But he also learned that wealthy Bermuda was different from islands to the south in that it was considered a "target market'' by drug trafficking rings.

Mr. Dill returned on Monday from the United Nations Drug Control Programme (DCP) Conference in Barbados.

It was organised to forge stronger links between Caribbean/Atlantic islands in tackling drugs.

The islands played a major role in the illegal drugs trade by serving as "transit'' nations for smuggling operations, Mr. Dill was told.

The DCP branch was in fact created to help the Caribbean address the predicament.

"The resources of the individual islands are obviously insufficient to deal with the magnitude of the problem in the region,'' Mr. Dill said.

"Most of the islands in the Caribbean are transit states -- drug dealers use the Caribbean to get drugs from South America to the USA.

"But Bermuda is a little different because it is more prosperous than the other islands with a per-capita income of $23,000 compared to ones of around $6,000.

"We find ourselves very much in a position of being a target market like the USA. They do not use us to transport drugs. They use us to market them.'' However, Bermuda was ahead of the game, emerging "the leader'' of 29 Caribbean/Atlantic nations in tackling drug trafficking and abuse, Mr. Dill said.

It was the only nation to have a finished national drugs strategy, he said.

"Some of the islands had drug strategies that were only a page and half,'' he noted.

Caribbean anti-drug agency representatives were interested in the fact Bermuda had taken its master plan to fight drugs to "the floor of the House'', he said.

They believed Government backing was key in fighting drugs.

"We were the only community in the region that had taken our drugs strategy to Parliament, proving Government was committed to fighting the war,'' he said.

Conference participants were also impressed with Bermuda's success at stopping drugs before they entered the island.

There was "high praise'' for the work of Customs officers at the Airport and on the docks in drug interdiction and seizures, Mr. Dill said.

There were also some approaches to fighting drugs that Bermuda could borrow from the other Caribbean islands, Mr. Dill conceded.

Of particular interest during the five-day conference was a drugs fighting model by a Jamaican researcher which revolved around a notion that it was simplistic to view unemployment and the economy as the only factors in the drugs scourge.

"The model confirms we are on the right track in dealing with demand reduction,'' Mr. Dill said.

The pioneering Integrated Demand Reduction (IDER) model focuses on community development in tackling drugs.