CURSE OF CRACK COCAINE 'IS OUT OF CONTROL'

Crack cocaine use is spiralling out of control in Britain and creating
"very disturbing" levels of violence, a Home Office minister warned yesterday.

Bob Ainsworth, drugs minister, said crack, a pure form of cocaine, was now
as great a threat as heroin, but was more difficult to deal with because
the levels of addiction are so high and treatment is not as well understood.

"The increasing crime and violence associated with crack use affects whole
communities, driving them down, and its effect on deprived inner city
communities is to create more disadvantage," he said.

Speaking at a conference in Birmingham aimed at tackling the soaring
numbers of crack addicts, Mr Ainsworth said the victims were predominantly
young men living in poor inner city areas and most were young black men.

"This means that some areas are more at risk of suffering the potentially
devastating impact that crack cocaine can have upon individuals, families
and whole communities."

The overspill from crack usage and dealing had led to "quite extraordinary"
levels of violence in black communities and contributed to a large
proportion of gun crime.

"The levels of violence associated with crack cocaine are very disturbing
and they are very clearly linked to the supply of that drug.

"They are also clearly associated with a growing culture amongst young
people who are attracted to the possession of a firearm and to the supply
of drugs in a way they think leads to power and respect."

The conference was told that all the evidence suggested that a "high
proportion" of crack in Britain originated in Jamaica.

But some agencies dispute this, claiming that only seven per cent of all
cocaine in Britain comes via the Caribbean.

Over the last 10 years the price of crack has plummeted and it is now
possible to buy slivers for ?5, making it one of the most affordable and
accessible drugs in the country.

Home Office figures released last month revealed that compared with 1999
there was an eight per cent rise in seizures of crack cocaine in 2000.
During the same period the courts in England and Wales dealt with a seven
per cent rise in crack-related offences.

Serious addicts can spend hundreds of pounds a day on their habit and turn
to crime to pay for it. The results are felt across communities.

Steve Pilkington, chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, said
recently that street robberies in Bristol had risen by 77 per cent over the
past year - an increase which was fuelled by a rise in the use of hard
drugs, particularly crack.

Mr Ainsworth said the hostility towards police in some communities made it
impossible to tackle the crack problem.

"Where they (police) have the assistance of communities they are quite
effective, they are able to take measures against the traffickers.

"Where they are not getting the cooperation, then the effectiveness is
minimised so we must motivate the communities."

Cdr Alan Brown, head of Operation Trident which investigates "black on
black" gun crime in London, said tackling crack abuse and the violence
linked with it was one of the biggest challenges for the Metropolitan Police.

"It is only by working together that we will be able to reject the
intimidation and violence to secure a safer society," he said. Some drug
agencies, however, warned that concentrating only on the black community
meant the scale of the crack problem was not being acknowledged.

Jonathan Akwue, who has worked with crack users for 10 years at Involve in
London, said: "The evidence we see is that it is across all communities.

"I spent a long time working in Sutton in south London, a very leafy
suburb, and crack was there as well. One of the things about drugs is that
they don't respect class or age or gender."

There is no easy answer to treating crack addicts. Unlike heroin there is
no effective substitute drug like methadone and some of the most successful
treatment programmes have concentrated on a holistic approach.

For 10 years Vital Day Care Services in east London has run 12-week
intensive courses of acupuncture, reiki, massage, detoxification programmes
and counselling.

"A crack user's life is chaotic. Because they are doing it so often it can
be an expensive habit and when the cravings get too strong people will turn
to criminal activity to feed that habit," said Jonathan Akwue, area manager.

The agency treats addicts as young as 15 and has seen cases of 11-year-olds
experimenting with crack.