HOOKED ON CRACK

Crack is ruining lives in Quesnel, a police officer said while
standing in an upstairs room of the RCMP detachment.

A window overlooking the train tracks and cars driving along the
streets, put a little light on the bags of crack cocaine, cellphones
and gun sitting on a table.

"I was talking with two guys arrested and they told me their lives are
ruined," Quesnel RCMP drug section Const. Luiz Sardinha said.

A member of Quesnel RCMP's drug section, Sardinha said it's when
addicts hit rock bottom they realize it's time to get help.

Drug section Cpl. Gary Senner said while crystal meth is probably the
most addictive drug on the street, addicts need crack cocaine more
often.

Their high lasts a few minutes before they burn out and need another
hit.

"This is not like heroin, where the high lasts much longer, it's
short, and addicts need to maintain their high. They want to get back
up, so they keep buying," Senner said.

Crack dealers are lured into drug trafficking because either they need
to support their own habit, or can't resist the temptation of big money.

"The greed these people have on another's addiction is overwhelming to
see," Senner said.

On the street, a hit costs $20. It doesn't seem like much, except for
a crack addict, $20 lasts just minutes.

When the minutes run out, addicts look for another hit.

Another $20.

"They never get back up again," Sardinha said.

"One guy told me it's like chasing a dragon's tail."

Giving a stronger high than cocaine, often referred to as euphoric,
the drug is derived from combining baking soda with cocaine and
heating it until rocks form.

What follows the high is extreme depression, anxiety as well as
physical and mental addiction.

"Addicts experience horrific mood fluctuations," Quesnel Addictions
Centre director Bea Thatcher said.

"It wrecks lives, people are no longer in control, the drug is, and
they behave in ways they never thought they would."

Thatcher said the problem, she's told, is quite large in Quesnel.

"We don't see everyone with a cocaine problem, but the word out there
is it's a huge problem," she said.

"I wouldn't even hazard to guess what that means."

She said the stories are similar.

"What I hear the most is how hard the drug hits people. They go from
living a normal life to something spinning out of control. They stop
working. Their family disintegrates and they go places. Places like
crack shacks," she said, adding it takes only months before the drug
ruins a person.

She said more than anything, an addict needs support - it's the one
thing proven to work no matter what, a human connection.

"It's like a house crumpling, the house needs a brace, people need
someone to hold them up to give them a sense of hope."

While crack cocaine's hold in Quesnel exists, Staff Sgt. Keith
Hildebrand said his officers are doing their job. With several busts
to their credit, the word on the streets is to lay low.

"The community is waking up to the damage drugs cause," he said.

Stolen property cases, teamwork between the drug section and officers
on patrol led to several arrests. Hildebrand said the busts are working.

"We're getting charges," he said, adding the types of charges RCMP are
bringing on are the result of acquiring enough evidence to support a
case in court.

Safety and Justice committee chair Coun. Sushil Thapar knows Quesnel's
police officers are doing their job. But he questions whether or not
the courts are doing theirs.

"It's the justice system who can't process drug dealers, not even in
two years," he said, referring to a case still before the courts.

"It's a slap on the face for the community. RCMP are catching people,
there's enough officers."