major threat to this community. It may well be that drugs and alcohol take priority over the economy when people discuss Bermuda's problems.

If that is the case then Bermuda needs a general agreement to come together and to cooperate to solve the problem. We think there is an understanding that this problem reaches into all sections of Bermuda's society and transcends political considerations. The Progressive Labour Party did not agree with that when it shortsightedly refused to take part in the National Drug Strategy Team but it seems now to have come around to giving drugs and alcohol a united national priority.

Yet, despite the efforts of Dr. David Archibald and of NADA and of the Interim Steering Committee of the National Drug Strategy, the efforts against drugs and alcohol appear more often than not to be stalled. Those people who want to move against the problem seem to us to be confronted far too often by the fences which various departments of Government build around themselves to keep the public out. We think similar fences have hampered positive developments in tourism.

It has been hard to get public money for what Government likes to call the "war on drugs'' despite the great public concern over drugs. Only recently has there been any real effort to produce cash to fight drugs and even that may be too little and too late. Then it seems to us that instead of various ministries coming together to work on a problem, which we all agree is serious, they tend to duck the problem, pass it on and turn a blind eye to helping. It is the same old scenario. The reports and the committees are seen as enough and implementation of valid recommendations is downgraded.

The drug problem is difficult and complicated but it is made harder to solve if people in power in the schools stand in the way of solutions. We think that this is an area where the Cabinet, with the help of the Minister of Education, could cut through all the red tape and instruct that everything possible will be done, or else. There is no other sensible approach to take.

It is outrageous that despite apparent support from the Minister of Education and the Ministry, there is little implementation in the Government schools of the life skills programme. Surely the schools knew that a stoned student is a lost student. The sad thing for Bermuda is that the programme has been shown to work where it has been used and has been urged on Government schools for over five years now. There is good evidence that in the private school where the programme is functioning, the Bermuda High School for Girls, surveys show that it does produce great improvement. Everyone agrees that the drug problem is best attacked by getting to the young. Therefore it is imperative for Cabinet to mandate the implementation of life skills.

The Minister of Health and Social Services says that Government is committed to dealing with the drug problem and we know that he is personally committed.

But commitment must be demonstrated in concrete ways rather than just reports and committees. The chairman of the National Drug Strategy, Mr. Alastair Macdonald, has called for that to happen by the opening of schools in September and he is right.

Of course, action against drugs will require more than just this one programme. It will take cooperation from the entire community but this programme, sponsored by the Lions Club, would be a positive start. If it takes major changes in the Ministry of Education to bring it about, then so be it.