Britain acts to stop crack imports

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 10

Britain acts to stop crack imports

NZPA-Reuter London British authorities, haunted by the nightmare of a United States-style crack epidemic spreading to their inner cities, are trying to curb the drug. Lurid tales of gang killings, violent crime and child abuse in the United States blamed on the cocaine-based drug prompted an official nationwide clampdown this month. Crack can now be bought in the run-down housing estates of Liverpool and from London dealers operating from squats and decaying tower blocks.

Seizures are on the rise in Britain. Although crack is not as widely used as heroin and barbiturates, the potent, smokeable form of cocaine has provided a new thrill for some.

The British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, is spearheading the war on crack, fearing it could bring a sharp upswing in drug-related violence and misery to British cities. “You’ve got to show young people, people in threatened communities that this is not a way to happiness. It is a way of destroying their lives,” he said.

He pledged cash to fight crack at home and overseas, funds for education and treatment and ordered the recruitment of more customs officers. He promised to seek further global pacts on confiscating traffickers’ assets. Mr Hurd’s concern comes at a time when insiders say Co-lombian-led international cocaine traffickers are cutting overheads and diversifying supply routes to flood markets with cheap cocaine. On the street, tightly wrapped rocks of crack — enough for up to eight smokes — sells for about £3O (SNZB2). It can be made with a microwave and a schoolroom knowledge of chemistry. When smoked, the high comes in seconds and is far stronger than inhaling or snorting cocaine. The “designerlabel” set prefer it to injecting and do not see themselves as addicts. Other users are heroin addicts who use it to supplement their habit.

Some researchers said crack

is not in itself addictive, but /•doctors dealing with drug A

abuse said this view is misleading. Mr Hurd said crack is addictive.

A Liverpool crack user, Sean, aged 30, talked in a newspaper interview about a 15-minute roller-coaster trip of pleasure and fear. “I don’t feel hooked or addicted. I have seen some people wired up on it, but I don’t know anyone with problems. It’s so good though you are keen to repeat the experience.

“My girlfriend wouldn’t touch it. She thinks I looked stressed when I have it,” he said.

Addiction specialists have warned that the portrayal of crack as a uniquely dangerous drug could even make it more appealing.

Sensational news media coverage of a crack crisis might become a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to Dr John Strang and Dr Griffith Edwards.

Writing in the “British Medical Journal” they said that while it would be wrong to dismiss crack as harmless fun, presenting it as a mythological

monster would only add to its allure. “The hype is dangerous as well as the drug.” They also said the link between crack and increased sexual activity and sex for drugs deal could encourage A.I.D.S.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard’s National Drugs Intelligence Unit, Barry Price, said there has been a risein crack seizures, mainly in London, Liverpool and the Midlands from 27 last year to 41 by the end of July. Although it is near the bottom of the drug table in terms of seizures, experts said it is already easily available in some areas and they see the potential for an epidemic. Violence has already erupted over crack. In May, hundreds of youths rioted when, police raided crack dealers in Wolverhampton. The police arrested 20 youths, one of whom had a gun. “It is almost inevitable, because of the huge profits that can be made in dealing with drugs, that people are prepared to react violently in order to

protect their profits,” a deputy police chief, Paul Leopold, said.

A recent report by members of Parliament said that, following the United States pattern, crack was "spreading into the shires of England.”

It said: “A successful campaign of drugs prevention, while costly in the short term, would offer huge savings in the longer term in terms of police time and resources, prison space and health and social service costs.”

Some police officers see crack possession as a health and social issue. Others say it is a law and order problem. Chief Inspector Eric Kendle, of the Liverpool drugs squad, said his men tend to caution first-time users, rather than give them a criminal record. Mr Hurd was in favour of prosecutions, saying the police should not be content with just cautioning those caught. “I think it is very important that the user should be caught and prosecuted, and not just the trafficker and manufacturer," h£ said. j