FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK

Seriously, I think it's high time that we stand up as a community and
give the boot to crack dealers in town.

These people come to Inuvik with a suitcase full of cocaine and a
hunger for money. It must be the easiest job in the world to sit by
the phone and wait for the business to roll in. In an industry where
the product moves itself, any greedy, selfish person can become a crack dealer.

We need to take a proactive approach to this situation. We cannot
wait for the police to step up and make another "large" bust.
Pre-empt the RCMP and make some phone calls. Send anonymous tips to
the detachment. I've been told that is how our system works.

People who attended those meetings last year about the crack problem
are still waiting for results. Well guess what? You are the ones who
should be blamed. If you claim to know who these dealers are, then
rat them out.

Every crack dealer in this town is an outsider looking to score some
easy money from the weak, addicted people in the North. If you are a
crack dealer from in town, you just became an outsider.

I'd like to ask a crack dealer what he or she wants from this life.
I'd like to know what he wanted to be as a kid and how his mother
must feel about his career choice.

As much as I want to, I cannot leave all the blame with the dealer.

After all, it's called supply and demand. Just because he brought
some rocks up North on the plane does not mean you have to buy them.

Problems like this only go away when people in the community stand up
and admit they have a problem. If they can't stop, there is no reason
for the dealers to leave.

I don't think people in Inuvik are taking this problem seriously.
Maybe they didn't attend that meeting because they don't know anyone
addicted to crack.

Well hey, every addict is someone's family. If you have not been
affected by crack yet, you may be soon.

People get curious. It's our nature to question the world around us
and try new things. Now, if we could push crack dealers out of town,
there would be no temptation for kids to try crack.

Part of the power of cocaine, crack, speed or any other chemical is
the physical addiction. You cannot control it even if you want to. It
starts with a harmless sample at a party, and eventually you're
flushing entire paycheques down the toilet.

If you are battling an addiction to crack, please get help. Talk to
your family about it. Let them know that you plan on beating this.

By being an addict and giving these crack dealers a reason to keep
coming back to the land of the midnight sun, you are a big part of the problem.

I have faith in the people here in Inuvik. Rather than boot out all
the addicts in town to starve the dealers' demand, maybe we should
just deal with the crack merchants.

By giving a dealer your money for a gram of rock, you just sealed
that guy's fate. Instead of learning a useful trade or finding a
career, this person is making it rich in life by feeding off people's weakness.

He could have been a pilot or he might have been a good basketball
player, but someone hooked him up with a sweet gig, selling cocaine
to Northerners.

Can we just put everything else on hold and fix this? I think it's
time to put the pipe away and crack down on rock.