SPEED DEALERS SETTING UP SHOP ON GRANVILLE

A drug proven to cause psychotic behaviour is increasingly being used by
young people along the Granville Street strip, causing some to be more
aggressive with police, says the police officer in charge of the area.

Insp. Dave Jones said crystal meth amphetamine, commonly known as crank, jib
and speed, has been linked to several incidents in recent months where
police have been assaulted by drug users.

The most serious occurred six months ago, when a cop was thrown through a
plate glass window at the Union Gospel Mission at Helmcken and Seymour
streets. Police believe the man they attempted to arrest was high on crystal
meth amphetamine, Jones said.

"There's several police officers licking their wounds from this behaviour,"
he said, noting the officer in the window incident suffered serious enough
cuts to keep him off duty for four months.

Jones' comments come three weeks after six constables were suspended with
pay for transporting three men from the Granville Mall area to Stanley Park,
where they were allegedly beaten in a beach parking lot on Jan. 14, between
3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Media reports described the three men, aged 27, 33 and 37, as drug dealers,
but Jones wouldn't comment on the case because the findings of the
investigation are currently being reviewed by the Crown counsel's office.

Jim Pawlyshyn, manager of a camera store on Granville Street, said he "feels
sorry" for the six constables under investigation because of what cops,
businesses and the public have to put up with every day.

"I've got people dealing right outside my store, and when they do get
arrested, they don't spend any time in jail and just get banned from one
area but move to another," said Pawlyshyn, who didn't want his store
identified for fear of retribution from the dealers.

Pawlyshyn has worked at the store for 25 years and agrees with Jones that
drug users are becoming more violent. In the past four years, Pawlyshyn
said, he's turned over 10 videotapes to police from his store's surveillance
cameras, showing everything from drug dealing to assaults.

Though he admits there's no easy solution to curbing the drug problem on
Granville Street, Pawlyshyn would like to see the entire street re-opened to
vehicles, a city review of bylaws to prevent panhandling and opening of more
pawn shops and tougher penalties for drug dealers.

One of his neighbours on the strip, a Blenz caf=82 at Nelson and Granville,
is also fed up with the drug activity. Manager Margaret Pavle says she's
caught people shooting up and snorting drugs in the washroom.

Pavle, a no-nonsense person who regularly "bounces" dealers and users from
the caf=82, said she's noticed a new group of teenagers and young adults
hanging around the corner in the past couple of weeks.

"You see them passing back and forth the drugs," she said, sipping a coffee
inside the caf=82 during a break.

She commended police for their quick response to emergencies she's had at
the caf=82, including an incident one night when she fought with a drug user
who refused to leave.

"I don't know that we'll ever be able to get rid of the problem, and it will
be a big job [for] whoever wants to take it on," Pavle said.

Although Jones notes crack cocaine and heroin are still plaguing the city,
he said the crystal meth amphetamine problem seems to be centred around the
Granville-Davie area, where dealers are also preying on the gay community.

Dr. Ian Martin, who counsels crystal-meth addicted street kids and homeless
people at the Three Bridges Community Health Centre, said the drug is a
stimulant that kills brain cells and can lead the user to experience
delusional and hallucinatory behaviour.

The behaviour can be consistent with paranoid schizophrenia, where the user
gets the sense "that people are out to get them." That feeling could lead to
them taking "drastic actions to avoid people," he said.

Still, his clients don't want to kick the habit, said Martin, noting that at
$4 to $6 a dose, it's cheaper than cocaine and heroin.

"I had a cocaine addict tell me he spends a thousand bucks a day on cocaine.
It's amazing to me why crystal meth isn't as big on the Downtown Eastside,
but maybe it's just a matter of time."

Crystal meth comes in powder form and can be snorted, smoked or injected.
It's made with chemicals commonly found in cold medicine, such as ephedrine.
Typically, the chemicals being used are more harmful than those used in the
past.

The high, depending on the dosage, can last for 24 to 36 hours. Continued
usage can lead to seizures and strokes, asthma and other health problems,
Martin said.

"There are 21-year-old kids out there who lose all their teeth."