voice concerns and offer solutions about their neighbourhood drug problem.

Premier Pamela Gordon, Police Commissioner Colin Coxall, Chief Inspector Roger Brydon, the officer in Charge of the West End Division, Warwick East MP Alex Scott and Warwick West MP Quinton Edness were on hand to hear the public's message.

Fearful residents told stories of living in their homes in fear as dealers plied their trade right outside their doors and several parents said they were worried for their children, whom, in some cases, would not leave home by themselves.

Some residents warned that they would take the law into their own hands and if the Police did not come to Ord Road to take away the drug dealers then they would have to come and take them away.

Suggestions included maintaining a Police presence in the area at all times to deter the dealers and cutting down the foliage and tidying up the area so the dealers would have nowhere to hide their drugs.

"Government has got to come to the wicket. We need Police presence here 24 hours a day,'' said one man.

Lines Food & Liquor owner Richard Powell -- who helped organise the meeting -- said that he had been given six video cameras which, he suggested, could be mounted on poles to film drug transactions as they took place.

He argued that going after the people buying drugs would deter them from coming to Ord Road to make purchases.

This way, the drug dealers would be "bankrupted'' and have no business to conduct.

If legislation needed to be passed to make it happen, he continued, "let's get it done before more people are hurt''. However a woman disagreed and said the problem was that the drugs were getting into the Island.

She said her two children were involved in dealing drugs and Government needed to stop the drugs coming in to the Airport and docks so it never reached the dealers.

Another woman said this idea was on the right track but the main thing was that the dealers had to be outsmarted because at the moment they knew what was being plotted against them by the Police and the community before it happened.

She shot down the idea of mounting the cameras on poles because the dealers would just climb the poles and get rid of them.

Ms Gordon told the audience that she had listened carefully to their concerns, views and solutions and could hear their frustration.

However she noted that very few people had accepted the fact that the problem started at home.

She said the people were finger pointing and saying "it's everybody else's fault'', but that was not the case.

The community had to stand up and be counted and collectively decide that Bermuda was important.

There was also a degree of accountability that everyone had to accept, continued Ms Gordon.

People had to stop making excuses when they knew someone was doing something wrong and instead had to make a commitment to do something about it.

The residents were told that if they were only concerned about what was happening on Ord Road and not the rest of Bermuda then they would not help the problem.

CHURCH CHU