overnment's pledge to blitz 17 crack houses brings a hollow laugh among the counsellors of Focus. From running the safe house in the front line of the drug war the Focus team is acutely aware that it will take a lot more than a few high profile busts to curb the menace.

Indeed counsellor Nelson Bascome, himself an MP with the ruling Progressive Labour Party, believes there could be 17 such places on his block.

"They are talking about derelict houses. A crack house is any house where guys are smoking crack with their friends."

Indeed there is an infamous crack house virtually on Focus' doorstep. Recently there was an attempt to clean it up. It was only a partial success. "It is not the Fairmont of crack houses now ? it's more of a Motel Six of crack houses."

But whatever his scepticism, he would welcome any increased attention from the Police who seem reluctant to venture into the neighbourhood around Focus's Union Street HQ ? despite its notoriety.

"I have a very serious problem with our Police deployment. I can't remember when I last saw a Policeman walk across this window. This area is the most concentrated area for drug sales in the island.

"Court Street is secondary to this. This is street right here. You have all your run-ins right here."

Dealers are now fearless.

"Why should they hide? Who's monitoring them? They are not even looking over their shoulder because a Police car might be coming in two minutes. They know there ain't no Police car coming.

"If I was Police commissioner tomorrow? The main prong to my strategy would be to ensure that I have more Police presence in those areas where drugs are prevalent. If that pushes the drug dealer into another area then my officers are going to follow them.

"I love it when I see the PSU going out, stopping and pulling people over, but why are we only doing it Friday nights? They should be doing that 24/7."

His colleague Sandy Butterfield agrees. "If the Police saw the same person on the same corner every single, solitary day wouldn't they be saying what's his job? Hello? You have been around town, come back and he's still there.

"He's not waiting for his brother to pick him up. And cars keep slowing down. Are they all saying good morning to him?"

The principle applies across the island as she reels off a list of other drug hang-outs.

There is no time to waste says Mrs. Butterfield with users getting younger and younger.

"Through information from our clients, schools and parents we are looking at younger children being addicts. We have a lot of children trying marijuana at age eight, nine, ten, eleven but we are seeing younger children using ? including cocaine and everything else."

Despite Bermuda's harrowing slide into drugs Mr. Bascome believes there was little politicians could have done to stop it.

"You have to remember the world was predicated on persons numbing their feelings ? issues they are trying to get away from. They want something to forget their misery."

The only difference now is the choice of alcohol and drugs on offer have multiplied and become more dangerous and addictive.

"When I was at college there was a certain amount of drugs on campus.

"If we had crack cocaine then a number of my friends would not have graduated. They would have been influenced by crack cocaine instead of school work."

Unravelling why people descend into drugs is part of Focus's mission.

"We get into some heavy issues ? why people are medicating themselves. A number of issues people have overlooked ? sexual abuse ? some real deep-rooted family misfunctional issues that are looked at. There's all sorts of abuse, mental, physical, sexual."

He believes at least 45 percent of the male clients have suffered sexual abuse.

Sandy has seen the same phenomena with female clients. "I had one whose father would have sex with her while her mother was watching. That's life. That is not an isolated incident, that is something you carry with you."

Long-term damage includes memory lapses and anger issues, notes Mr. Bascome.

"The anger comes from issues they couldn't deal with as a child. Most of them are angry about the way they were abused, they can't ever get back at them. I had a guy who said he would spit on his father's grave every day.

"Sometimes you need a bucket and towel to wipe up the tears and pain that comes out."

It's never a nine to five job at Focus. The calls come 24 hours a day although the centre is open from eight a.m. to whenever the last person leaves, seven days a week, with meetings often running late into the night.

Focus deals with more than 20 clients a day and it runs four transitional houses accommodating 22 people. It helps recovering addicts give each other mutual support while learning to get back into the swing of paying rent and working.

Clients pick up skills about money management and get support. Although taking a lot of self referrals from those tired of street life, employers also contact Focus seeking counselling for drug abusing employees.

"Because we are right in the frontline we get people who want help coming in ? even when they are in the throes of addiction." Focus is the first step for street addicts to get help. It's about harm reduction says Mrs Butterfield. "Every hour they are here they are not using."

Clients take on responsibilities to build up self esteem. From there they are channelled to rehabilitation programmes such as Turning Point, Harbour Lights and Camp Spirit.

Between them Mr. Bascome and Mrs. Butterfield have decades of experience, the latter has been in the counselling business since 1984. In those days the bulk of the work was from alcoholics, now there are very few.

Then the drug of choice changed to heroin, then to cocaine and then the pendulum swung back to heroin with users smoking rather than injecting after the AIDS epidemic wiped out a generation of heroin users.

But heroin is still more deadly than the other drugs even though there are risks with them all. Cocaine users run the risk of heart attacks.

"Heroin is easier to sell because your client gets hooked," says Mr. Bascome. "Cocaine users can stop when they want but with heroin when you start you need to have it to maintain your functions."

Either way users walk a chemical tightrope, tempting death daily.

"We have a number of families who have lost relatives to drug addiction, we have a number of families who have members who are stroke victims because of drug addiction.

"But they don't pop up on the statistics ? it's just a stroke victim. The family won't admit if a son has died from using heroin. I believe they should because young people and families would be aware of the dangerous of drugs."

He knows of about five or six people, involved in some way with Focus, who have died this year but the national figure is far higher, believes Mr. Bascome.

Also unreported is the wanton violence ? an occupational hazard in the drug world.

Mrs. Butterfield recently encountered someone with their hand hanging off after being attacked over turf wars. Unsurprisingly the incident didn't lead to a 911 call.

The Focus team has no truck with the argument that softer drugs should be decriminalised to save resources for curbing the harder ones.

"I have seen young people with access to marijuana everyday and their lives have gone to pot ? in the proverbial sense," says Mr. Bascome. "If you have a substance to alter your state and you have to use it every day you can't be functioning at your highest level.

"Why does someone need a mind altering substance to keep them going everyday?"

Legalising drugs would simply lead to an island of unproductive layabouts the pair argue.

But education can help ? as can families honestly dealing with problems rather than turning a blind eye to the addict in their midst, despite the catastrophic consequences.

Mr. Bascome doesn't have a lot of patience with those who sit back and watch their neighbourhood degenerate.

"First you educate them, then let them know what they are doing is wrong and thirdly say ? 'Don't you have a child? Guess what in a few years time that addict you are selling to is going to be your child'.

"You know what is positive and really weird about this whole thing? I would say 85 percent of the dealers are happy to see if someone gets clean.

"I have seen a dealer say to a guy 'Hey man I am glad you have cleaned up your act because I was worried about you. That's what's so weird about the whole thing.'

"Why? They have seen people die, people suffer from the throes, get evicted from a house because people have used rent money for drugs."

Asked about the extent of Bermuda's drug problem, Mr. Bascome says: "Statistics are difficult because there are so many recreation users that it's difficult to pinpoint the amount of people who are addicts.

"You look on a weekend on a Friday night ? the amount of people out there just recreationally using heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and then of course there's the alcohol crew.

"But on a Monday they are functioning. It is difficult to pinpoint who your addicts really are except for those who fall off the edge."

And all the time there are siren voices luring the vulnerable in.

"We have a pop culture now which says getting high is a part of their lifestyle. You hear it in their music and it manifests in their life."

That problem is hardly new but is now ingrained and blatant. He cites an advert from The Source magazine which advertises American local radio by showing a divided pizza delineating which musicians cause that post-drug phenomenon "the munchies".

He is sick of pop culture glorifying the gangster life, as if prison was an acceptable life choice ? because it is left to Focus to clean up the mess. Around 50 percent of clients make it through.

The worst is seeing clients who seem to be making it, only to suffer a relapse which puts them in a worse position to where they started, said Mr. Bascome.

But there are victories.

He mentions one who has been clean, married, just bought a house and is now taking family trips.

"That's when you know you are doing something good."

@EDITRULE:

Tomorrow: A major drug dealer speaks.