Education Minister El James has paid out of pocket to assist young men attend drug rehabilitation in the UK.

The Minister spoke at a Progressive Labour Party meeting on crime for Warwick residents last night, along with former Police Commissioner Jonathan Smith, anti-gang organisation CARTEL founder Pastor Leroy Bean and new PLP Chairman Anthony Santucci.

And Pastor Bean said he is hoping to open a similar programme on the Island to help with the Island's growing drug problem.

The nine-month rehabilitation course, at a religious institution in the UK, is free but Mr. James told the meeting he has helped pay the airfare for some of the young men as he was concerned about their problems.

"If anyone here has family members with drug problems please speak to the CARTEL and they can give you more information on the programme," he said. "Many of the people that have gone are doing well and some of them are still living in the UK."

CARTEL has been sending people to the programme for years.

"We want to build a similar programme here that deals with the core issues that can lead someone to drug addiction," Mr. Bean said last night. "A lot of these young men do not feel they are being heard and a lot of it is due to education. They don't feel they have the skills to succeed in Bermuda so they turn to gang activity."

And former Police Commissioner Mr. Smith said he is optimistic for the future as crime in many areas have been going down, despite the recent spate of shootings. And he praised new PACE legislation for giving Police more stop and search powers.

"We are seeing Police being more proactive about stop and search requests," he said. "Any of you that were at Berkeley last week and heard Professor Mincy speak about young black males will now that he said our problem is manageable, that we are talking about 700 individuals causing the problems."