Yellowknife (Oct 11/04) - There's really no big secret how illegal drugs -- including a rising tide of crack cocaine -- are entering the NWT.

The drugs mostly originate in the big cities of the south, mainly Edmonton and Vancouver, and are driven up Alberta's Highway 35.

Const. Ryan Peters of the RCMP Highway Patrol is one of the Mounties keeping watch for illegal drugs entering the NWT by highway. The rising tide of drugs like crack cocaine begins in the large southern cities. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The RCMP know that. In December 2002, police found 541 grams of crack cocaine destined for Yellowknife in a car that rolled off the highway near Enterprise.

"We see the drugs coming into Hay River primarily by the highway system," says Sgt. Greg Downing of the Hay River RCMP.

Other RCMP sergeants along the highway route also see it as a pipeline for drugs.

"I would say the majority is being driven in by individuals," says Staff Sgt. Lewis Kuntz in High Level, Alta., 309 km south of Hay River.

Kuntz says it's likely the drugs are going straight through to the NWT, without a distribution stop in High Level where there has been no big increase in drug use recently. Nor does he think there is any drug relay network between highway communities.

Drugs pass by

In Whitecourt, Alta., Staff Sgt. Tom Pickard says his detachment is about 100 feet from Highway 43, which is part of the route north from Edmonton.

"I believe most of the dope going North goes right by this detachment," Pickard says.

Occasionally, some drugs are intercepted along the highway, like the kilogram of Yellowknife-bound marijuana seized in Whitecourt in the late 1990s.

However, Pickard notes 10,000-12,000 vehicles pass by the detachment every day.

"You can't check every car," he says.

The sergeant says most people would not want to live in a country where everyone on the highway is stopped and searched.

Instead, the police have to rely on intelligence and check stops to stem the flow of drugs, he says. "The Mounties do their best to stop it."

Smaller amounts of drugs arrive in the NWT by air and mail, RCMP say.

Increased effort

The nine-member RCMP detachment in Hay River covers Highway 1, north of the NWT/Alberta border, along with a two-person highway patrol based in Hay River. They watch for drugs entering the territory.

"There's certainly been an increased effort to be aware of it when we're on vehicle patrol," Downing says, noting Mounties are trained in specific methods to detect the transportation of drugs.

The sergeant has no estimate of how much drugs passes through the area headed for Yellowknife and other points north.

The police effort is only as good as the information received from the public, he says. However, he notes that in the last 10 months, there have been only five calls to Crime Stoppers related to the illegal drug trade in Hay River.

"We've seen a drastic increase in the last year in crack cocaine usage," Downing notes, although he adds the drug of choice in Hay River is marijuana.

$1 million problem

It is estimated that in the last 12 months, there have been about $1 million in street sales of drugs in Hay River.

In that time period, about $100,000 worth of crack cocaine, which sells in Hay River for about $120 a gram, has been seized.

Ten charges have been laid in Hay River over the last year for possession or trafficking of crack cocaine and 40 for marijuana.

The effects of drugs making it into the NWT are often seen at the Nats'ejee K'eh Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre on the Hay River Reserve.

Kristine Vannebo-Suwala, a clinical supervisor at the centre, says treatment was primarily focused on alcohol and marijuana up to two years ago.

"Now we're seeing a rise in stimulants -- that would be cocaine, methamphetamine and crack cocaine," she says. "Those hard drugs are hitting our youth and our communities."

Vannebo-Suwala says the need for youth treatment is also increasing, noting she knows of one 12-year-old crack addict in the NWT. There is currently no treatment for youth available in the NWT. They are sent south, mainly to Calgary.

The centre hopes to set up a treatment program for youth by the spring.

One Hay River Reserve man, who recently completed treatment at the centre for crack cocaine, says the drug is coming from Edmonton and B.C.

The man explains traffickers are attracted to the North by the higher prices they can get for the drug.

"It's pretty lucrative to the drug dealer."

For example, crack cocaine sells for $40-$50 more per gram in the NWT than on the streets of Edmonton.

Scary drug

Hay River Mayor Diana Ehman says the rising use of crack cocaine, which she describes as a scary drug, is partly because of the town's location on the NWT's major transportation routes.

"That will always be a problem for us," she says.

However, she encourages residents to be vigilant in combatting drug use.

She is proud of the people who recently provided information to the RCMP which helped lead to the seizure of about $100,000 in crack cocaine and cash on Sept. 26.