Cocaine is the ‘drug of choice’ in Slave Lake, says one RCMP officer who is making himself the local detachment’s ‘expert’ of sorts on the subject. And while its less-expensive shadow, crystal methamphetamine, sometimes called the ‘poor-man’s cocaine’ has waltzed onto the drug scene in recent years, police here believe the community’s affluence has kept ‘crystal meth’ (cooking) labs at bay.
Cocaine is worth about $120 per gram on the street, says Const. Sean Doornbos, whereas crystal meth can be had for $10 or $20 a ‘point’ – or one tenth of a gram. That’s why it’s a more popular drug for what are commonly referred to as ‘meth heads’ or ‘tweakers’ who “don’t have $100, or access to a lot of money” at any given time.
That said, however, he says “sometimes ‘tweakers’ are doing meth for five or six hours straight.” And as their addictions progress, some have been known to do meth for days on end, going without sleep –and often food – while they’re at it.
Cocaine users, on the other hand – and there are ‘plenty’ of them (Doornbos estimates there are hundreds) in the community – are “well-to-do.
“Some buy as many as three or four grams (of cocaine) a day.”
Affluence in the community, he adds, means there is no drive that would prompt users to ‘create’ methamphetamine at home.
The biggest similarity between the two is their addictive natures, the most serious of which is crystal meth.
“It’s the two-time drug,” says Doornbos. That is, “up to 45 per cent of people are addicted the first time they try it, but 90 per cent are hooked the second.
“It’s right up there with heroin.”
And addicts, he says, “are always chasing that high, that rush, the speed.”
Research shows that cocaine users “never will experience (the height of) their first high,” says the officer. That’s why they’re more prone to overdoses as they keep trying to re-enact the original high.
“The first time they try cocaine, it’s like they’re on top of Mount Everest. And the next time they want to get there again, and will do anything to do it.”
But that doesn’t happen, he adds, no matter what mixtures or strategy users employ.
“They’ll never reach that high they’re chasing.”
On the other hand, “with crystal meth, as soon as (users) feel themselves starting to come down, they take another hit.”
In Slave Lake, however, “crystal meth is not being sold at the street level yet, but is being used by a small group of people who sit in front of big screen TVs and play X-box for hours.” And it’s the affluence in this community that “keeps it from getting down to street level when we start to notice a lot of property crime” as users search for money to feed their habit.
And while Doornbos says it’s relatively easy to “pick up a ‘rock of crack’” (cocaine) on the street without too much trouble, he adds that some rural communities this size are plagued with problems as the drug culture grows and users below the poverty line turn to property crime like break and enter to feed their habits.
In fact, he adds, “most property crime comes out of desperation for drugs and/or alcohol.”
He insists he’s no ‘expert’ on the subject. But the three-year veteran of the Slave Lake detachment says if and when police notice that property crime is suddenly on the rise, they’ll also know exactly where to go looking for solutions.

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