squads -- senior and under-23 -- as they headed for Florida for World Cup and Olympic warm-up matches, talk instead turned to what has become football's modern day scourge -- drugs.

Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith claimed that certain sports clubs were profiting from the drugs trade, although he failed to name them, a police officer on duty was allegedly caught smoking `weed' while watching a match at White Hill Field last Sunday, and later this week a substantial quantity of drugs was seized from outside PHC's premises.

Soccer and drugs, it would seem, are now virtually synonymous.

And sadly nobody, least of all successive Governments and the Police, appear able to do a thing about it.

Anybody with the slightest interest in the game will tell you that drug taking and drug selling have been common-place on match days for 10 years or more.

Those involved often flaunt the law quite openly, seemingly safe in the knowledge that their illegal activity has little or no chance of being curtailed.

It's not just spectators who indulge, but players as well. Yet they continue unpunished.

Police presence at soccer matches is sporadic at best, and if last Sunday's episode is anything to go by, then their attendance hardly serves as discouragement.

Most of the offenders are well known as are their whereabouts during matches -- it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to track them down.

Yet when was the last time anybody was arrested at a soccer match either for illegal possession or illegal dealing? For some reason, the authorities appear to turn a blind eye.

And we wonder why the problem has now reached epidemic proportions.

If a police officer can fail a drug test, as has been alleged, yet escape dismissal only to be caught out again, what hope is there for a drug-free society.

Sadly, absolutely none.

Smith might have been somewhere in outfield when he claimed -- quite carefully within the privileged confines of the House of Assembly -- that clubs were benefiting from the drug dealing that takes place on their premises.

That we find hard to believe. If it was the case, perhaps some of our sporting facilities would be a darned sight better than they are now. If drug profits were being ploughed back into the clubs, our playing pitches, changing facilities and clubhouses would likely be much more accommodating.

As it is, most are in desperate need of upgrading.

But Smith, nevertheless, touched a raw nerve.

Club officials might not condone drug activity on their grounds but it's fair to assume they are aware of where and when that activity takes place. And they then have an obligation to inform Police.

How Commissioner Lemay and his troops then tackle the issue is up to them.

But there's a feeling among many in the community, particularly after last Sunday's incident, that the boys in blue aren't doing nearly enough to help eradicate this disease.

PHC chief Chris Furbert argued that no progress could be made until authorities started tackling the problem from the top down.

He's absolutely right. At present, there's no evidence that is happening.

-- ADRIAN ROBSON