Now is not the time to decriminalise marijuana, according to Premier Ewart Brown.

Dr. Brown told a gathering at Camden for his final Brown Bag Lunch that there are more important issues to tackle in Bermuda at present.

Several of the Premier's MPs have called for cannabis to be decriminalised — or at least for a major debate on Bermuda's drugs laws — claiming the drug is no more unsafe than alcohol.

But Dr. Brown pointed to even more prevalent marijuana use in Jamaica and said that Caribbean island still outlawed it.

"We are sleepy enough," he joked, before saying: "I follow the lead of Jamaica. Jamaica has more marijuana than it has most things, and until they do something I'm prepared to sit and wait.

"There are some other things I think are more important. I just don't think decriminalisation of marijuana is an urgent issue, especially as those people who are going to smoke it smoke it anyway."

Pembroke MP Ashfield DeVent has led calls for a debate on marijuana, claiming illegal substances are playing a part in the violence plaguing the Island.

Earlier this month, Progressive Labour Party-supporting lawyer Charles Richardson — who himself was recently convicted of cannabis possession — said most Bermudians would support decriminalising small amounts of the drug for personal use.

Former Culture Minister Wayne Perinchief has also called for the downgrading of cannabis offences, while PLP Senator Walton Brown claims people possessing minute amounts of marijuana should not be prosecuted.

Other PLP figures including leadership candidates Terry Lister and Dale Butler, former MP Delaey Robinson, former chairman David Burt and central committee member Makai Dickerson are among those to call for a national discussion.