Making the claims on the Thursday, April 1, 2021, edition of his ZBVI 780am radio show, Mr Cline claimed several others in the VI are also noticing the trend.

VI has tools to handle issue – Skelton-Cline

“We are not known to be drug users but… I am seeing and others are noticing an uptick amongst our young people with drug use.”

Mr Skelton-Cline continued, “It starts with marijuana, starts with the little weed and the ganja but then it graduates and I am very concerned with the direction of this trend.”

The man of the cloth related that while the VI is experiencing difficult days, the territory has the tools to navigate its way towards a better and healthier society.

“It’s going to require more than any one government, more than any one term… it's going to require more than the church,” he said.

Claud O. Skelton-Cline said local drug use amongst youths would usually start with marijuana before moving on to other illicit drugs.

Community effort to address subject

Calling for the community to come together and address the issue, he said “all of us are going to have to make it a concerted and targeted and intentional effort, at expending energies to hold back the tide of what I'm seeing happening to us.”

While Mr Skelton-Cline promised to delve into the topic during future episodes of his radio talk show, he did not provide any solid research or statistics to back the claims.