Yellowknife (June 18/03) - Grim reality lives in a secluded area behind the Explorer Hotel, but one Yellowknife man has done something about it.

Joey Day takes a closer look at what people have been drinking behind the Explorer Hotel. - Jennifer McPhee/NNSL photo

Dozens of empty Listerine and purple Finesse hairspray bottles litter the ground around the rocks, just off the hotel's property.

Joey Day has also found tubes from needles used to inject cocaine and an empty tube of vaseline -- he said are used to relieve a skin irritation caused by drinking non-beverage alcohol products -- adds to the eyesore.

This week, Day cleaned up the area on his own time, for free.

He is the maintenance man at the Explorer Hotel and Discovery Inn.

He stumbled on the mess more than a week ago when he saw two people -- holding bottles of the stuff -- walking towards a trail into the rocks. Then he saw hotel guests follow behind them, thinking it was a path to somewhere.

"I told them I don't think that's a good place to go," says Day. "I walked up here and this is what I found...It's gross."

He doesn't want tourists or kids to see it. "What do kids need to come and see this for?"

Non-beverage alcohol products are cheap, available when liquor stores are closed and have high alcohol concentrations -- generally around 60 per cent. By comparison, most spirits contain about 40 per cent.

In other words, they give hardcore alcoholics more bang for their buck. They also contain harmful chemicals. For instance, boric acid in Listerine can cause vomiting, lethargy and decreases blood pressure.

On Tuesday afternoon, Const. Dino Norris went to the site.

A man was passed out on the rocks beside a bottle of hairspray Finesse.

"This stuff will kill you," Norris told him.

The man denied drinking the stuff but had trouble standing.

He agreed to go to the Salvation Army.