CRACK COCAINE A GROWING PROBLEM

The crack down on illegal drugs continues to be a priority for
Sunshine Coast RCMP.

The Labour Day long weekend was a busy one for police who made a
number of drug related arrests.

According to Cpl. Max Fossum, a 16-year-old girl and a 25-year-old
man were arrested Sept. 1 on Sechelt Indian Band lands and now face
charges of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Fossum said police found 27 half-gram bags of both soft cocaine
(powder that is snorted, swallowed or injected) and crack cocaine (a
hard variety of the drug that is usually smoked), divided and ready
for street distribution. As well, RCMP found two cell phones and a
folding knife. Police are also looking into laying additional charges
against the adult man for assault and possession of a dangerous weapon.

Another drug bust took place on Sept. 3. In that bust, police
recovered 20 grams of crack cocaine, two nine-millimetre
semi-automatic handguns and around $10,000.

Fossum said the investigation into Monday's bust is ongoing, but he's
anticipating a number of charges being laid against four or five people.

"Crack cocaine is a growing issue impacting the whole Coast," said
Fossum, adding that in both weekend busts, none of the people were
local residents, but new arrivals from Vancouver. "This is a growing
trend and a disturbing one."

Drug traffickers coming over from Vancouver bring with them a whole
other dimension to the drug problem including guns and gang related
contacts, he said.

"The last two major seizures that we had on the Sunshine Coast
totalled a kilogram of cocaine. However, what is alarming is that it
was already in the form of crack cocaine, demonstrating the huge
demand for it. As crack cocaine becomes more and more popular, the
number of hardcore cocaine users will increase which will increase
the crime rate and the impact on the community," said Fossum. "People
think we are more isolated and less likely to get the serious drug
dealers here, but they are mistaken."

Fossum said with the Sunshine Coast being only a short boat ride away
from Vancouver, drug traffickers are always looking at expanding
their business.

"Police enforcement has targeted the cocaine traffickers, especially
the 'dial-a-dopers,'" said Fossum.

The problem is he says, that once arrested, a dial-a-doper usually
gets released the same day and starts up their dial-a-doping business
almost immediately.

"It is well known in the drug world that it generally takes three
unsuccessful arrests before a dial-a-doper is held in custody," Fossum said.

According to Fossum, a dial-a-doper is someone who takes phone orders
and delivers the drugs.

On the Sunshine Coast that tends to be crack cocaine, right to a
person's door. Because this is such a rural area, it's a highly
successful way of trafficking. By being mobile, it makes the drug too
easily available to all areas of the Sunshine Coast and "to a wider
range of clientele which facilitates the cocaine distribution and
ultimately increases profits for the trafficker," said Fossum.

He said there are many people who become addicted after a single use
of crack cocaine and because the effects are shorter, the user needs
more of the drug more often. This not only makes the drug very costly
in dollars but also costly to the community in family breakdown,
healthcare issues and higher crime rates.

"Cocaine destroys personal lives, makes people lose jobs, income and
family ties. One only has to go to family court to see how cocaine
use separates families. There are a number of crack houses on the
Sunshine Coast. Crack houses also have a huge impact on the
neighbourhood, on how it looks and the disturbance it creates," said Fossum.

He said he realizes that a community or a neighbourhood will
sometimes wonder why a crack house isn't shut down as soon as the
police are aware of its existence.

He said the RCMP would like nothing better than to shut it down
immediately, however, in reality it can take officers several years
of work to accomplish a closure. Shutting down crack houses or other
drug manufacturing/distribution houses is a complex issue that
requires co-ordination between RCMP and landlords and the
accumulation of reliable evidence to let them shut down a drug
operation and lay charges.

"We know that a minimum six ounces of cocaine is sold every day on
the Sunshine Coast. The cost of six ounces for the trafficker is
$7,500. With mark-up, that translates to $13,000 per day. That in
turn translates to over $4.7 million per year," said Fossum. When it
comes down to that much money, he said drug traffickers are
tenacious. Vancouver traffickers see places like the Sunshine Coast
as new markets.

"It's very easy to see why cocaine use goes hand-in-hand with crimes
in our community. When a person has a $300 to $600 a day habit, the
person has to find the money somewhere," Fossum adds. "Prostitution
is one way to finance a crack habit. We have numerous female
prostitutes and all of them that we know, have a cocaine habit."

While he said the RCMP aren't seeing a lot of child prostitutes on
the Sunshine Coast, that doesn't meant that it isn't happening. Other
types of crimes commonly associated with crack cocaine use are break
and enters, shop lifting, especially theft from cars and of metal,
fraud and identity theft and violent crimes and intimidation.

When a person has an addiction, there are usually signs that
something is wrong.

Some of those signs according to police are weight loss, mood swings,
an over abundance of nervous energy where a person doesn't sleep for
a couple of nights in a row and than acts depressed and sleeps a lot
for a few days, things missing or taken from the home, money missing
from bank accounts or unexplained expenditures. Fossum said the use
of crack cocaine spans a broad range of ages, educational levels and
incomes. He encourages people worried about a family member or a
friend to get in touch with local services to find out more
information on how to best help the person they are worried about.
For numbers and information about local services, contact police at
604-885-2266.