That quote is from Home Affairs Minister Maxwell Burgess in announcing financing for Bermuda's first ever drugs court and the new treatment and assessment centre which will run alongside the drugs court.

Concrete and very constructive things are happening in the battle against drugs but, of course, this drugs court and its attendant treatment and assessment centre for drug users will prove worthwhile only if it can be made to work successfully.

The drugs court is designed to help drug users who want to help themselves. It is a court to deal with users and is aimed at recovery from addiction and not at punishment. However the Minister made it very clear that persons who smuggle and deal drugs are not eligible to take part. "...for those people in the business of peddling and selling drugs, that's where we want to lock them up and throw away the key''.

For a long time Bermudians have been critical of a lack of action in the "war on drugs'' but finally a rather tepid war has turned very hot. This drugs court, which responds to the needs of the addicted and is aimed at decreasing the demand for drugs, follows hard on several severe blows to importers and distributers. The demolition and boarding up of crack houses is bad news for distributers and the international raid on drugs importers aboard cruise ships is a strong warning to importers.

Bermuda is getting serious.

The operations against importers and dealers will not be easy and they will not be cheap but we agree with Maxwell Burgess who said, "I know certainly what the cost would be without it. It is the cost of lives. It is the cost of increased crime. It is the human wastage. The cost is the need to import people because our people are too strung out on drugs and unable to be as productive as they should be.'' There is only one way to judge the success of any drugs programme. That success is the decrease in the demand for drugs. If a programme can prevent some people from becoming involved with drugs while getting others who are involved to turn away from drugs, then a programme is making progress. Success can only be judged by decreased demand.

No matter how many Operation Cleansweeps we carry out, no matter how often we raid cruise ship importers, no matter how many crack houses we close, there will still be a supply of drugs. The profits are so great that people will continue to take the chances. The only successful way to fight drugs is to stop the demand. When the demand stops, then everything else stops.