Greed is killing our future generations and everything has a level. Expect all the ills of society to increase because we're too busy making money."

Mrs. Frith Black thinks some of those former addicts could be used to help anti-drug programmes such as ASAP. She refers to programme facilitator Randy Leverock as a good example.

"I feel very grateful and blessed to have Mr. Leverock as a co-worker," she stated.

"He comes with experience, is a recovering addict and is someone here the guys can relate to. He's actually been with us a year this month. He's just had his first class graduate and is on his second class now.

"It's difficult for him being a recovering person and also being a facilitator because he wants the guys to 'get it' but he has to realise that he also took time to 'get it'."

She added: "If we have recovering addicts as facilitators, I feel that we will make the client feel more comfortable. That's not to say that people who don't have a substance abuse history will not make good facilitators or counsellors.

"My long term dream is to bring as many recovering persons into the arena of facilitators as possible. But that's not to exclude anyone who is interested in the field of substance abuse and has never smoked a cigarette. They need to identify with someone who has been through the fire."

She is genuinely concerned about how her former clients at Focus or former inmates are doing, knowing that recovering is a long term process.

"I get stopped all the time, and I stop and talk to them, I have to," she stated.

"I don't care whom I'm with. I could be walking with the Governor on Front Street, if one of my clients says 'hi, Mrs. Black, how are you', I'm going to stop and say I'm fine so-and-so, how are you doing'."

And when she speaks to the inmates in her programme she gives it to them straight.

"No, I'm not an enabler," she stressed.

"I come at them hard, I really do. They call me some unkind names and I really don't take it personally because I'm not here to be their friend. I'm here to tell them the truth and to give them a rude awakening.

"I tell them 'while you're here your children don't have a father', 'while you're here your mother is without a son'. We are setting ourselves up to become a very disfunctional society without fathers in place.

"The men in this facility should be out in society taking their rightful places as fathers, brothers, uncles."

Mrs. Frith-Black also uses her talents and experience to host a regular Monday evening radio show on FM 89.1 (6.15p.m.) called Holistic Living where she has regular guests speaking on various topics.

"I co-hosted a programme with someone else and it was dropped from the air," she explained.

"But the space became available and I was given a 13-week period to see if this programme would be successful."

That was four years ago and she is still on the air!

"Rick Richardson (Bermuda Broadcasting CEO) gave me quite a few pointers. I'm grateful to him for educating me on how to become a good host."

Some notoriety comes with the job, but like Miss Bermuda, she takes it in stride.

"I'll leave the station and by the time I get home people are tooting," she revealed.

"I've come to find out it is because they were listening to the radio programme. I'll be in a line of traffic and somebody across from me would wind their window down and say 'hey, I heard you Monday night, I really enjoyed that'."

That tells her she is making a valuable contribution.