not moved on their own to ban people under the age of 18 and drug abusers from their premises. That ban and certified age identification are required by the recent amendments to the liquor licensing laws. Surely licensed premises which have everything to lose by not following the law are behaving against their own interests and against the public interest by ignoring the new law.

As a result, they are now under pressure, quite correctly we think, from the drugs Task Force to ban drugs users from their clubs and to follow the letter of the law as it applies to those under 18.

Inspector Stuart Crockwell, who heads the Task Force, has said, "Clubs have to stop young people taking over certain spots in nightclubs and smoking marijuana.'' Thus he has confirmed for the first time what many people have long suspected, that there is drug abuse on some premises licensed to sell alcohol. He is also quoted as saying, "We have these kids who are buying drinks or having drinks bought for them and they are also abusing drugs.'' Dealing with under age people in nightclubs, he says that the clubs are not asking for ID which defeats the law, that Police have found any number of violations and that the clubs will have to start getting tough themselves.

Inspector Crockwell has given the clubs a few days until the end of the month to straighten things out or "we'll close them down and they'll have to answer to a Magistrate''. That is exactly what the Task Force should do. If one club loses its licence the others will quickly get in line with the law.

Responsibility has to be placed where it belongs, on the people who hold these licences to server alcohol and make money.

There was a time not long ago when if Police objected to a liquor licence being granted or continued the application was almost guaranteed to fail. In recent years the Liquor Licensing Authority has become much more lenient. It is time now for that authority to get tough too. The truth is that many club owners have huge sums of monery invested in these clubs and it is hard to understand why they do not protect themselves. It is up to them to know the law as it applies to them and to enforce that law. If things were going well there should have been no need for the Task Force to carry out its recent six weeks of observations on club violations.

For far too long club management has shirked its responsibility for behaviour in the clubs and for the violent events outside the clubs which are largely carried out by people who have been served too much alcohol. Serving people who are drunk is also a violation.

The Task Force is there to do its job. Owners will howl once it begins to take action but they have brought this on themselves by not properly controlling their own premises. That is especially true if marijuana and other drugs are being used on licensed premises. If that is true then owners have to be aware of it and have done nothing. That alone should be enough to revoke their liquor licence.