He was notorious for beating people up if they owed him a few dollars and even sold heroin to his own father, the Olympic medal-winning boxer Clarence Hill.

But Jahma Gibbons turned his life around remarkably following a piece of advice from his barber who, in the amount of time it took to cut Mr. Gibbons' hair, convinced him he needed to be a Christian.

Now 33, the father-of-two has become a motivational speaker who visits schools and prisons to urge people not to make the same mistakes he made.

As someone who's been there, done that and sold enough drugs to buy a hundred thousand T-shirts, Mr. Gibbons is now able to reflect on what drove him to the lifestyle he once lived, a path many young men are walking down today.

"I came from a single parent home. My father wasn't around, my mother had to work two or three jobs," he told The Royal Gazette.

"From the age of 15 or 16, I had found myself hanging out with my friends on the streets, playing football, these guys in the neighbourhood.

"But it graduated from sitting off and hanging with your boys. I went to selling weed, then it escalated to selling other things.

"There was things I wanted that my mother couldn't afford me to have. I saw what guys on the street were able to have; I wanted it too.

"There's so many different things that leads these guys astray. The social system: coming up with a single parent, she wasn't able to watch over me. The system forced her to not be able to guide me as her son. She had to work to pay for the meals. It's kind of hard to do two or three jobs and watch your child at the same time.

"My father Clarence Hill, due to his career, he was involved in drugs. I never got that father figure, the guidance.

"In Bermuda, there's a serious problem with fathers being absent. With that missing, children can easily go astray.

"There's a lot of factors: what you allow your children to watch on TV, the music they listen to that promotes violence, drugs and sex, video games that promote a lot of violence.

"There's been a lot of people who haven't had these things and they have still been able to do the right things in life, but it's a lot harder for a child to grow up with these things missing in their life to live a positive life."

The direct consequences of Mr. Gibbons' past actions seem small fry compared to today's gun warfare.

"When I was younger, my generation, we basically did things for fun. We threw eggs, bottles at Police; we were just on the streets, sold drugs," he said.

"We were more into jewellery and girls. We didn't go out and steal, we were making enough."

Bermuda has since witnessed an evolution from fist fights, to machetes, and now guns. But, while the social issues behind the problem remain consistent, he said it's only now that the community at large is taking notice.

"Bermudians are the kind of people, if it's not in their backyard they don't worry about it," said Mr. Gibbons.

"They would rather remain silent. I used to tell my friends years ago one day Bermuda would have drive-bys. I could see the youths younger than me coming up, their minds were not mature as they were getting themselves into it."

Mr. Gibbons' lifechanging moment came when he went for a haircut and his barber started echoing religious sentiments his grandmother had first instilled in him as a youngster.

"All it took was for one guy to start talking to me about the Lord," he said. "It really hit me from what I learned as a child. I became a Christian. As I got older, I decided to get a job."

But Bermuda isn't exactly going to solve its problems by hoping all the gang members have their own moments of Damascus.

"You have to understand how these youths are thinking," said Mr. Gibbons.

"Why should I go and get a job when I can go on the street and sell drugs and make more money in a day than what these guys make in a week?

"It's a lot easier lifestyle. A lot of youths, they will pick the easier lifestyle. All they have to do is look out for the Police.

"I never cared about what the drugs I sold was doing to the members of the community. They wanted it, I was giving it to them.

"I sold drugs to my own daddy one time. That shows the level of the morals compared to the money that you want in your pocket."

Today, he's playing a role in society through his motivational speaking, but feels he has more to offer if Government want to tap into his experience.

"I grew up, sold drugs, used drugs. I used heroin and cocaine. I have done everything. I have been part of a gang.

"I used to beat up guys that owed me $2. I was notorious for beating up guys. When I look back at my life and all the things I have done, I feel that the Lord had a plan for me. All I have done, I never ended up in jail; I never ended up in court. Lord protected me. I believe the Lord was grooming me for what I'm doing now, for trying to help young men.

"I went from destroying my community to trying to build up my community, to show other young men the wrongs in their lifestyle.

"I think that Bermuda needs to stop looking overseas for the answer. They need to stop spending a whole lot of money on consultants.

"They have people like me right here in Bermuda who can give them an outlook on things they need to do to make changes. There's lots of guys like me who are willing to help out in any sort of way."