Puerto Rico is having its deadliest year on record as authorities struggle to control a rampant drug war on the U.S. Caribbean territory

Police said that three people died overnight in separate incidents, raising 2011's homicide toll to 995 on the island of 4 million people. That matches a 1994 record with six weeks left to go in the year. Local authorities say that 70% of the killings are drug related, and Pedro Toledo, who was chief of the police department in 1994, said that violence has increased partly because drug traffickers are now being paid with weapons instead of money and because many youths in public housing complexes see selling drugs as a quick way to make money. "We have a generation of young people who are violent, who take a gun and shoot, killing indiscriminately because they are expendable," Toledo said. "This is a generation that is going to be very hard to straighten out." Both the unemployment and homicide rates in Puerto Rico are higher than in any U.S. state. The island's rate of 22.5 killings per 100,000 people is double that of Louisiana, according to a recent federal report. Police make an arrest in only 43% of killings, compared with a U.S. national average of 66%, according to the report, which also accused the police department of corruption, unlawful killings and civil rights violations. An October 2011 survey of 1,000 people by the newspaper El Nuevo Dia found that Puerto Ricans are more concerned about crime than any other issue and 83% say that they now limit the amount of time spent outside their home. Fifteen percent said that they have bought a gun, according to the survey that had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.