A think-tank of volunteers will evaluate Bermuda’s drug policy and its effect on “those at the margins of our society” as part of a commemoration of the legacy of the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Glenn Fubler, of the community group Imagine Bermuda, said that the move was part of a threefold observance of Dr King’s pacifist and human rights beliefs.

Flanked by volunteers, Mr Fubler spoke on the 55th anniversary of Dr King’s assassination at City Hall in Hamilton.

He noted that it was also the anniversary of Dr King’s “iconic speech at Riverside Baptist Church in New York”, given on April 4, 1967, when he spoke of “the intersectionality of civil rights, economic rights and the implications of the military-industrial complex”.

Dr King faced pushback for his criticism of the US war against Vietnam – but he called for “a paradigm shift, a renaissance, a revolution of values globally”, Mr Fubler said.

Mr Fubler said that the double anniversary was also cause for people in the community caught up in violence to reflect on peace and lay down their weapons – and to call globally for peace.

He highlighted Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, but also the recent 20-year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

Mr Fubler said the four-decade war on drugs had been declared a failure last year by the United Nations.

“Let’s consider a renaissance, a shift in approach, from a criminal justice perspective to a public health paradigm.”

Mr Fubler said that younger people in the community were welcome to join the group of volunteers examining Bermuda’s drug policy, which would ultimately bring its suggestions before policymakers.

“We’re prepared for the long haul on this – we know it is not going to happen overnight,” he added.

The move is supported by the groups Bermuda is Love, Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, and Social Justice Bermuda.

Members of the think tank are Shaunee Basden, substance abuse counsellor; Sandy Butterfield, founder of Focus Counselling; John Cann and Cheryl Peek-Ball, two former Chief Medical Officers; Shawn DeShields, a Bermuda College lecturer; Martha Dismont of Catalyst Consulting; Betty Anne DeJean-Saunders, a former school counsellor; Victoria Pearman, former Ombudsman; Wayne Perinchief, a former Assistant Police Commissioner and former Minister of National Security; Michael Radford, a former head psychiatrist at Bermuda Hospitals Board; Jonathan Smith, former Police Commissioner; Neal Trott, a counsellor at Harbourlight; Michael West, a former lecturer at Bermuda College and former Dean at Aston University; Carika Weldon, a biochemist and geneticist, and Roy Wright, former Dean of Bermuda College.