Gov’t to use drug report to drive policy

Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams says the recently released 2020 Barbados Drug Information Network Report (BARDIN) will help Government take the guesswork out of finding solutions to illegal drug use in the island.

Delivering remarks on Friday at an awards ceremony for stakeholders who contributed to the report, he said the scientific findings and other data outlined within the document will go a long way in forming policy going forward.

“The BARDIN report presents the Government with scientific, evidence-based reporting and conclusions that allow us to form policy that best addresses the situation. Quite often, people have a kneejerk reaction to things,” Abrahams said.

“You may think that something is an issue and then you throw all the resources at it, and then you realise it’s actually not that, it’s something else….

“What this does is that it allows us to consider all of the parameters. [It] allows us to consider all of the factors, it allows us to make a scientific assessment of what the problems are, what drugs are used in Barbados, the age, gender [and] socioeconomic classification of persons who use them, so that the approach we use to reducing drug consumption and drug abuse in Barbados, and the law enforcement agencies use in enforcing the laws in relation to drug abuse or drug use, is not guesswork.”

Deputy Manager of the National Council on Substance Abuse, Troy Wickham, thanked the several entities who contributed to the national survey.

He also pointed to the expansion of the BARDIN report since its inception 10 years ago.

“The NCSA has continuously sought to improve and strengthen this important monitoring tool, and our partners have supported us at each and every junction,” Wickham said. “We started with a small cohort of contributing agencies with a limited number of indicators, and today our report has doubled in size from our first publication – an indication of how BARDIN has extended, both in terms of data and contributors. The results have resulted in a comprehensive document, which provided a bird’s eye view on the local drug situation. 
(SB)