CRACK USE ON RISE IN RURAL AREAS OF CANADA

TORONTO (CP)- It's not just an inner city drug anymore.

Addiction experts across the country say crack cocaine is fast becoming a
fixture in rural and smalltown Canada, and it's users -- many of them
addicts -- are getting younger.

Crack, a cheaper form of cocaine usually associated with the back alleys of
major cities, has spread into small towns and cities in recent years, the
experts say, and it's buyers are increasingly teenagers and people in their
twenties.

"The spread is quite dramatic," said Doug Smith, program coordinator of
Toronto east General's Detoxification unit.

The use of the drug has shot up both in Toronto and in small communities
across Ontario, he said, where it is having devastating effects not seen in
the city.

"Small towns are seeing more violence, homelessness like they've never seen
before, poverty like they've never seen before," he said.

"There's been a huge increase in the use of crack cocaine in the last three
years. It is probably one of the most addictive drugs we've seen."

In Ontario, in 1994-95 there were 349 calls from people using to treatment
centers outside Ontario. In 1998-99 that number had almost doubled, rising
to 622, said Joyce Bernstein, an epidemiologists with Toronto public health.

The total number of crack-related calls from rural areas are likely even
higher, Ms. Bernstein said, because crack callers often say they're addicted
to cocaine. Calls about cocaine from places outside Toronto shot up to 1,450
in 1998-99 from 878 in 1994-95.

Crack is manufactured by melting powder cocaine and adding baking soda and
sometimes other substances such as kitchen cleanser. The mixture is cooled
and hardened into a "rock," which is smoked with a pipe.