THE CHANGING FACE OF CRACK ADDICTION

Once just the scourge of city streets, the drug is now invading homes
of Calgary's affluent

Valerie Fortney Calgary Herald

It's considered one of the most addictive and destructive of illicit
drugs, and its use among Calgarians is growing at an alarming rate.

But it's not just the down and out, crack cocaine's traditional
victims, who are increasingly turning to this short high that leaves
its users wanting more within minutes.

Crack cocaine, say those on the front lines of the drug wars, is
attracting a whole new class of addict: white-collar professionals in
a wide variety of fields, everyone from bankers and accountants to
oil and gas workers, and even the occasional millionaire.

"In every aspect of what I am doing, I am seeing more cocaine and
more crack cocaine," says Dr. Ron Lim, a medical professor at the
University of Calgary who consults regularly with industry and works
with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission at the Renfrew
Recovery Centre.

"At Renfrew, crack addiction is now second only to alcohol."

Lorinda Strang, director of the Orchard, a private, for-profit
residential treatment centre on B.C.'s Bowen Island, says she is
seeing more well-heeled Calgarians with crack addictions than ever before.

At any given time, her facility counts Albertans among 30 per cent of
its clientele.

In a recent week, for instance, a multimillionaire male entrepreneur
from Calgary and a businesswoman from a town on the B.C./Alberta
border were sitting side by side in treatment at the Orchard, both
addicted to crack.

"People are now going straight to crack, and the age group is getting
older," says Strang. "We didn't used to see successful 50 years old
on crack, but now we do."

Neal Berger, executive director of the Cedars at Cobble Hill, a
private treatment centre on Vancouver Island, is witnessing much the
same thing.

"We get a lot of Albertans, a lot of Calgarians, with lots to lose," he says.

Front-line workers in the drug wars also point to Alberta's No. 1
industry as one of the breeding grounds for this new attraction to
crack amongst the gainfully employed.

"Crack cocaine is highly permeated in the oil and gas industry," says
Dr. Perry Sirota, director of Serenity House Drug and Alcohol
Treatment Centre in Calgary. "It's a scourge of the industry,
especially one which is so safety oriented."

Crack, a form of cocaine mixed and heated with water and baking soda
to form rocks that are then cooled and smoked, is a drug that quickly
leaves the system, a boon for those undergoing drug testing on the job.

Because of that, says Sirota, many workers are turning away from
alcohol and marijuana and toward crack to get high. "If you drink
booze, people can smell it, but you can't smell crack."

The situation has become critical in this industry, says Sirota,
because of the unique situation in which many oilsands and rig
workers find themselves.

"You're young, you're making a lot of money, you're isolated and
bored," says Sirota. "Tell me you're not tempted."

Berger says this doesn't mean the industry has fallen down on the job
of policing and treating employees with substance-abuse issues.

"The oil and gas industry, along with the construction industry, was
one of the first to get involved in developing comprehensive policies
on drug and alcohol use," says Berger, who regularly consults with
the industry, educating employers on addiction and helping companies
formulate policies.

"I think their policies are absolutely state of the art, the best
you'll see in the country."

Berger says the cost to all business from this problem is
astronomical. "Addiction costs around $20 billion a year in lost
productivity in Canada."

Oil and gas company spokespeople contacted for this story told the
Herald that due to confidentiality concerns, they couldn't speak
directly on addiction trends within the employee population.

M.J. Macleod also works closely with local industry, helping place
addicts in appropriate treatment programs. She says these new users
of crack underestimate the drug's effects.

"Many of them think because they've tried cocaine, they can handle
crack," she says. "They find out very fast that it has the power to
unravel their life in record time."

The Calgary Police Service confirms crack is fast becoming the most
popular illicit drug on the street.

The most recent CPS Annual Statistical Report, 2005, shows
crack-related incidents soaring from 2001 to 2005, from 160 to 653.
And when both cocaine and crack cocaine incidents for 2005 are
combined, a total of 1,215, it represents the first time cocaine
outnumbered marijuana incidents in our city.

Staff Sgt. Monty Sparrow, of the police drug unit, says he predicts
the numbers for cocaine incidents, specifically crack, will have
another record year when the 2006 report comes out.

"Part of it is because in 1999, we had six officers in our unit, and
today we have 21," says Sparrow.

Calgary, he says, is one of the major distribution centres of the
crack cocaine trade for Western Canada. "Once we get a few busts,
though, they just relocate the distribution point for a while."

Crack use on the city's prostitution strolls and in downtown back
alleys is in fact the minority now, he adds. The covert drug trade
makes up the majority.

"They're called dial-a-dopers, and they deliver to your home if you
have a big enough order," says Sparrow.

Jeth Weinrich is one of those Calgarians who once made up part of
that hidden segment. And he knows how much can be lost to the addiction.

The award-winning filmmaker tried crack four years ago while working
on a documentary on addicts.

Within three years, the multimillionaire and three-time Juno Award
winner had lost his 4,000-sq.-ft. home in Mount Royal and was in a
life and death fight against the drug.

"Crack has to be the most mentally addictive drug in the history of
mankind," he says. "If the public knew what the real numbers were for
crack use, they'd be shocked."