Often the barriers to developing community work arise from professional fears about status, role, and identity. Some types of community activity are viewed with distaste and suspicion about motives, which are seen as unhelpful and uneducated. However, it appears more realistic and more appropriate for community groups to deal with the drug problems in their midst, supported but not replaced, by the specialists. On the other hand, there are limited resources and one priority is to dramatically increase community resources across both statutory and voluntary sectors, not just to discuss how to exploit current provision. To get the resources they need, and to be allowed to take effective local action, drug agencies must band together to achieve a radical top-down shift in the national climate of opinion on drugs.