problems, the Hamilton Rotary Club was told yesterday.

Mr. Alastair Macdonald, chairman of the interim steering committee for the National Drug Strategy, said financial help is only one type sought from the business community.

Businesses can and do help through creation of employee assistance programmes, promoting addiction treatment, and providing moral support to employees, Mr.

Macdonald said at Hamilton's Princess Hotel.

The committee was set up last August to start dealing with the Island's abuse problems until the National Drug Commission is set up. The committee is "building a foundation'' for the commission expected to be created by an Act of Parliament this year, he said.

Then, "we will disappear''.

More than 100 people are at work on ten different task forces looking at areas ranging from treatment to the family, he said. "We all know that substance abuse is really a symptom of larger problems within the community.'' Employee assistance programmes allow workers to get confidential help for problems within the workplace before the problem grows and possibly leads to substance abuse.

About 70 percent of Bermuda's working population is now covered by an EAP, he said. He urged Rotarians who do not have one in their workplace to start one as "a first step'' in fighting abuse.

Businesses can also help in the area of addiction treatment, he said. Medical insurance coverage for addiction treatment, now offered by one insurance company, "has to come into its own sooner than later'', he said.

Companies should talk to their employee insurers, which are "very, very oriented toward their customers'', and urge them to provide coverage for addiction treatment.

Moral support is also essential, said Mr. Macdonald, who noted his employer, the Bank of Bermuda, has allowed him to spend half his time on his work chairing the interim steering committee.

Beating substance abuse is "going to take the concerted and combined actions and activities of every single person on this Island,'' and employees should be given time and encouragement to get involved, he said.

Linked to moral support is money, he said. Government has provided up to $1.1 million to fund the committee's work in the coming year, but "doesn't have bottomless pockets'', he said.

"You'll be hearing from us asking for money.''