One crack house has been closed down by the Ministry for National Drug Control and will be re-let to a family in need, Minister has revealed.

Speaking during the Budget debate on his Ministry on Wednesday night, Mr. Perinchief said more crack houses will receive similar treatment as the Ministry gets set to work with a $4 million budget to tackle Bermuda?s drug culture.

Former Police officer Mr. Perinchief said money allocated to the Drugs Ministry will be split with $1.4 million to administration, training and resources, and a similar amount to go to treatment and rehabilitation provided by groups including the Women?s Treatment Centre, Camp Spirit and the Salvation Army.

In the area of prevention, $1.2 million is to be used for educating the public and for school-based activities, while some $350,000 is to be used in research and evaluation.

Mr. Perinchief said there had been a marked escalation in drug-use and drug-related crime, gang violence and criminal behaviour in the past five years.

?The Government, through the efforts of this Ministry, is committed to the development of a healthy society, free from the negative consequences of uncontrolled alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use and the illegal traffic of narcotics,? he said.

There was support for the initiative to drive out drugs on both sides of the political divide in the House of Assembly.

Shadow Finance Minister doubted if there was a single family on the Island that had not been affected in some way by drugs in the community.

Giving whole-hearted support to the Government efforts, she did criticise the way the drugs issue had bounced around in a number of previous incarnations before now being deemed worthy of a fully-fledged and funded Ministry.

And she said it needed to look not only at illicit substances such as hard drugs, but also addictive substances such as alcohol and said money and assets seized from drug peddlers needed to be transparently ring-fenced so that it could be seen to be going back into the economy specifically to fund the rehabilitation of addicts.

(PLP), a drugs counsellor, said Bermuda differed from its Caribbean neighbours as they suffer primarily from the trade in cocaine while Bermuda?s biggest problem was heroin.

He encouraged the idea of random drug testing at people?s places of work as a step towards reducing the instance of drug taking and alcohol abuse.

Shadow Minister without Portfolio told the Government that time was of the essence and it should not take up to a year to get a master plan worked up.

He highlighted a recent front page story in where Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons had spoken of her embarrassment at Bermuda?s lack of drug treatment facilities.

Government Whip gave a lucid account of the impact of drugs culture on society, referring to past times when youngsters simply experimenting by trying to smoke cedar tree bark could expect ?a lot of licks? if they were spotted doing so ?by any lady in the neighbourhood?.

He said: ?Doing drugs and selling drugs has become a lethal weapon. Sobriety is the best mindset. Any mind-altering drug is destructive.?

And he added that if the figure of ten percent of the population on the Island was taking drugs was correct, that meant that the bulk of Bermuda?s 37,000 workforce were drug-takers.

He said: ?If this is what is happening we have got a drugged up workforce and we have got to get the research done to see who is doing it.?

Shadow Education Minister urged the setting of performance-related goals so the new Ministry at least had ?targets with which to work?, while UBP colleague suggested a limit of $5,000 on cash purchases on the Island ? with wire transfers or bank drafts for larger purchases to combat drug money laundering.

Mr. Perinchief said he was heartened by the quality of the debate.

He said a framework and research has been done by the former National Drug Commission which, together with the retention of officers and staff, meant the timetable for creating a master plan for tackling drugs in Bermuda would, in all likelihood, be brought forward of the stated deadlines.