headquarters said: "It's the economy, stupid.'' In Bermuda in 1994, the sign would read: "It's crime, stupid.'' All other issues -- the economy, education, Independence and health care to name a few -- have been pushed to the back of people's minds by this scourge because if we cannot start quickly to solve this problem, they will all be made irrelevant.

We cannot expect to teach our children well if teachers and children are fearful of leaving their homes or because they are confronted with violence in the playgrounds and classroom.

It need hardly be said that international business and tourism will collapse if Bermuda develops a reputation for lawlessness and instability.

There are clear indications that the hospitals and health services are stretched to breaking point dealing with people suffering from drug problems and with the victims of violence.

And whatever benefits that might be derived from Bermuda going Independent will be of little help if Bermudians do not feel free and safe in their own homes.

It is in this light that Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan's suggestion this week that Bermuda consider dropping the presumption of innocence for people possessing firearms has to be considered.

While we do not support such a call -- which would more than likely cause more problems that it would solve -- the broader point Sir John was making is that we have to consider all remedies to solve the crime problem and the problem of drugs, its primary cause.

Recent Press reports, and the three-part series on "Bermuda In Denial'' which concluded in this month's RG Magazine, show that people engaged in the drugs trade -- both as suppliers and users -- do not share the same values as the bulk of the population and that traditional deterrents have little or no effect on them.

Thus we may have to look beyond normally aceptable deterrents to crime.

Traditional solutions like longer prison sentences, metal detectors and wider drugs searches at all of the Island's points of entry, more Police on the streets and gun amnesties all have their place and have be considered.

But we have to look further than this and consider whether our courts system and prisons are working, whether greater efforts have to be made to expand community policing, and more importantly, to get at the cause of the problem, which is the high demand for drugs on the Island.

It may aso be time to consider introducing panels of judges to try some indictable offences if, as has been suggested, juries are being tampered with.

It is perhaps a sign of the times that the US Consul General this week took the unsual step of endorsing the Island's sentencing practices for drugs offences. While there are Americans who have fallen foul of Bermuda's laws and are paying the price in Bermuda's prisons, it is still unusual for a diplomat from another country to comment on another country's local laws.

But these are unusual times and drugs and crime are worldwide problems. As drugs are mainly coming through the US to Bermuda, the time may have come for even closer ties between Bermuda and law enforcement agencies in the US.

But Bermuda also has to look to cutting demand. Here, we already have most of the answers. They are contained in the Tumim Report on Criminal Justice and in the National Drugs Strategy. Some proposals are expensive and others are radical. But the time has come to put them into action.