SOLICITOR GENERAL POINTS FINGER AT WHITE-COLLAR DRUG USE

EDMONTON - A white-collar worker snorts cocaine in his highrise
office; a drug dealer gets gunned down on the streets.

To Alberta's solicitor general, there is a link between these events
that the public should recognize.

"When people think drugs, they think about the homeless shooting up
in the back alley somewhere, but we know it goes beyond that," Fred
Lindsay said Thursday.

"There are people in middle-class or upper-middle-class jobs who are
also using drugs.

"Certainly they're not as dangerous to society as someone out on the
streets shooting innocent people, but again, they're contributing to that."

Lindsay was responding to a recent call by police chiefs for 800 more
officers to help fight crime and gang activity in Calgary and
Edmonton. Lindsay said more manpower would certainly help combat the
problem but the "root causes" must also be addressed.

"The gangs and organized crime would not be here if people weren't
using illegal drugs," he said.

"It's not the main concern I have in regards to fighting crime but
it's one that's there."

Liberal justice critic Kent Hehr said he supports Lindsay's statement.

"I think that's a fair comment by the solicitor general," he said.
"Let's face it, it's not just the homeless people sitting on street
corners that are using drugs."

Stockbroker Bill McNarland, who works downtown, said he doesn't know
a single co-worker who abuses drugs.

"I work with nice people who go home at 3:30 p.m. for soccer
practice," he said. "I don't see any evidence of it."

But one marketing consultant said he smokes marijuana occasionally,
and drugs are a common sight at parties, especially pot, cocaine or ecstasy.

"Yeah, people in towers use drugs, people all over do drugs," said
the man, who asked that his name not be used. "It's no secret,
Edmonton's awash in the stuff."

One former drug dealer said he rarely sold drugs to the well-heeled
workers in downtown Edmonton.

The man, who asked not to be named, said his clientele mainly
consisted of low-income users, but also men 20s or 30s who worked on
oil rigs or in construction.

Lindsay said he knows some Alberta companies have started programs to
deal with employee substance abuse and pointed to the oilpatch and
construction industry as examples.

Neal Burger, executive director for Cedars Treatment Centre for
Addictions on Vancouver Island, said about one-third of his clients
come from Alberta. The centre has been working long-term with several
large Alberta companies.

Among the office crowd, cocaine is a common addiction, said Berger.
Other drugs of choice are oxycontin and other prescription narcotics.

In a 2004 survey, 4.2 per cent of Albertans earning incomes of at
least $60,000 per household reported using one or more illicit drugs
other than cannabis, according to Korey Cherneski, spokesman with the
Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

He said AADAC records show that between 2007 and 2008, 22 per cent of
clients came from the construction industry, 20 per cent from sales
and service, and 19 per cent had no occupation.