No, Cocaine Corner isn't a DIY show for drug users ... it's the unofficial name of the corner of 7th Ave & 8th St in downtown Calgary.

There was a double shooting there last night - not related to the double homicide a few blocks away in Chinatown the night before.

Aparently drug users drive in from the suburbs to buy at Cocaine Corner.

I remember watching the dealers operating at 8am at the other end of 7th where the C-train stops for the traffic lights near City Hall - it's only a block from police HQ and the "community" medical centre with the used needle bin outside on the street.

Unfortunately drugs are everywhere and easilly available in most school playgrounds here too.

Unfortunately, these days it seems that no city is immune from problems with drug usage spilling onto the streets...

Oggy

Its the crystal-meth epidemic which seems to be a huge social problem on the personal level. Canadian society especially on West Coast is on the brink of major problems due to this stuff. It may not have the violent gang culture associated with other drugs but its ease of production especially in rural communities could seriously blight many area of Canada.
Canadian law makers need to act fast to try and stem this tide as all the ills Brits moan about in British towns will seem like toytown compared to the potential of this stuff. Take a walk East on Hastings from Gastown to see the "living dead" that will be coming to a town near you.

That's the stuff they make from over the counter cold medication?

It's already starting to be an issue in Calgary.

Yeah thats the stuff! Any red-neck moron can cook the stuff up, the ingredients are scary and its the first class A type drug which is 90% addictive. I think they passed some legislation but I cant see how they can stop folks getting hold of ingredients as they are so common in many products. Thank god Canadians are so much better with their social skills than us Brits, as if this stuff ever takes off in UK everybody will want out.
I hope I am not sounding too paranoid, but have been around drug culture for many years in my youth (N.London) and I feel this stuff has potential to wreak havoc.
Sleep well

I don't understand why the police don't just keep a permanent presence there. If had my way the police would just shoot both the dealers and users on sight. Soon clear up the problem. Society doesn't need either of them.

Perhaps I'm just a little sensitive at the moment. One of the reasons for coming here was to make sure that my son never gets exposed to drugs and violence. The events of the past couple of days almost make be think twice about staying here.

The availability of drugs and their use is definitely not something new in Calgary (or I bet anywhere else in Canada). I attended grades 7 through 9 in Calgary in the early 80s and drugs were certainly around and available to those who wanted them. I remember a few classmates constantly being sent to the principal's office for being stoned out of their heads. But also plentiful so were 'don't do drugs; they fry your brain' type information, programs and talks within the schools (well at least the school I attended) and in the media. Obviously, the availability of drugs is one thing and a kid's decision to take them is another; I've had easy access to drugs my whole life (as any kid in Canada would) and I didn't try anything (except alcohol) until I was well out of high school. Most of my friends who grew up in Canada have had a similar experience.

In Oregon they've dealt with smurfing by banning the sale of the otc drug component, people who used to use it legitimately now have to do without.

Because no-one really wants to stop the drug trade... and provided crime mostly remains confined to drug dealers and users, the police probably don't care too much.

Certainly I have a friend in the British poilce and another who's a retired social worker, and both have said they'd much rather deal with people on most illegal drugs than people on alcohol (obviously there are exceptions, like PCP).

I don't use illegal drugs myself, but many of the people I've met who used them were skilled professionals making quite a bit of money. I think you'll fnid that society will be a bit worse off if the police start shooting those people.

Heck, they'd probably have to shoot half the politicians (and a fair portion of the cops) in any western nation too.

I don't think there's a single country on the planet where you can avoid either of those things. Quite frankly, if your son is in a western school, he probably has access to any kind of drug that he could possibly want... you'll do far better to bring them up to say 'no, thanks' when drugs are offered than try to protect them from something that's not going away any time soon. That's what my parents did, and it pretty much worked for me.

Very true. I think pretty much everyone I know would have to be slaughtered!

... assumming weed is considered an illegal drug (which it shouldn't be).

Oops, didn't mean to offend anyone. At the end of the day if they legalised the smokey stuff then I wouldn't really have a problem with it as long as it wasn't allowed in public near either myself or my family. Having lost friends and relatives to tobacco related issues I'd shoot cigarette dealers as well.

What I really object to is both the users and dealers of harder drugs (including the designer drugs used by the wealthy). They fuel each other and the knock on effects of crime to feed the habits. Not only just petty theft either. Perhaps shooting them may be a little harsh, but long (and I mean very long) prison sentances should be given to anyone dealing in any amount. As for the users, I'd lock them up until they were fully rehabilitated, no matter how long it took.

It really is a shame that parts of the city have become like this at night, because I love walking around it during the day, especially on a day like yesterday when the sun is out. But at night the city is a little intimidating. When we came on our research trip last year we spent the first couple of nights in the Sandmann hotel to get a feel for the city before venturing further afield. We almost packed up to go straight back home.

This is so true,in our heart of hearts if we were honest with ourselves ,most of us british parents wanting to imigrate to canada do so feeling like myself that it will be the solution to help our kids have a better chance of avoiding drugs or at least give them a headstart because we believe for some bizarre reason that Canada is 20 or 10 years behind the UK in its proliferation of drugs within its society......but then again the pub culture and the availability of booze everywhere and any where which is what I am running away from as I am losing the battle on a personal level as I have begun to fill my car up with petrol at the esso/off license and have to fight impulses on a daily bases that are telling me "buy that beer,its cold and real nice,go on its ok...." and with 24hr pub licenses this November its not good ,I know when ur drinking at home time can jump from 12am to 4am in a matter of blinks.........but than if young canadians don't gather around the bars every night in the city centers getting drunk like the youth over here , then what are they gonna be doing if not now but in the future????

I'm a hockey parent.

I often have to drive to arenas for 6am games in rural arenas.

And what do I find in the arena parking lots early in the morning??

Pyramids of beer cans.

I've had an unknown under 18 year old ask me to buy them liquor in a car park outside a liquor store.

Sorry, there isn't any escaping parental responsibility.

So you don't want your kids drinking?

Try banning alcohol from your own home.

Try not drinking yourself.

Why does being 18 or 21 make that much of a diffrence?

In the end, what's the difference between drinking Lysol and beer or wine?

The mood I'm in right now, anybody wants to challenge me to go on the wagon, I'll give them the same back and support them all the way ... in the end, it won't do your kids anything but good.

Alcohol is a drug like any other, don't ever doubt it.

Come on folks, give me that challenge ....

Here endeth the sermon.

You won't see Youths hanging around pubs and bars as much in Canada..

some simple facts...

Beer split UK..... Pub / Home 60% / 40%

Beer split Canada Pub / Home 20% / 80%

They'll be drunk in their mates car..... Just hope that the driver is responsible

I heard a drug expert on, I think - Warren on the Weekend

http://www.peterwarren.ca/

a really good program. But anyway, he was saying that there is some program in Vancouver to help addicts by injecting them with heroin. This is apparently something to do with the fact that if they don't get help, they use infected needles etc. When Peter Warren said he thought this sounded outrageous, the expert said that they have tried arresting people and going to hard route but it doesn't work. The theory is that if they help them they will eventually get them off drugs and make them into good members of society. I wonder how many successes they have had so far!!