KIDS AND CRACK

As they burst through the door of the crack house, Surrey RCMP Cpl. John
Furac and his partner saw the young drug dealer go for his gun.

"We open the door, and he's standing there and he lifts the weapon up." It
was all over in a matter of seconds. The suspect dropped his gun as
ordered. An angry Furac told the suspect how close he came to getting
killed, but "he just seemed not to get it."

The boy was 13 years old.

His weapon, a pellet gun that resembled the real thing, was seized for
evidence, along with the rock cocaine and marijuana that the boy and his
partners, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old, had been selling out of the
Whalley crack house.

The underage suspects had toys and school books and homework scattered
throughout the house, along with cell phone, pagers, machetes and hammers.
It was 11 a.m. on a school day.

This week, public attention was focused on a Surrey "crack shack," which is
being investigated as the site of multiple murders. The rented home was a
stark example of the dangers associated with crack.

However, a less obvious problem has authorities concerned.

Whereas most crack users used to be in their late teens and early 20s, many
are now in their early teens and some are even pre-teens, say police,
parents and drug counsellors who report a disturbing trend towards
ever-younger crack users in Surrey.

Cpl. Furac says, "We're seeing much more of these kids in these crack
houses that are selling, or being used as mules (couriers) or spotters.

"Within the last year it's become more noticeable."

In the first three months of 2001, RCMP raided seven crack houses in Surrey
and arrested 44 adults and six under-aged kids, including the gun-wielding
13-year-old and another 14-year-old at another location.

Some kids start as young as eight, says Josie Kane, a Fraser Valley drug
rehabilitation counsellor who works with drug-addicted teens.

"I know of at least one case (involving a child that young)," Kane told The
Leader.

"Grade 5 and Grade 6 is when it starts to show up, Kane said. "One would be
very hard-pressed to find a school where it isn't available."

That comes as no surprise to Lisa Petersen, a Surrey mother of five and a
campaigner against crack houses in her Cedar Hills area.

Petersen says she has seen as many as four crack houses operating within
walking distance of a Surrey school.

"Sometimes you see 12- or 13-year-old kids running in and out of these houses."

A survey conducted by the Nisha Family and Children's Services Society
shows that one in four teens in the South Fraser region had used crack or
knew someone who had used the drug at least once in the last 30 days.

About 79 per cent of the 215 kids surveyed believed they could get crack
within 24 hours if they had the money - "as easy as ordering pizza"
according to one respondent.

The study found higher youth drug use in Surrey, North Delta and New
Westminster, compared to other areas such as Aldergrove and Langley. Most
of the Surrey kids interviewed for the 1999 study lived in areas near the
Surrey Central SkyTrain station and local malls.

The user population is getting younger partly because older teens, usually
boys, are preying upon younger kids, usually females, counsellor Kane says.
"Young girls, 13 and 14, are drinking at night, getting into crack, and
there are slightly older teenagers happy to supply them."

Activist Petersen says girls as young as 12 are being targeted by older
teenagers "That 18-year-old boy has no interest in your 12-year-old
daughter other than to either sexually use her or use her for drugs - and
the story is not uncommon," Petersen said.

"It happens every day."

Cpl. John Furac says the young crack users aren't the people profiting from
the drug trade.

"It's other older people making the money," Furac says.

"These kids don't have enough savvy at that age."

The older dealers like to use under-age accomplices because the youngsters
can count on relatively lenient sentences as young offenders, and are thus
less likely to cut a deal with police, Furac says.

Crack: warning signs

For parents, teachers and friends, the warning signs of crack addiction are
easy to spot.

They include: - weight loss, due to declining appetite. - a chronic cough,
or asthma-like symptoms - enlarged pupils - money and valuables going
missing - long hours way from home without explanation. Sometimes girls are
absent as they prostitute themselves to get drug money. The sudden
appearance of a pager or cell phone can be an indication.

For parents, communication is the key to preventing drug problems
,counsellors say. Know where your kids go and who they hang out with.

Parents usually say they want honesty from their children, but if kids feel
parents are not sincere, they will not tell the truth.

A survey of Grade 12 students in the U.S. last year found that more than
half reported trying an illegal drug while less than a third listed parents
as a source of information about drugs.