Startling new statistics indicate Bermuda?s drug problem is far worse than previously realised with 75 percent of new prisoners testing positive for drugs.

And drug professionals say this Island is now the heroin capital of the wider Caribbean region, with use of the deadly drug so widespread it is a norm.

National Drug Agency research officer Dr. Ken-Garfield Douglas said fresh figures backed this up.

Urine testing done on 400 new prisoners entering Westgate Correctional Facility between November 2004 and October 2005 showed 52 percent had used marijuana, 36 percent had used cocaine and 17 percent had used heroin.

More than three quarters of new prisoners tested positive for at least one illicit substance.

Explaining the wider significance, Dr. Douglas said: ?If you are testing just hardened criminals and you find a lot of drug use, that wouldn?t be very interesting because they are criminal so anti-social behaviour is related to them. But when you have ordinary persons getting arrested and sent to Westgate and 17 percent are using heroin??

The other figures on cocaine and marijuana use are also deeply significant said Dr. Douglas. ?If I was to take this data and started applying to the general population mix? Remember anybody can be arrested and go to prison ? there are a lot of people arrested for not paying their child support.

?We have a good population mix that we can look at and say they are accounting for a lot of drug use.?

It compares with population survey results which show 0.7 have used heroin or cocaine.

?That cannot be possible when in one year at the prison ordinary persons getting arrested contribute 17 percent of heroin use,? said Dr. Douglas who noted people were often unwilling to admit their habits in ordinary surveys. He said other than Bermuda, Surinam was the only other place in the wider Caribbean region where heroin use was ?culturally acceptable?.

?Outside of Surinam there are no other countries that have a marked number of heroin users.?

But Bermuda definitely had the worse heroin problem said Dr. Douglas who said availability, affordability and acceptability were the key factors driving drug demand. ?They are all common here. It?s very affordable, available and acceptable.?

The only silver lining in the whole grisly scenario is the relatively low number of heroin overdose deaths. ?One of the medical consequences you would be expecting would be a high mortality rate from drug use. But it just doesn?t happen here. But the illness is higher.?

Purer drugs and safer use by drug users have kept deaths low but other social problems have soared. ?The STDs are going to speak for themselves. Almost everybody who goes to the STD clinic fills out a form. They are also asked about drug use.

?There are a lot of marijuana and cocaine users getting STDs ? why? Because the two are linked. When you come to Bermuda you have to recognise there is an epidemic of drug use that is going on,? he concluded.

Tourists risk getting caught up in the violence surrounding Bermuda?s burgeoning drug culture said Dr. Douglas. ?The population who get affected is not just the population here. And what about the internal security of the country? If the ability (of drugs) is so great it means the internal security is threatened. There isn?t a secure border.?