THE SCOURGE OF DRUG HOUSES

U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton spoke often about how it takes a village
to raise a child.

Well, it will take a city to battle the neighbourhood scourge of drug houses.

Red Deer RCMP are monitoring about 15 suspected drug houses. Another
25 have been shut down by the RCMP's street team over the last couple
of years, its leader Cpl. Steve Cormack told the Advocate for
Saturday's front page feature by reporter Andrea Miller.

She tracked down Darlene Fountain, who has been at wit's end the past
three years, trying to deal with the drug house next to her home in Eastview.

Drug-addled potential customers have banged on her doors at all hours
of the night and the drug house was recently damaged in a suspected
arson attack.

Fountain courageously did not sit back and turn a blind eye to the
mayhem a short distance away.

She has taken down licence plate numbers despite threats of
intimidation. Her son stepped in and belted one man who came up
behind her with a golf club.

Someone took a swing at her husband as he was gardening and when he
followed his assailant, he was hit with a fence post by one man and a
knife was pulled on him by another. Assault charges have been laid.

Neighbourhood efforts have not shut down the house -- yet. But police
have been heeding the calls of residents and are now making daily
appearances to let the drug dealers know they are being watched.

Watching and reporting and phoning police when anything happens is
the best way that neighbours can get involved to try pushing drug
dealers off their streets.

Look for all the telltale signs. Lights that never go out. Unusual
traffic patterns including many visitors, stopping for a short time
and at odd hours.

It would be wise not to get too confrontational. Drug users are not
known for the predictability and no one wants to see a tragedy.

The kinds of weapons police are pulling out of these homes, from
powerful handguns to machetes, should be proof enough that caution is
necessary.

But the police will listen. Cormack is well aware that residents are
often disappointed by the slow progress in closing down drug houses.

Police must have substantial proof that illegal activity is going on
before they can get a search warrant to bust a suspected drug house.
But every piece of information helps, they say.

As Central Alberta's economy continues to grow and as increasing
numbers of new arrivals are drawn to the community, drug problems are
likely to get worse before they get better.

It is up to residents not to get complacent and take the attitude
that moving one drug house will only mean another will move in somewhere else.

Sadly, there's a lot of truth to that.

But ensuring drug dealers are not allowed to fade into our
neighbourhoods is the responsibility of neighbours.

Taxpayers and voters must also support efforts to boost police
forces. Adding extra officers has been an easy sell in Red Deer for
the last few years and that support must continue.

Communities ignore the causes of the drug problem in the first place
at their peril.

The problem is being driven, police say, by the growing numbers of
people choosing Red Deer as their home and the ready availability of drugs.

Adding to the misery is the increasing addictiveness of many modern
drugs such as crystal methamphetamine, which can turn dabblers into
addicts dangerously quickly.

Addiction centres report a relapse rate higher than 90 per cent.

Withdrawal symptoms are said to be worse than heroin or cocaine.

Those whose lives, family relationships and health have been ravaged
by drugs are not a segment of society that tends to have the ear of
governments.

Increasing the number of treatment programs and supporting new
approaches to dealing with drug addictions requires the support of
the average taxpayer -- the people governments listen to very closely.

The Alberta government has taken some steps, with Premier Ralph
Klein's wife Colleen Klein leading a task force.

The Western provinces have also restricted the sale of
pseudoephedrine -- a prime component used to manufacture crystal meth
- -- at pharmacies.

Sandy Bergen, a 21-year-old Saskatchewan woman, is suing her meth
dealer after lingering near death in an emergency ward a year after
taking her first hit and becoming increasingly hooked.

She offered this advice in a January interview: "It's the communities
that have to get together and do stuff about these people. Start
naming names and run these people out of town."

Advocate reporter Paul Cowley is on a five-month assignment as a copy editor.