Anti-drug campaigners want to bring a pioneering US treatment for addicts to the Island.

Muslim representatives from a ?spiritual treatment? programme in Baltimore, Maryland, called I Can?t, We Can, arrived in Bermuda on Thursday night to discuss the plan with Bermudians Against Narcotics (BAN).

Israel Cason and Saafir Rabb II will also speak today at a BAN rally in St. George?s town square at 2 p.m.

Clinton Muhammad, co-founder of BAN, told yesterday: ?Crack is definitely extremely dominant on this Island. There is also heroin and now ecstasy. We need to have this drug situation eradicated.

?One of our steps in trying to do that is asking help from our brothers overseas. In addressing this drug situation we needed help from people who have done it, who know the ins and the outs of this. That?s why we have brought our brothers here.?

Mr. Cason said the Baltimore programme, which started in 1997, has so far treated 9,000 addicts. He said it could also be used to treat large numbers of addicts here, estimating that at least ten percent of Bermuda?s population uses drugs.

?We have really come to show that there is an alternative to a lifestyle of drugs and destruction,? he said. ?We come to offer some help and explain how we deal with the drug problem in Baltimore.

?It?s a therapeutic community model. We are self-supporting and we are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We offer treatment on demand. It?s a holistic approach which is spiritually-based. We don?t turn anybody away.?

In Baltimore, drug offenders are offered the I Can?t, We Can?t one-year programme as an alternative to jail.

Mr. Cason said the emphasis was on helping addicts to become ?God-conscious?.

?We deal with the psychological and biological, the sociological and the spiritual. We have counsellors and a treatment plan and goals that people meet.

?The programme is a year long and 75 per cent of those who stay a year sustain recovery. What we want to do is take away the desire so they don?t want the drug.?

The initiative gets no government grants but has its own revenue-raising businesses, such as Bible shops and beauty salons. The idea would be to operate the same way in Bermuda.

Mr. Rabb said: ?Our aim is to help our brothers in Bermuda. We are here for a two-fold purpose. One, to engage with the folks that have started BAN.

?We also want to co-operate with the officials, be it Government officials or established entities that are interested in co-operating to bring some sort of redress to the problem.

?That may mean an exchange programme where we send people to help replicate I Can?t, We Can.?

He added: ?One of the really important features of the programme is that it allows one addict to help another addict. People are empowered to help others. I think that?s something we can have here.?

Mr. Muhammad said: ?The visit is exploratory. This is what we would like to see happen. We haven?t broke ground yet but this is something that we would really, really love to have. We are still at the embryo stage.?

Imam Yahya Abdullah, honourary president and chairman of BAN, said: ?The key to dealing with the drug problem is the long-term solution and that?s why the treatment of addiction and dependency has to be addressed.

?This organisation, I Can?t, We Can, is critical to doing that. We can save lives and restore lives and rehabilitate lives. That?s what this is all about.?