of the most effective weapons in preventing the epidemic of drug abuse. Like The Bermuda Life Skills programme, which also falls under the auspices of the Council Partners Charitable Trust, the group also believes in the premise that there is little point in telling people to `just say no' to drugs unless it is done in a positive environment where an alternative, healthy and fun lifestyle can be followed. Judith Burgess, PRIDE's executive director, estimates that the association and its related programmes -- Youth to Youth and Parent to Parent -- today involve about 5,000 people. In the last year alone, over a period of nine months, approximately 27,000 drug-free hours were spent in programmes, special events and conferences. PRIDE Bermuda is the local branch of PRIDE International, formed in 1977 after a group of Americans discovered their children had been using drugs at a neighbourhood backyard party. Since then, some 80 countries have formed similar groups. In 1986, Bermuda's Council on Drug and Alcohol (CADA), sponsored a group of people to attend the PRIDE Conference in Atlanta. That resulted in the formation of PRIDE Bermuda, which has since organised ten successful conferences of its own, reaching out to schools, companies, churches and clubs in its efforts to educate parents. A true grass-roots group, PRIDE helps parents establish guidelines for their children and empower them to talk freely and frankly to their children about drugs. According to its mission statement, PRIDE helps parents develop wisdom by way of taking knowledge and turning it into action; develop love by acting in someone's best interest whether they like it or not; and develop courage, which is the ability to act even when you are afraid you may be wrong. PHOTO Executive director of PRIDE, Judith Burgess DRUGS SUPPLEMENT DGS