Assembly that sports clubs should crack down on drug dealers operating from their premises was right on the mark.

But his statement that sports clubs are profiting from the drug dealers' presence was dangerous; by making such a wide and unsubstantiated claims, he has brought all sports clubs into disrepute.

It was a statement that he could only make in the House of Assembly, where he was protected by privilege and cannot be sued for defamation.

Nonetheless, he has a responsibility as a public official to either support the statement or to withdraw it.

It may be that he meant that the clubs profit from the dealing in the sense that it draws people to the clubs who go on to spend money in the bars and elsewhere. But the strong inference was that the clubs themselves were benefiting from the drugs trade.

Nonetheless, if the clubs are benefiting indirectly, they would do far better to eradicate the trade and make it possible for families and the other fans who have been driven away from watching soccer in particular as a result of drugs and bad behaviour to return. The profits in terms of ticket sales and concession profits would give local soccer the sound financial base it so desperately needs.

Soccer desperately needs a better image in Bermuda. As the most popular national sport, it should be drawing big crowds every week. It is not and the bad behaviour of athletes and spectators, coupled with open drug dealing and drug abuse, are the reasons why.

Youth and Sport Minister Dennis Lister notes, correctly, in today's newspaper that the former United Bermuda Party government failed to use legislation which could hold clubs accountable in the courts. He says Mr. Smith was hypocritical to be raising it now that his party is out of power.

He may be right. That, however, is no excuse for his Government's inaction.

GOOD GRIEF EDT Good grief It is not often that the death of an artist or writer receives the kind of attention that Peanuts creator Charles Schulz's passing last weekend has received.

But Mr. Schulz was not just any cartoonist. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang touched a chord for just about everyone.

We all recognised our foibles (or someone else's) in those four squares on the comics page. He held up a mirror to the human soul and gave us the greatest gift of all -- the chance to laugh at ourselves.

In one sense, Mr. Schulz will live on. The Royal Gazette , like almost all North American newspapers, will continue to publish his "classics'' for as long as our -- or perhaps that should be Charles Schulz's -- readers want them. That is quite a tribute in itself.