Ottawa and crack cocaine .. is it a problem?


Yes. Really? Yes.


The words Ottawa and crack cocaine just don't go together.. or do they? Indeed, they do. In fact, it's estimated that Ottawa is home to about 5,000 crack cocaine addicts ... 5000 people! For a city that doesn't have that many people, that is quite a high number of purely crack cocaine addicts. There are addicts everywhere; although the main problem exists in downtown Ottawa, there are many crack cocaine addicts living in middle-class neighbourhoods, including Orleans, Kanata and Barrhaven. Your neighbour might be an addict.. who really knows?


So why is crack cocaine Ottawa's drug of choice? It's cheap and it does the job - deliver a fast high. The first sign of Ottawa having a crack cocaine problem arose when the number of hepatitis C, HIV, lip sores, asthma and pneumonia cases increased significantly.


There have been cases of Ottawa residents who have lost everything, all of their earnings, their jobs, their families, their children, their home, their health and most of all, their self-respect...


... because of their crack cocaine addiction. 

A City on Crack?