CRACK HITS NEW FRONTIER

As Yellowknife Residents Find Wealth From Diamond Mines, A 'Devastating'
Drug Problem Explodes

In Its Wake, Violent Crime Is Rising In A Region That Prided Itself On
Being Safe

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T.--The "Gaza Strip" runs for a bleak block along 50th
St., between the Gold Range Hotel and the Right Spot bar, just a few metres
from this city's main intersection.

For anyone here who wants to buy crack cocaine, it's the place to be. Day
or night, dealers ply their wares, often under the scrutiny of RCMP drug
squad officers.

Drugs follow money, and there's plenty of it in the Northwest Territories'
capital, thanks to fat paycheques from the North's new diamond mines and
businesses related to them.

"It's easy to get," says Gord, 41, a recovering addict who used crack for
five years. "Stand at the red railing near the Right Spot and in 10 minutes
it will be offered."

Or: "You just pick up your phone and it's delivered right to your door
within five minutes."

Alcohol has been a scourge in the North since Europeans arrived. In terms
of numbers and damage done, it's still the top addiction problem, says
Larry O'Brien, who heads the RCMP's three-member Yellowknife drug squad.

But crack, intensely addictive, now excites far more concern, and fear.
"The drug problem is scary," says Premier Joe Handley. "People aren't used
to it. It's incredibly addictive and devastating."

Crack is making destructive inroads into even the smallest N.W.T.
communities. In its wake are lost jobs, prostitution, wrecked families,
ruined lives and a level of violence new to a part of Canada that --
despite its traditionally high crime rate -- prided itself on being safe
and a bit naive.

"What's changed, what's made the town more violent, is crack cocaine and
the criminal element that goes with that," says Dave Harder, who runs
Crackbusters, a program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous for recovering addicts.

And there's growing anger over the inability or reluctance of the RCMP --
which acts as the local police force -- to attack it.

"I just find it unbelievable that I can go down the street and tell you who
the dealers are and have nothing done about it, and see the RCMP drive
right past them," Handley says. "There's more interest among the
Yellowknife drug squad in getting the big guy in Vancouver than in our
local drug pushers."

Police say they know the drugs come from Asian, East European and outlaw
motorcycle gangs in Alberta and B.C.

They complain they're hamstrung: Wiping out the trade on 50th St. would
just send it elsewhere, they say. It's tough to convict accused dealers.
People probably would object to stop checks on the only road into the city
from southern Canada.

But they also admit Handley is partly correct: They must follow a
"mandate," set by headquarters in Ottawa, that requires they go after only
major traffickers and dealers. Those in Yellowknife, as destructive as they
are, aren't nationally important enough to merit the federal force's attention.

Merrill Dean, principal of Weledeh Elementary School, suggests the
"underbelly" began to develop in 1992, when a bitter labour dispute at
Giant -- one of the two gold mines then operating in the city -- led to the
murder of nine replacement workers and scabs by a striking union member.

Until then, the city's drug scene was "penny-ante stuff," Dean says. But
the RCMP was too busy with the murder investigation and its aftermath to
keep up with a new breed of dealers. Cocaine showed up first, but use
wasn't widespread. Soon, its derivative, crack -- cheaper and producing a
more intense high -- took over.

"I've witnessed, over the last three years, a significant shift ... from
where the main drug of choice was still alcohol and people were smoking
pot, to where people started to use crack cocaine," says Harder.

"It affects everybody ... what people would think of as the skid-row type
of person up to the very affluent. We've seen well-to-do families that are
affected. It affects everybody."

O'Brien agrees. "It's across the culture," he says. "Business people,
school kids, respectable people are on crack." Children too young to be
charged are employed as runners.

The Salvation Army runs Yellowknife's only treatment centre, although other
groups offer counselling. Two nights a week, a dozen or so addicts -- a
small fraction of the city's estimated 1,000 -- attend the Crackbusters
meetings.

Participants sign a commitment. "From this day on ... I'll never touch
crack again."

It's the only way, Harder says. And it's tough.

"Crack is so painfully addictive." On top of that: "It's pushed in the face
of people who want to get off it. Walking down the street it's offered for
free to get them back on. It's diabolical."

On the street, "some dealers are very aggressive," says Gord, who worked as
a heavy equipment operator. "If they don't get you today, they will tomorrow."

Each hit is relatively cheap. An eighth of a gram sells for $20. Many
addicts buy gram chunks for $120, then break off pieces to sell as "20s" to
pay for their next supply. But the cost quickly mounts because the effect
- -- a rush of euphoria, painlessness and perceived strength -- lasts little
more than half an hour.

Most of the recovering addicts at a Thursday evening Crackbusters meeting
are struggling but determined to stay "in here" rather than go back "out
there."

Garry says he functioned on crack for eight years. For a while, he led a
small native community. Even his wife didn't know he did the drug every day.

His eyes fill with tears. "You lie to yourself that it's not a problem --
till it crashes. When you hit rock bottom, you're lying and cheating. I had
to find excuses to go out" for a hit.

Eventually, he tried to commit suicide. Four times he pulled his car over
on the normally quiet road between Yellowknife and Rae, a Dogrib community
an hour's drive north. He ran a hose from the exhaust into the passenger
compartment.

Each time, a car came by and he was stopped. After the final attempt, he
was taken to hospital. He wanted help, but he was told, before anything
else, he had to tell his wife what had happened.

"She was hurt," but started going to support groups. Garry says he's been
clean for four months. His next high will be very costly, he says. He'll
lose his wife. "That's a very big motivation for me."

The N.W.T.'s crime rate is six times the national average. While violent
and property crimes drop in the rest of the country, they're on the rise
here, according to statistics complied by the RCMP.

Most offences are still related to alcohol abuse, and occur in the small
communities.

Over the past few years, the largest increases have been in theft, robbery
and assault. Much of the blame goes to crack use, as addicts steal to pay
for the drug, and traffickers fight over turf and bad deals.

Recent events illustrate what's happening:

* This summer, Yellowknifers saw their first crack-related murder trial.
Two years ago, Justin Van Vo was bashed with a crowbar, stabbed and
strangled in one of the city's half-dozen crack houses. The killers carted
his body to a riverbank just outside the city and set it on fire. Witnesses
said Vo owed drugs and money to dealers.

In late June, a jury convicted one man of second-degree murder. Three other
men pleaded guilty earlier to lesser charges.

* In June, fistfights and gunshots followed an attempt by one Yellowknife
gang to invade another's territory. Police said they could do little
because they couldn't get a warrant to search the apartment where the
battle started. Afterward, the gangs decided to work together.

Gord says he was in that crack house but didn't participate in the brawl.
The incident, he says, convinced him to quit crack. "It got violent and
dangerous. I saw a person I know with a gun. I realized how bad it is up
here, and where I'm at."

* Last month in Inuvik, 1,100 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife, RCMP
escorted eight men out of town after a "mob" of about 80 people, convinced
they were dealers, threatened to do the job themselves. Police noted many
of the "vigilantes" -- who shouted "Go home, crackheads" -- were drunk.
They also said the crowd included six local dealers apparently trying to
eliminate competition.

* RCMP last month announced one of Inuvik's largest cocaine busts -- 200
grams, worth about $40,000. A B.C. man was charged. Hay River, at the west
end of Great Slave Lake, set its own record this spring when police seized
250 grams from another B.C. man.

In Yellowknife, dealers are fairly aggressive, O'Brien says. "But it hasn't
approached the big city mentality yet, where you just wouldn't walk up and
down the street."

Two or three high-level groups operate in the city, he says. He'd love to
do a "street sweep. ... We have to work harder at the lower level." But
that's considered to be outside the mandate. Making matters worse, the
Yellowknife detachment is understaffed.

The RCMP will soon have a drug-sniffing dog for the bus depot and airport,
O'Brien says. It's also working with Canada Post on ways to detect drugs.

Dean says the Mounties do a good job coming into her school and talking
about drugs. But as for clearing out the dealers, "they're pretty powerless."