Growing numbers of young people are seeking help for drug problems amid concerns of a link between gang violence and addiction.

Augustina Raynor, director for the Salvation Army’s Harbour Light and Life Skills programmes, is urging the Bermuda Government to tackle the issue by allocating funds and forming preventive policies.

Ms Raynor said the Salvation Army has seen an increase in admissions of younger clientele seeking counselling and treatment for addiction, and now includes gang culture awareness in its therapy.

She believes that greater efforts tackling addiction could also help in the fight against gangs.

“While government resources are fixed on tackling gang violence, a stronger connection needs to be made with the prevalence of drug addiction,” Ms Raynor told The Royal Gazette.

“Government is moving all resources and attention to gang violence and gang issues but I don’t think they realise that the whole foundation of gang activity is drugs. The common saying is ‘drugs follow guns, guns follow drugs’.

“Resources need to be pushed into addiction because these young gentlemen are getting addicted so young now. If we can centre money on prevention and treatment, then the gang violence shouldn’t be as much of a problem. We have many ex-gang members who have changed their lives because of our programme and so the connection shouldn’t be separated.”

Addiction issues were highlighted throughout September as part of Recovery Month, including a walk through Hamilton last Monday, organised by the Salvation Army.

According to the Government’s 2015 Berdin Report, 98.9 per cent of 188 criminal offenders interviewed in one section of the survey reported use of at least one drug in their lifetime. Of those offenders, 15.4 per cent indicated that the offence was committed to support their drug habit while about three out of every ten offenders reported that drugs were connected to their offences.

The age of initiation of drug use in Bermuda, according to the report, ranged from a low of 14.4 years for marijuana to a high of 31 years for methadone. Alcohol and cigarette or tobacco use began around 14.8 and 15.2 years, respectively, and the use of heroin and cocaine began after 23 years, on average. Ms Raynor spoke anecdotally about the admissions at the Salvation Army, which does not record statistics on ages of admissions.

“We are getting younger referrals which is good because at 24, 25, 26 they haven’t faced the drastic impact of the addiction but we are getting them younger and they are homeless and jobless. When they are coming in at 40 they are really tired. The last stats that we did showed crack cocaine is the biggest, second is heroin which is on the increase, then marijuana and alcohol.”

Ms Raynor said extra resources would be readily welcomed for addiction programmes at the Salvation Army which is able to house ten residential males at any one time with government providing 4 per cent of its funding. Asked how the charity would allocate any extra funding, Ms Raynor said: “It would definitely be for the primary programme — Harbour Light and also the Life Skills programme because we need more staff.

“We only have ten beds — expansion is something we have talked about for many years. There is a need to expand the programme in the sense of making it more like a community based centre of excellence where families can come in and do groups here in the evening. We do one on one with family that could and should grow.”

The DNDC celebrates Recovery Month annually and sponsors the events.

Joanne Dean, DNDC director, told The Royal Gazette: “Government fully funds the men and women’s residential treatment programmes at the Nelson Bascome Facility and has provided grants for decades to support charitable groups and community based programmes in the provision of their services, ie Salvation Army and Focus.

“By partnering with other government departments, the community and the Bermuda Hospitals Board, Bermuda provides outpatient treatment opportunities; methadone maintenance, residential treatment, transitional/supportive housing services and support for adolescents substance abuse. There is always room to improve services and to do more and the DNDC is committed to ensuring quality, accessible and cost-effective substance abuse treatment to the Bermuda community.”