The organisers of Bermuda Against Narcotics (BAN) seem to be acting largely out of frustration, and it is impossible to blame them.

The frustration stems from the inability of the community as a whole to get a grip on the problem of drugs, and perhaps more importantly, the disastrous effect they are having on individuals and neighbourhoods.

This stems in part from the seeming inability of the Police to stem their flow. To be sure, drug seizures are announced and people are trooped before the courts and sent either for rehabilitation or to prison.

The Police also work hard to deal with the effects of the trade. No one can say for certain how much crime in Bermuda is a result of the drugs trade, but it is likely that it is far more than half.

Desperate addicts burgle shops and homes to get cash to buy their drug of choice. ?Functioning? addicts steal from their employers for the same reason. Gang warfare erupts, at least in part to protect territory or in revenge for a deal that has gone wrong.

Too often, the Police seem only able to keep their fingers in the dyke.

At the other end of the scale, ?demand reduction? remains a case of one step forward, two steps back.

For every person who is successfully rehabilitated, two or three people fall off the wagon. And even for the successful person, it is always a case of ?one day at a time?. There is a reason why people who have not touched a drink or used a drug in decades continue to call themselves ?recovering addicts?. They know they are one slip away from disaster.

The infighting and petty jealousies that have all too often characterised the activities of the anti-drug agencies don?t hurt either. It may be unfair perception, but they often seem to devote more of their energies to fighting among themselves instead of fighting drugs.

And yet this is a struggle that must be continued with.

If ordinary citizens can make it clear to dealers that they are not welcome in their neighbourhoods, then that is all to the good. There is a danger that pressure will turn into vigilanteism, and this must be guarded against.

At the same time, Government and others have already acknowledged that a purely punitive approach to drugs possession does not work.

That was the thinking behind the drugs court and the Bermuda Assessment Referral Centre (BARC). Very little has been heard about the results of these bodies since they were created and it is reasonable to suspect that they need more resources and support.

At the same time, it is clear that some people are using the system as a get out if jail free card and it is essential that those who abuse the process suffer the consequences.

It may also be time for Government to take a hard look at the Misuse of Drugs Act. A distinction probably needs to be made between the person caught with a tiny amount of drugs, who then ends up with a criminal record a place on the US stop list, and the person with a much larger amount. And distinctions also need to be made between marijuana possession and ?hard drugs? like cocaine and heroin, whose effects are undoubtedly worse.

This is not an endorsement of marijuana. No matter what the ?legalise it? lobby says, marijuana is not good for you. But it is less harmful, and making hardened criminals out of occasional users is self-defeating.

The organisers of BAN are right to be mobilising and they deserve the community?s full support. But they cannot do it alone. Ending the drugs problem required a community-wide effort.