AUTHOR INVESTIGATES KINGSTON DRUG SCENE

When Kingston author William Hopper began to research his new book, A
Parent's Guide to Street Drugs, he didn't have to travel far.

"It's not difficult to find a drug dealer in downtown Kingston," said
Hopper, who wrote the book under the pseudonym James M. Lang.

After poring over government documents and research papers for months, the
35-year-old Queen's University graduate realized he was missing a dealer's
perspective on the drug trade, so he began interviewing some.

"I hang out in a large social circle, so I told my friends I wanted to talk
to someone who deals," he said.

"As soon as word got out, I had people coming up to me all the time asking,
'What do you want to know, man?'

"The problem is finding a drug dealer who's articulate enough to quote."

After six interviews, he found his man. The interview is printed in the
book, a 120-page educational guide to the illegal drugs circulating in
schools and on street corners across North America.

Hopper, a Kingston resident for 12 years, described the city's drug scene
as typical of most Canadian cities. Use of softer drugs such as marijuana
and hashish is standard, he said, but synthetic drugs such as ecstasy and
crystal meth are on the rise.

Kingston Police have noticed the same trend.

"We maybe have one or two recent busts [for ecstasy] but we know it's much
more prolific than that," said Ray Lonsdale, a Kingston Police crime analyst.

"For every seizure we're getting there are four or five shipments coming
through undetected."

Lonsdale is responsible for calculating many of the crime statistics in
Kingston. He said ecstacy statistics and arrests are few because the
Kingston drug squad is understaffed and underfunded.

An effective undercover squad can place members inside the drug underworld
and gain valuable leads.

"That requires people, time and money," Lonsdale said. "We just don't have
that."

Kingston's location is also problematic. Shipments that leave Montreal, a
hotbed for drug trade, usually come here first, he said.

"You can walk into [a particular Kingston nightclub] on a Friday night and
you'll see a crowd in a circle. Rest assured, there's ecstacy there."

Hopper was reluctant to point a finger at specific Kingston locales as
problem areas, but he warned that parents in a suburban or affluent setting
have no reason to feel more comfortable than others.

"It doesn't matter where you are," he said.

"If you're in the Heights, downtown or in the [former] township, you will
be able to find [drugs].

"Where there's money to be made, a drug dealer will go."

A lot of statistics used in A Parent's Guide come from U.S. sources, such
as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National Household Survey on
Drug Abuse. Hopper said he tried to write for a universal audience - the
book is also for sale in the United States, Britain and Australia - because
it's a universal problem.

"What happens in the U.S. normally occurs in Canada, and vice versa," he said.

"If you have a guy with a [crystal] meth lab in Arizona that's producing a
new kind of [crystal] meth, it will be in Canada very quickly."

Hopper, who was recently hired by the House of Commons committee on
non-medical drug use as a research consultant, said he doesn't use illegal
drugs and rarely touches alcohol.

"I have my vices: coffee and nicotine. I admit it," said Hopper, a fixture
in many downtown coffee shops.

He also lacks first-hand expertise in parenthood - he plans to become a
father eventually - but his research hasn't discouraged him from the prospect.

"A parent really has to know this stuff," he said. "It's not optional."