Bermuda spends around $3,225 per person per year on illegal narcotics according to latest estimates.

That figure rises to $4,608 if the elderly and children are excluded while alarming 2002 figures indicate drug consumption topped $10,000 per head of population between the ages of 15 and 64.

Narcotics head Superintendent Larry Smith told ?I would say the usage in this country is phenomenal.?

The figures are based on estimates that Police and Customs seize on average only ten percent of drugs flooding into Bermuda?s shores.

So far seizures this year are set to top $20 million ? thereby indicating more than $200 million of drugs had made it in.

But Supt. Smith said drug use was concentrated in certain age ranges.

?Let?s say we are able to salvage anyone under 18 and you don?t have a whole lot of 60-pluses using drugs ? you have a fairly large proportion of people using drugs between 18 and say 60.

?If you go back to ten percent seizures it means a lot of drugs are being consumed by that age group ? a lot of drugs.?

However with most people not using drugs it meant addicts and users were getting through vast quantities.

?You are talking about a small group of constant users,? said Supt. Smith.

In 2002, just before Bermuda Police helped smash some big drugs gangs, nearly $45 million of drugs were busted, indicating an actual importation rate of $450 million. Split across the board in the 15-64 age group that would equate to $10,368 per head. But divided between actual users it indicates addicts are blowing tens of thousands of dollars each year on illegal highs.

Focus Counselling Services executive director Sandy Butterfield said she believed the numbers of addicts in Bermuda ran into thousands rather than hundreds ? just based on figures on who went for treatment.

She said: ?It goes well into the thousands plus there are all those we don?t yet know about who are using it recreationally ? until they go over the edge.?

Statistics have always been a difficult area with users unwilling to admit their habits.

The hunger for illegal, mood altering chemicals ran across the board said Supt. Smith, who has no statistics on the number of actual users in Bermuda?s 62,000-plus population.

?Everybody ? every race, every nationality uses drugs.?

In 2005 he said Bermudians, American, British, Canadians, French, Guyanese, Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans and South Africans had all been picked up.

?That?s across all continents and Bermuda is a very cosmopolitan island.?

With some of the highest street prices in the world the importers stand to cash in once they have landed the drugs.

Supt. Smith said a half a gram of cocaine powder normally goes for $125 or $3,000 per ounce, but shortages will see a half gram top $150. Crack is consistent at $50 a rock as is cannabis at $25 a bag ? or half a gram wraps ? enough to make two cigarettes.

A deck of heroin ? enough for a three-hour high ? usually goes for around $20.

Drug strengths vary from as low as 34 percent to 95 percent seen in some heroin this year. ?That can be lethal.?

Supt. Smith, whose Narcotics team, working with Customs, has seized $324.1 million of drugs under his watch since 1999, said he will urge the incoming Police Commissioner to increase the Canine units which have been effective in finding supplies.

Lawyer Larry Scott, who has defended drug importers in recent years, said clients had told him a significant part of the drugs were destined not for drug hot spots but affluent parts of town.

?They indicate to me a significant part of supply isn?t just for Court Street and Parsons Road but West Hamilton.?

He said big-bucks business people were helping push prices up and help keep the island high on the radar screens of drug importers.