CRACK CONCERNS HIT N. SHORE

JUDGING from the e-mail messages I received after last week's column
on crack cocaine available in high schools, it seems many people are
afraid of the potential problems and just as many are unaware of the
dangers to their children.

As depicted last week, the incident involving a threat with a handgun
over a crack debt at Terry Fox secondary in Coquitlam, should bring
home to all of us that the crack problem is no longer unique to the
Downtown Eastside.

Crack cocaine is made from powdered cocaine. It is made by mixing
powdered cocaine with a substance, usually something as simple as
baking soda, which draws all the additives or "cut" from the powdered
cocaine. This is done by heating the mixture resulting in a solidified
slab or "cookie" of virtually pure cocaine.

Once dried, the cookie is cut up into small pieces about the size of a
chocolate chip. These pieces are about an eighth of a gram and sell
for $20.

Some crack dealers go one step further and cut the "twenty" in half.
These smaller pieces are known as "dimes" and sell for $10 each. They
are readily available anywhere on the Downtown Eastside and
increasingly more and more available in the bedroom communities of the
Lower Mainland.

Crack cocaine is more addictive than powdered cocaine because of its
purity and the method of ingestion. Crack must be smoked and cannot be
injected or snorted. Many crack uses say they were addicted to it
after the first time they smoked it.

Crack cocaine is responsible for much of the crime committed today.
Murder, robbery, auto theft, burglary, shoplifting, you name it and
the "crackheads" do it.

The initial short-lived euphoria of a drug as powerful as crack is
followed by a "crash." This involves anxiety, depression,
irritability, extreme fatigue and often paranoia. An intense craving
for more develops. Hence the easily cultivated addiction to the drug.

Heavy users become compulsive and repetitive in their behaviour.
Often tactile hallucinations can occur such as insects crawling
beneath the skin. This may result in the addict literally tearing away
at his or her flesh trying in vain to get the bugs out. It is very
ugly to see.

The easily achieved addiction of crack users is the primary reason for
its rapid spread throughout the U.S. over the past 10 or so years and
now across Canada. The dealers have a built-in return clientele. The
drug is cheap and readily available.

I told you last week that North Shore school trustee and Vancouver
Police Staff Sergeant Doug Mackay-Dunn said VPD officers have checked
North Shore teens hanging around known crack corners in the city.

A few days ago, North Vancouver RCMP executed a search warrant on a
crack house in Lynn Valley. Apart from the drugs and money seized, the
Mounties recovered six van loads of suspected stolen property. No,
that's not a typo. From one crack house, they got six van loads.

There's no doubt that crack cocaine has come to the North Shore.
Scared yet? There's more.

As insidious as all this is, the worst part is that crack dealers
target young people and especially young girls.

At the anti-drug rally hosted by MP Randy White held last week in
Abbotsford, Mackay-Dunn told the 3,000 or so assembled concerned
parents the story of Mandy Blakemore. While tragic, Mandy's story is
not, by any stretch of the imagination, unique.

She was 17 when her parents were killed in a car accident. Left
vulnerable by the tragedy, the pretty young girl was a magnet for the
predatory pimps and crack dealers. Once addicted, she had to work to
feed her habit by selling her body, in the process losing her
self-respect as well as her innocence.

The ravages of crack took her looks and within a short while she was
put out onto the streets of the Downtown Eastside. From high school in
Courtney to hooking on the skids in two short years.

Mackay-Dunn picks up the story. "Last summer, two of my officers spoke
with Mandy as she sat in the north lane of the 100 block of East
Hastings surrounded by a pile of garbage.

She wanted to keep her only possession of value -- her crack
pipe."

"She also told the officers she wanted to die. A few days later, she
got her wish," said Mackay-Dunn. "She died of heart failure brought on
by drug abuse, crack."

The post mortem revealed she was infected with Hepatitis, HIV and a
host of other diseases. Mandy Blakemore was 23 years old when she died.

According to Mackay-Dunn, she had tried to get help for her addiction
a few times. Her sister did everything she could to assist and support
her. Unfortunately, there are only 14 drug re-hab beds in the whole
province and over 20,000 addicts. There was no help for Mandy.

Said Mackay-Dunn, "Mandy could have been saved. She was allowed to die
a terrible death."

"This government cares more for sea beds than re-hab beds," concluded
Mackay-Dunn.

Where does all this leave us?

Crack is creeping into our neighbourhoods and our schools.

Parents and teachers need to be exceptionally vigilant. Principals and
school boards must get their collective heads out of the sand and
admit the problem exists and do everything they can to combat the
ravages of crack.

The government needs to refocus its priorities in the way the war on
drugs is being waged. It is simply not acceptable to have only 14
re-hab beds in this province.

Nor is it acceptable for the federal government to withhold funding
for the RCMP so that detachments and squads who are at the sharp end
of the war are being left shorthanded and bereft of the manpower and
resources to do the job that needs to be done.

Isn't the very future of our children worth it?