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luckangeloja

Antigua behind the brochures: gangsters' paradise? | The Independent - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...gangsters-paradise-883268.html

Drugs Antigua and Barbuda Police Enforcement Crossroads Prices

shared by luckangeloja on 19 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Gun crime and gang violence are on a sharp rise among Antigua's young, linked to a global trade in guns and marijuana, crack and other cocaine, a traffic that has put the island and its neighbours at a vital crossroads between the narcotics producers of South America and the eager consumers of the US and Europe. These drugs seep into the population, payment in kind for dealers, or simply an impossible lure at prices that are a fraction of the street prices in the developed world, sometimes as low as US$1 (50p) for a rock of crack cocaine.
  • Eric Clapton, the guitarist, was so shocked by the effects that crack and other drugs were having on the population that he set up the Crossroads rehab centre in Antigua in 1998.
  • Kim Martin, the admissions director at Crossroads, says: "Crack cocaine is the number-one substance of abuse for our Antiguan clients, followed by alcohol. It was the influx of crack that caused members of the community to approach Clapton in the first place and it is still very visible, particularly in some parts of the island, which is leading to crime."
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  • Only a few blocks up the hill and the shops and banks give way to more dishevelled buildings, run-down stores selling only a handful of items, homes with crumbling front steps. There is no shortage of opportunity to find drugs, as twenty-something men make their friendly approach to tourists.
  • Antigua's police appear hopelessly out of their depth. The police station on the high street in St John's is crumbling. The new commissioner, brought in from Canada with other former Mounties, has put his energies into solving the lack of funds and infrastructure within the organisation.
  • luckangeloja on 19 Oct 16
     
    This article was actually based off an incident that a couple had while they were staying in Antigua for vacation. Although their incident had nothing to do with drugs, the article eventually shifted to this topic. It discussed how the cheap cost of drugs is a huge reason for the overuse of them. Members from the rehab center "Crossroads" discussed how drugs have really been seeping through the community. The police are also struggling to control the outburst of drugs.
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