Premier Dr. David Saul this week laid bare his plans for tackling Bermuda's drugs problem.

Government is to take a multi-pronged approach with three different ministries dealing with prevention, rehabilitation and punishment.

The amalgamation of Human Affairs with the Education Ministry was specifically done to beat the Island's drugs and racism problems through education, he said. "What better way to tackle those issues than through education.'' But Shadow Health Minister Ms Renee Webb claimed Government's approach was too piecemeal. Instead, Government should unite its efforts under one ministry, she said.

With the recent Cabinet reshuffle, drugs issues are now divided between Education and Human Affairs, Labour and Home Affairs and Health and Social Services.

"The whole fight is diluted as a consequence of the splitting up of drugs into so many areas,'' Ms Webb said. "The fight against drugs needs to be taken seriously. We need a minister who is responsible for drugs and all that that entails.'' Ms Webb also called for a complete review of how to tackle Bermuda's drugs problem.

"More than ever we need a more focussed effort,'' she said. Addiction Services remains under the jurisdiction of the Health Ministry, while Home Affairs handles contravention and importation. All other drug-related issues come under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education and Human Affairs.

But Dr. Saul claimed the war on drugs was better fought with a multi-pronged approach.

"Drugs are a Government issue, a Cabinet issue,'' he said. "We are taking a team approach.'' His announcement came on the heels of news that a restructuring report of Addiction Services begun in January by a private counselling company, was completed last week.

The report by Benedict Associates was requested by the Health and Social Services Department and funded by the National Drug Council. It followed the departure of counsellor Mrs. Gryneth Robinson who quit Addiction Services in November because of serious managerial and workload problems.

Benedict Associates general manager Mr. Vaughn Mosher said a number of changes at Addiction Services had already been implemented including increasing staffing and making changes to a methadone programme for heroin addicts.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann dubbed the working report, a success. "It has gone a long way to improving to solving the concerns that staff at Addiction Services had,'' he said.

The report was also designed to help the NDC assess treatment services for addicts. "We had some concerns at Addiction Services regarding procedure and administration. We are looking at tidying up some of those things,'' Dr. Cann said.

"The question was, how do we best do something to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Addiction Services.'' Ms Webb declared it was time the report was forthcoming. "There clearly have been problems in the past regarding the services at Addiction Services. It has been riddled with problems for some time.'' The Council Partners this week declared its support, in principle, for the `Moment of Consciousness' but denied that any funds raised by their campaign went to the National Drug Commission which is the sole sponsor of the `Moment'.

Vice-chairman of the Council Partners fund-raising campaign Mrs. Janine Lines said funds raised by the Partners went exclusively to five registered charities that provided programmes within the community for the prevention, education and treatment of alcohol an drug abuse.