Drug use will bring about a “downward spiral,” and more than likely will tear apart a family, says United Bermuda Party (UBP) Pembroke East Central candidate Leonard Santucci.

He knows this from personal experience. The AME Minister said he had never participated in drug use, when asked, but he could relate to what families affected by the scourge go through.

“It was not a reflection of my experience or my environment at the time,” he said when asked why he had not tried drugs.

“I can tell you what families of drug addicts are going through because I have had siblings who have done drugs and to that end I know that it destroys the fabric of the family and the community. It brings about a downward spiral - it has the potential of pulling the family together or pulling it apart.”

He said “most families experience the negative as opposed to the positive. It brings about a sense of guilt and shame as well. And it is an evil which is not easily overcome. At the same time, I think the addict tends to glorify the evil whilst others pay the price for it which is why I am deeply concerned with reference to the legalising marijuana.”

When he was a university student in the mid through late 1980s he worked at St. Brendan's hospital as a nursing aide and saw how much damage marijuana can do.

“I can recall the damage one young man did to himself and he has to this day not recovered. I'm talking 20 years. He and his family are still paying the price for it - he basically spaced out and he has never fully come to himself,” he said.

And asked if such questions are appropriate of a candidate seeking elective office, he said, a candidate should be prepared to answer “virtually any and every question because they are seeking to embrace the public's trust in their character as a leader in the community and as a law maker and I think it becomes easier for the public to trust them if they know them better.”

The Progressive Labour Party candidate, Ashfield DeVent could not be contacted by press time last night.