'THE PHARMACY' A BLIGHT ON PARK'S EASTERN ENTRYWAY

Two girls rush across Park Ave. toward the famous bronze statues of
the angel and four lions that stand guard over the eastern entryway to
this city's most treasured green space, Mount Royal Park.

It's a bright, snowy winter afternoon, but the girls, who seem barely
into their teens, are not dressed for a walk or tobogganing on the
mountain. They are dressed for the mall: short bomber jackets, tight
jeans and running shoes, no hats or gloves.

They hurry purposefully toward a man in a parka standing alone under
the scraggy, leafless trees beside the monument. The teens exchange a
few words with the man, and one of the girls hands him something. He
presses something else into her hand, and the girls run off across
Park Ave. to catch the 80 bus.

It's just another drug deal at "The Pharmacy," as residents have taken
to calling the area near the lovingly restored Sir George-Etienne
Cartier monument because of the impunity with which drug dealers seem
to operate there.

"It's just so out in the open, it's not even funny," said one Plateau
resident who walks her dog on the mountain every day.

She would give her name only as "Marie," because, like many mountain
regulars who spoke to The Gazette, she is afraid the drug dealers will
learn she spoke to the media or to the police, and she is afraid of
them.

But there is another reason she doesn't want to be identified. Like so
many residents of the Plateau, she has a generally tolerant attitude
toward recreational drug use and doesn't want to come across as uptight.

"I have nothing against people using drugs or selling drugs to make a
living. It's about the appropriateness of the place. ... Some of these
guys are scary, really shady looking."

The dealers stand alone or in small groups, sometimes beside the
monument, or sometimes up a little slope to the north of it, right
beside the cross-country ski trail city workers groom for the hundreds
of skiers who use the park daily.

The dealers are there in all kinds of weather, from mid-afternoon to
late in the night. Sometimes they approach park visitors to offer
their wares, but mostly they just stand there waiting for their
customers. And the customers come. Some pull up in cars along Park
Ave. for a pickup, while others arrive by bus or on foot.

Marie says she recently saw a dealer openly fondling a knife as he
made his way through Jeanne Mance Park across Park Ave. to the spot by
the monument. She's witnessed fights between dealers over who will
serve a regular customer. She speaks with frustration about the slow
or inadequate reaction of the police patrollers to whom she has complained.

But what she's most concerned about, she says, is the changing vibe in
Mount Royal Park, partly brought on by the drug dealers. "It creates a
really sleazy environment," she said.

Bee Maguire, a 25-year resident of Plateau Mont Royal and a fervent
mountain lover, says the problem has worsened over the last two or
three years.

"Think of all the tourists who come to Montreal and they come here to
the statue to take a walk on the mountain and all they see is these
drug dealers - it's so inappropriate."

Maguire takes pains to point out that nobody is calling for a
crackdown on events like the tam-tams, the weekly drumming parties
that take place in the same spot on warm Sundays, where marijuana use
seems to be tolerated.

"But this is different than the tam-tams. This is a full-time drug
boutique that is out in the open and seems above the law," she said.

Maguire, too, has approached police officers on patrol about the
problem. She says they've told her there is no point in making arrests
because the dealers will just end up with a small fine for possession
and they'll be back on the street the next day.

Other residents say police have asked them to report the licence
plates of cars that stop and seem to be supplying the dealers.

Meanwhile, Maguire says, the dealers are free to offer drugs to all
the young kids who frequent Jeanne Mance Park and the mountain.

"It's as though our non-negotiable interest in protecting our children
. was in diametric conflict with their priorities and agenda. What
do you do with that?"

Helen Fotopulos, the city of Montreal executive committee member
responsible for Mount Royal, said the city is working on the problem
with residents and police.

"Mount Royal Park is very safe, but there has been in the last number
of years an increase in what we call incivilities - related to both
sex and drugs - in different parts of the mountain," she said.

"We've also seen a crackdown in downtown parks, so we are seeing a lot
of homeless people and pushers ... being pushed north to the mountain."

The city's special task force on Mount Royal has asked a special
committee, overseen by police chief Yvan Delorme and high-level city
manager Rachel Laperriere, to find solutions to a number of security
issues in Mount Royal Park, including drug dealing.

Lt. Daniel Rouleau of police Station 20 said the station is "very
aware of the problem" of dealers beside the Sir George-Etienne Cartier
monument.

He denied his officers are concerned only with tracking down the
suppliers and let the dealers operate freely.

"We do patrol the area in uniform, and the mounted police patrols are
also effective in dispersing the dealers. We do sporadic plainclothes
operations where we make arrests, not every day but every few weeks
when we can spare the officers to do it."

He said the station plans to focus on Mount Royal Park safety issues
in the spring when a reorganization will give the station more officers.

"We are trying to control (the drug problem). To say we could get rid
of drug dealers completely would be like saying we believe in Santa
Claus, but we want to give some peace of mind back to the people who
visit the park."