POLICE TEAM UP TO BUY DRUGS

Walking down Abbott Street toward Hastings, the scruffy-looking man
is at home among the jiving drug dealers festooning the store fronts.

Comfortable on his way to work, chatting about his kids and wife with
a reporter uncomfortable in the area, he's looking to buy drugs.

Anything at all. Up, down, rock, powder -- just be careful. And
careful he is. He's under the watchful eye of his shambling buddy,
trailing behind, or maybe to the side, or in front. He never looks for
him, but knows his guardian is there.

They are Vancouver police officers, part of the drug enforcement and
education team, here tonight simply to show how easy it is to buy
drugs. As we walk the short block before turning on to Hastings we
hear the dealer's whispers.

The buy takes only seconds as the nest of Hispanic men vibrate like
bees in a hive. The action is slowed only when another dealer jumps in
to try and make the deal. Ten bucks, and a small off-white crystal of
rock cocaine the size of a quarter of an Aspirin is produced.

As we wander off along Hastings, more offers of drugs come from any
number of men casually standing or walking the street. Later, a tour
of Commercial Drive shows dealers haunting the streets there, too.

This team usually works outside of the Hastings strip, busting
dial-a-dopers, coke houses and street-level dealers in areas that
become hot potatoes because of pressure from residents or
politicians.

And they're just back from a three-week stint with "Project Libra" in
which they made dozens of buys and identifications. Although they
number 12 on paper, they operate with seven or eight and have had
almost 280 arrests since last January.

They are philosophical when asked about the revolving-door nature of
their arrests: They know they can arrest a man early in the evening
and, before their shift is over, arrest him again, after he's let out
of jail.

"It's job security, man," is the mantra.