DRUG DEALING MAKING NEIGHBOURS DESPERATE

Crack cocaine has driven a central Dartmouth neighbourhood to desperation.

Drug dealers are plying their trade openly on Victoria Road and Queen
Street, while people living in the once-pleasant section of town
double-bolt their doors.

Someone got so sick of the situation last week, they posted signs at major
intersections pointing out the area's two busiest crack houses.

"There's got to be something that can be done here," said local resident
Chris Woodman.

Lookouts are posted at street corners and drivers roll-up to make crack
deals at all hours of the day and night.

Some dealers even work from second-storey windows, lowering drugs down to
their customers on a string.

Crackheads haunt the neighbourhood, looking for ways to feed their habit.

"Even in the daytime, you have to be careful," said Nancy Posiak, who lives
nearby and works in the area. "You just have no idea what they're going to
do next, if they're going to try and rob you or stab you. It's just really
scary."

After two crack-related murders in the area last year, "it hit rock
bottom," said Brenda Dooks, who works at a nearby Ochterloney Street
clothing store.

"It's a shame, because downtown Dartmouth could be a lovely little place,"
she said. "We've got to stop it somehow."

Early on the morning of Sept. 6, someone driving down Portland Street fired
six shots through store windows from a 9-mm handgun.

One of those bullets entered James Bates's barber shop.

Bates doesn't know if the shooting and drugs are linked, but he blames the
proliferation of crack houses in the area on landlords who don't care who
rents their buildings.

"As long as we have slum lords down there, these people are going to flock
into these places," he said.

There have been a number of community meetings on the drug problem, but
they accomplished little, he said.

"I think that people try to hide things that are going on," said Bates.

"And it gets to a point where you can't hide it any more. You've got to
take it by the horns and get rid of it."

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson