Bermuda is not winning the war against drugs but there is hope, said a Police drug prevention officer at yesterday's Lion's Club speech.

Responding to a barrage of questions from Lion's club members, Pc Rodney Trott said: "I don't believe that we're winning. You can go on any street corner and buy whatever you need.

"There's no shortage -- you can even call and have your drugs delivered,'' he added.

But several officers agreed on a plan that could seriously curtail or win the war on drugs, he said.

Pc Trott said Bermuda needed a five-year plan -- a brief but rapid escalation of the war.

The plan would involve Police "going crazy'' in the fight against drugs for five years and then easing off to begin rehabilitation.

He said an aircraft spends more fuel taking off than flying, and the drug war must use the same method.

He defined war as armed hostilities between nations for an objective and said Sun Tzu, a famous military general, believed the object of war to win.

"We have to understand that casualties will happen. The rules of war are not always the same (as society's),'' he said.

"Are we willing to cut the cost and then pay the price to gain the objective?'' he asked the club members.

He said drug dealers have the time to operate with "think tank like precision''.

"It takes vision, determination and money to win war. Money for soldiers, weapons and once we win, money for recovery,'' he said.

Pc Trott said a 24-hour patrol of Bermuda's waters would provide a valuable drug interdiction capability but said the resources were not there.

Several club members told their own stories about how to import drugs to the Island.

Pc Trott said: "Anyway you can think (of importing drugs) it's been done and redone. Harbour Radio can say that's a boat. They can't say what kind of boat it is.'' He added that the opinions were his and were not official Police policies, procedures or plans.

POLICE POL