Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/05) - A Yellowknife convenience store that sells glass tubes used primarily for smoking crack-cocaine was criticized last week for profiting off the drug wave sweeping across the capital.

News/North bought one of the small glass pipes from the Reddi Mart in downtown Yellowknife for $6.99. The three-inch-long tubes were wrapped in newspaper and stored in a clear display case beside the cash with other pipes.

The clerk fetched the tube, which looks like a ballpoint pen minus the ink cartridge, with a smile when News/North pointed to a stack of nearly 30 of them, Wednesday morning.

When News/North returned to the Reddi Mart about an hour after buying the crack pipe, clerks denied selling the equipment and claimed not to know its purpose.

The manager, who declined to give her name, confirmed later the tubes are used to smoke crack but defended the store's policy.

"Why are people upset?" she asked. "It is legal to sell. I think people have choices in this country."

The Reddi Mart has sold the pipes, which come from Edmonton, for about a year, the manager said.

She was willing to discuss their sale with anyone who had concerns and said "maybe" when asked whether she would consider pulling them off the shelves.

Police back up that selling glass pipes is legal. However, police also say store owners should be aware of the problems that surround drug abuse.

"We are concerned about complaints from the public about drug use and drug paraphernalia," said Const. Erik Irani, who works in the RCMP's drug awareness section.

"Crack is a harmful drug that eventually affects every part of society."

Tayna Burt, a registered nurse who has experience with drug addicts, believes store owners are shamelessly profiting off the nearly-unbreakable hold of crack.

"They are community businesses," Burt said Wednesday. "(They) should not make a quick buck off people who need help."

The Reddi Mart sits on the corner of 50th Street and 51st Avenue, the epicentre of Yellowknife's underground drug trade.

It is not alone in selling paraphernalia to consume drugs. Both it and the Saigon Smoke Shop across the street sell other gear: bongs, hash pipes and hookahs which can be used to consume tobacco products as well as illegal items such as hashish and marijuana.

Used crack pipes - glass tubes with singed ends - can be found along the alleyways around the area, where crack-cocaine is readily available from dealers.

Drug users usually heat the crack - a cheap and highly addictive derivative of cocaine - in tinfoil, then suck the fumes through the glass pipe. Addicts often use a small piece of steel wool - wedged into one end of the tube - as a filter.

"Drug use has become a huge problem," said Burt, who saw dozens of users admitted every year to Stanton Territorial Hospital during her time there. She has been on maternity leave for about a year.

"Business should help the people in the downtown core. They are reneging on that responsibility," she said.

During the last five years, crack-cocaine use has exploded in Yellowknife.

Many experts believe the problem is getting worse.

Arrests for the drug quadrupled between 2000 and 2003, the last year statistics were available for the Northwest Territories.

Crack houses have cropped up across the capital and dealers push their products - often in broad daylight - in the alleyways of the downtown core.

Addicts have been linked to dozens of break and enters, assaults, robberies and even murder.

Police believe organized crime rings, including outlaw motorcycle gangs, are behind the flow of crack-cocaine into Yellowknife. Some users report the groups have compiled "hit-lists" of indebted addicts.

An invasive plague

"The cocaine problem in Yellowknife is like an invasive plague," territorial court Chief Judge Brian Bruser said Tuesday as he sentenced a homeless man for crack possession. "It is a plague that will not go away."

The glass tubes are available at convenience stores across North America.

Some business owners place a small rose inside and market the pipes as decorations. Others sell ballpoint pens with glass bodies to mask their intended purpose.