The team that set up the National Drug Commission failed to address the "primary means'' of controlling the drugs scourge -- the law, a lawyer on one of the task forces claimed yesterday.

Criminal Justice Task Force appointee Mr. Ian Kawaley has refused to accept a participation award from the NDC on that basis.

In a letter to the Premier this week which he copied to The Royal Gazette , he said: "To my chagrin, disappointment and frustration, the Criminal Justice Task Force never met, produced no report and made no contribution whatsoever on this important topic to the work of the Interim Steering Committee.'' Criminal justice was vital to fighting drugs because any faults in the system were helping fuel the trade, he said.

One deficiency he would have pointed to was that only ten percent of all drugs smuggled into the Island were stopped by the authorities.

Another was that Bermuda's drug laws did not discriminate between different drugs, affording harsher treatment for crack and heroin offenders.

"I think the sort of existing traditional law enforcement approach is not succeeding in the area of either deterring supply or use of drugs,'' he said yesterday.

"If we had met we could have made an analysis of deficiencies in the existing criminal justice system. I would have thought that bearing in mind the illegal drugs trade is primarily dealt with by means of criminal law, it is the primary means of control.'' He charged the NDC planning committee was more concerned last year with "reporting to the media'' so it appeared things were getting done.

The NDC yesterday refused to be drawn into his accusations.

Mr. Kawaley, a Progressive Labour Party nominee, was using his award "as a vehicle to express political opinions,'' NDC chief executive officer Ms Eugenie Simmons said.

She would not discuss Mr. Kawaley's claims that his criminal law task force did not sit or submit a report.

"To involve ourselves ... would only serve to trivialise the critical drug problems facing our country and would undoubtedly place the NDC in the centre of ongoing political bickering which is an unproductive use of the time and energy required to address substance abuse in Bermuda,'' she said.

The awards to the National Drug Strategy Interim Steering Committee members came from the NDC which was a non-political body, she said. The board of the NDC was set up in January.

"The NDC wanted to express its gratitude to the Interim Steering Committee for its two years of service leading up to the formation of the Commission,'' Ms Simmons said. "It would have been highly inappropriate for us to be selective in whom we chose to acknowledge on this Committee and, had we done so, we would have been justifiably open to criticism.'' The awards took place last Thursday at Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan's official residence Camden.

Mr. Kawaley's award and "Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Services in the Area of Substance Abuse,'' signed by NDC chairman Mr. Mansfield Brock, was accepted on his behalf.

But he returned it to the NDC this week.

While he welcomed the chance to serve on a Government committee as a PLP nominee, the main reason he agreed to take part in the Interim Steering Committee was because he felt qualified to make a contribution on the legal implications of the justice system in combatting illicit drugs and alcohol, he said.

Since his task force did not actually contribute, he felt it would be "disrespectful to those members of the committee who made far more tangible contributions to the National Drug Strategy for me to accept an award, and inappropriate in any event.'' He commended the committee heads for adopting "a bipartisan approach'' on the issue and said he hoped Government would "review its policy of looking primarily to its party members as appointees.'' "Many of the problems our society is now witnessing are arguably in part due to the fact the party which has ruled for 25 years has a surplus of business expertise while the Opposition arguably has a surplus of human and social relations expertise.''