A TOUGH DRUG TO CRACK

War on Drugs

A lucrative night of drug dealing came to a smashing end at a Murray St.
crack house last month when tactical officers busted in with a battering
ram.

Tipped off by neighbours and armed with a search warrant, officers had set
up surveillance outside the Ottawa Housing row house and waited as crack
addicts arrived, some running, for a fix.

When the steady crowd died down, the officers moved in, smashing down the
door and arresting three people inside.

In the melee that followed, two people resisted and were pepper-sprayed
before police turned up a small quantity of drugs -- about 15 rocks of crack
cocaine.

The January bust was just another battle in the war against crack on the
streets of Ottawa.

"We have zero tolerance for crack," Ottawa drug squad Sgt. Greg Brown says.

Narcotics officers and street-level police first began seeing the drug in
the capital in 1994, says Brown.

"Ottawa has a significant crack problem," he says. "From 1994 to 1997, there
was rapid growth. There was a lot of conversion of former powder cocaine
(users) to crack (users)."

The drug is now sold throughout the city, in crack houses, bars, and on the
street.

"You could see the media reports coming out of the States but up until then
we had pretty much just a powder cocaine problem," he says. "Then, all of a
sudden, people started selling rocks of crack instead of powder."

The Murray St. home had all the signs of a crack house with drug users and
prostitutes dropping by at all hours of the day and night.

The visits lasted only a few minutes, enough time to buy crack and get high
before heading out onto the street for more money and to get more crack.

Since crack first reared its head in Ottawa, police have busted more than
100 of the operations.

"It's not too difficult to find where these crack houses are. The community
knows, there's suddenly a lot of traffic of prostitutes and people who look
like they're using drugs," he says. "Usually, within a few days of a new
crack house opening up, either an informant will come in or someone will
call Crime Stoppers."

Lots of Dealers

There are no firm numbers on the exact count of users in Ottawa, but
officers know they're dealing with a large group of dealers.

"They're not all selling to the same guy," Brown says. "There's a huge
market for it."

From crack-house raids to street drug seizures, dealers are catching on to
police tactics, usually limiting the quantities of drugs in houses.

Some dealers just sell on the street. In an effort to outwit police, they
use phones and pagers to keep in touch with their clientele.

Dealers based in crack houses sometimes take great pains to keep themselves
out of jail and avoid ripoffs by other dealers.

In more permanent crack houses, trap doors and steel doors and bars are
common; they give dealers enough time to flush the drugs or throw them in a
bucket of bleach before police arrive.

Some dealers have gone mobile, operating temporary crack houses out of
motels, apartments, and houses of addicts who owe them money. On the street,
dealers wrap the rocks in foil or plastic and keep them in their mouths so
they can swallow the drugs before they're grabbed by police.

Some take hiding drugs to the extreme, concealing them in their vagina or
anus, uncomfortably safe from routine police searches.

The most popular method used by dealers to stay out of jail is to press
addicts into service making drug deliveries and sales to ensure that they
won't be caught holding the drugs.

The big attraction to selling crack is the money that can be made, says one
former dealer, "A.J." (not his real name), who turned into an addict
himself.

About $200 worth of powder cocaine can be turned into $500 worth of crack on
a stove top.

"I made a 150% profit," he says. "I got someone to run for me. I went and
found someone ... to do my dirty work. They'd do anything for crack or rock.
So, I'd say, 'here's seven stones each worth $20. I want a hundred bucks for
five stones, the other two, you can either smoke yourself or sell.' "

Human Toll

They'd then go to the Market and, with the dealer watching from a distance,
the addict would start selling.

"I'd watch him. I'd make sure he wasn't out of my eyesight, because a lot of
times you just can't trust someone who's on drugs. They'll rip you off," he
says. "You look around for a second and he's gone then you have to spend all
day looking for this guy."

The human toll that crack takes on users is staggering, says Brown. "As soon
as these guys get $20, they want to do it right away and get that feeling,"
he says. "All they're looking for is $20."

When savings and loans from family and friends run dry, many users turn to
crime to finance their drug habit. Police say there is a direct and strong
link between street crime and drugs.

Addicts will rob, steal or prostitute themselves for another hit. People are
beaten up, stabbed or shot for crack and crack debts. Even the resin inside
a crack pipe is valuable enough to spark violence.

Addicts often end up destitute, in jail or on the streets, relying on
services like the Union Mission for help.

"There's a wide range of drugs on the street, certainly crack is one of the
high uses," says Rhoda Bridgman an addictions counsellor at the Union
Mission. "The craving is so bad, they'll do just about anything."

The stories Bridgman hears about the life of crack addicts vary, but almost
all of them talk about loss -- families, homes, fortunes and jobs.

But like any addiction, people can beat craving if they're in the proper
program, says Bridgman.

"I've seen people get off crack," she says. "You have to want it enough."