RCMP and addictions officials in northern Manitoba say they're dealing with a rapid rise in cocaine use and trafficking this year, but also an increase in the number of people seeking help for their addiction.
The city of Thompson has become a lucrative market for both rock and powdered cocaine, RCMP say. Sgt. Tyler Bates said officers have made a record number of cocaine seizures this year.
"We've seized three kilograms of cocaine approximately this year, with [a] local street value of approximately anywhere in the vicinity of $800,000 to $900,000," Bates said.
Within a three-week span in November, police made two of their largest cocaine seizures in Thompson, worth about $650,000 in street value.
The effects of the drug's availability are being felt in Thompson's addictions facility, where more people are seeking help for their cocaine addiction.
John Donovan, the northern regional director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, said his facility never had a self-help group for cocaine addiction until this year.
"We have about 10 per cent of the clients that are strictly crack cocaine users. Probably upwards of 40 to 60 [clients] per year would be in treatment," Donovan said. "That's a lot more than it was before and it's growing every day."
Donovan said most of the facility's clients have voluntarily sought addiction counselling themselves, and he expects the number of such clients to rise even higher in the next few years.
"Cocaine is not a cheap drug … The people that we're dealing with are people that have regular incomes. They're spending a high portion of their income on crack cocaine," he said.
Donovan said other aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities in northern Manitoba are also dealing with cocaine use and addiction.
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