impression that it is soft on drugs. Once again the PLP has failed to realise that too often the stands it takes on drugs give permission for drug abuse.

It is impossible to understand how the PLP can justify its soft position and that position is very difficult to accept.

It is especially difficult to understand when we know that the Bermuda Industrial Union has a very clear and very tough position on drugs, particularly drugs in the workplace.

Despite endless information, the PLP does not seem to know that drugs are the major concern in Bermuda today, a national scourge and a national problem which knows no social or political lines.

Dr. Ewart Brown, the Shadow Minister of Youth and Sport, has opposed suggestions made by the board of inquiry into drugs in soccer. Maybe he is only playing politics with his old Warwick West adversary Sir John Sharpe, who chaired the board, but if that is so, Dr. Brown is playing a dangerous game.

He takes issue with recommendations of the board which include drug testing for the Bermuda Football Association executive, giving officials responsibility to search team members and baggage when they prepare to return from overseas competitions and the introduction of video drug surveillance by soccer clubs.

With regard to searching, Dr. Brown says that there should be "responsible conduct on the part of young adults''. Ideally that's true but it seems unrealistic to rely on "responsible conduct'' in the wake of the events in Miami. He says that "simple, effective policing'' is all that is needed instead of video surveillance. That is naive in the extreme and totally impractical given the present climate. In any case, video surveillance is "simple, effective policing'', modern "simple effective policing''. By their very nature as an "association of like-minded persons'' clubs should be required to police themselves yet Dr. Brown says club officials need not be directly exposed to lawbreakers as that is the job of the Police. Surely club officials have a duty not to entertain lawbreakers and then expect the Police to clean up the mess.

Dr. Brown's reply to the soccer inquiry report, which he had time to prepare, seems to be an attempt to maintain the unacceptable present situation and to provide excuses for clubs and officials to do nothing. Dr. Brown's suggestion of "leave it alone, it's the thinking of some old men'' as a way to proceed with the drugs-in-soccer report is a guaranteed excuse for young people. This soft approach to drug abuse makes young people think that drug abuse does not really matter and is not too serious. Thus they have an excuse to abuse drugs and to do business as usual at soccer matches. As a result, a fair number find themselves in prison or confined to Bermuda because they are on stop lists elsewhere....or held in Miami.