Police Service's Narcotics Department this year are an accurate measure.

Officers snared 70 kilogrammes of the drug between January and September of this year, more than any other illegal substance confiscated. "It's fair for us to say that we only go by what we seize,'' explained Narcotics officer Roseanda Jones. "And the drug of choice, based on what we seize, is cannabis.

Cocaine is the next highest substance we seize so I would say it's the second drug of choice, and we have also seen a slow increase in heroin use over recent years -- the same things that are happening outside Bermuda. So we're no different from other parts of the world.'' Hashish oil, very prevalent on the Island approximately five years ago, has not been seen at all this year, added Insp. Jones. The number of drug users do not seem to have decreased along with that substance however as arrests under the Misuse of Drug Act continue to increase. " We are seizing more in terms of cannabis. From January to September this year, we seized 70 kilograms as compared with 63 over the same period last year. This year also, between January to September, we arrested 144 people for drug-related offences in comparison to 124 over the same period last year -- 119 males and 25 females. For our third quarter period, which lasts from July to September, we had 14 major drug seizures, four with arrests. Over the same period in 1996, we had eight major drug seizures and four of those also had arrests. So far this year, we've had 19 major drug seizures at the airport so we've done a lot in conjunction with HMS Customs.'' Bermuda's ports-of-entry remain the preferred means of getting drugs on the Island. "I would say that the most prevalent areas through which drugs are being imported are still through our ports-of-entry -- the docks, the airport -- and they're imported here through our cruise ships, yachts, still through the airport and quite a bit through airfreight.'' The Narcotics Department, she said, operates under the strength of a number of officers -- a Chief Inspector, two Inspectors, six Sergeants and 19 Constables -- all of whom interact to achieve their goal depending on the amount of manpower needed. "We have various teams responsible for different actions,'' she explained. "One concentrates on major drug dealers and importers, another, which does a lot of street work, is very re-active. They must be available on short notice for any information that comes in and needs to be acted upon immediately. We also have two ports-of-entry teams that monitor such things as yachts, cruise ships and the docks. Because of the volume of work, very often each group interacts with others. A very major investigation takes up quite a bit of manpower. This year, Cleansweep was probably one of our major undertakings for the year. It did not reap much in the way of seized drugs but we were able to move quite a bit of drug distributors off the streets and we also arrested individuals with drug equipment, for obstruction under the Misuse of Drugs Act.'' Obtaining information from the public regarding specific cases, still remains a problem, she said, although the community appears quite willing to offer help in other instances. "Tips come in from various areas -- members of the public, anonymous calls, neighbours and family members of persons who are abusing drugs. I would say last year we got quite a bit of information from (the Crime Stoppers telephone line) but not very much this year. "Once we receive information, we carry out an investigation in relation to that information. Depending on the quality of information and the source, different action may be taken. We do get quite a bit of information from the public but occasionally, when we call on members of the public for assistance for various reasons, some are very reluctant to come forward. Very often it's when the incident relates to areas which are well-known as being drug areas. Without that assistance, there's not a whole lot we can do. But instead, we hear a lot of `We don't want retaliation'. But that doesn't surface. It's almost as if they use it as a `cop-out'.'' DRUGS SUPPLEMENT DGS