Teen drug use remains a huge problem on the Island with many using marijuana as casually as adults consume a glass of wine.So believes Gita Blakeney-Saltus, the regional vice president of drug treatment centre Caron Bermuda. The Department for National Drug Control plans to release figures on teenage drug use this year.In 2007 the government agency revealed approximately two-thirds of Bermuda’s adolescents had experimented with alcohol, nearly 24 percent had tried marijuana and 22 percent had smoked cigarettes.Just over ten percent had tried inhalants, while 0.5 percent of teenagers had used heroin.“We know the problem is very huge and is only becoming more acute. The issues with the drug-related crime, there is an inexplicable connection between drug use, sales and the demand thereof.“The young people, I would venture to say, who are involved in this type of violent and dysfunctional behaviour are probably drug dealers or drug users or maybe a combination of both because that is their industry.”She said the Island’s teenagers had selected marijuana and alcohol as “the drugs of choice” and said the drugs were “considered as casual as it is having a glass of wine for adults”.Young people often begin experimenting because of peer pressures or stresses at school. And as economic conditions continue to put pressure on families, she said more children could turn to drugs.“The reasons why we experiment are really interesting, but we never wake up wanting to be a drug addict. A child may say ‘I want to try some marijuana today because my friends are doing it’ or, ‘my dad does it why shouldn’t I?’“There are many reasons why young people do what they do, even self-medication. Young people go through depression and they determine maybe it’s better to tune out.“At the end of the day our social conditions determine how we feel and how we respond to our world today.”Caron has developed a new drug abuse prevention programme for teenagers aged 13 to 17, which will start at the end of the month.Through group workshops, over eight weeks, it is hoping to empower young people to make better life choices before the usage is out of control.She said: “We are trying to save them at the front end instead of the person that falls off the cliff who then we are trying to pick up the pieces for.”Many adult addicts involved in treatment programmes admit to using drugs at an early age. The Caron Bermuda initiative will be the first preventative programme of its kind on the Island.