THE RISE OF DRUG HOUSES

Coming soon to your neighbourhood or a neighbourhood near you - a drug house.

Along with it comes the possibility of increased crime where you live,
intimidation and maybe violence.

I can think of at least four neighbourhoods in the city where so-called
crack houses or drug houses have appeared.

Red Deer, we have a drug problem.

If there's any doubt, it should be gone after the latest bust by city cops.

Saturday's front-page picture showed a variety of items seized by RCMP in a
raid on a drug house the previous day.

Guns and ammunition, swords, large serrated knives, along with bags of
crack cocaine, crystal meth and cocaine were on display. Cellphones,
"40-pounder" bottles of booze, bear spray and cash were also part of the haul.

Five people were arrested at the residence on the city's north side.

Police said the bust was a "small but important victory" and expressed
relief that four guns were taken off the street.

"The people of Red Deer don't realize what's in these places," RCMP Cpl.
Steve Cormack said. "You could definitely call it a drug house."

Give us a few more of these busts and maybe it will start to sink in.

If this is a small victory, what constitutes a big victory? What does it
say about the drug problem when police seem to express greater relief about
guns, rather than drugs, being taken off the street?

It says that the drugs seized don't begin to put a dent in the problem.

If you think your neighbourhood might be immune to these drug houses -
whether they are a place drugs are sold from or a place where people go to
do the drugs - think again. No area of the city should be considered safe.

In a recent drug case, Advocate readers got a glimpse of what it's like to
be addicted to crack cocaine.

Relaying life in a crack house on the south side of Red Deer, a former
crackhead said they don't eat or even smoke because every cent is used to
buy the highly addictive drug.

Users don't work, they stay up for days and they are desperate for money.

That's a combination, to be frank, that can make for some rather dangerous
"neighbours."

I'm not trying to frighten people into barricading themselves in their
houses. But if we don't tackle the problem, it will get worse.

Imagine if all the money spent on drugs were spent on other things, like
post-secondary education, better housing, recreation, food, clothing, you
name it.

Police and courts have been indicating for a while that Red Deer has a drug
problem. We're told that because Red Deer is a nice meeting spot between
two major centres, it's also a good place to do illegal business.

We can't change the city's location but we absolutely need to begin to
change our view.

The drug problem in this city is not solely the problem of the police and
courts or some other neighbourhood not where you live.

It's a community problem and there needs to begin an open dialogue between
many sectors of this community, including police, City Hall, social
agencies, community groups and health authority.

This community is in need of a summit or a conference, drawing all these
groups together to find out what can be done to combat our drug problem.

It's not enough anymore to sign a paper to send our kids off to a Just Say
No event.

Watching unusual behaviours at the neighbour's house and calling police is
not enough either.

There must be a united effort to fight this city's drug problem. Police
alone can't do it.

* Mary-Ann Barr is the Advocate's assistant city editor. Her column appears
Saturdays and Tuesday.