Crack rises as a cheap high - But police say use not widespread

Despite official data pointing to the contrary, dealers and users of crack cocaine say the drug has reportedly become common on some streets.

"Mi can get coke fi $250 right now," one man told THE WEEKEND STAR. "If mi go mi regular man, mi sure a dat price, but some place might charge yuh up to $500".

The 2023 National Drug Prevalence Study, which investigated psychoactive substance use across Jamaica, did not flag cocaine as a drug of major concern, given its use on the island. The study highlighted alcohol, cannabis and tobacco as among the substances most used.

The study found crack or cocaine to be challenging to access, with 30.9 per cent of males and 29.8 per cent of females finding it difficult to access.

In addition, Acting Senior Superintendent of Police Patrae Rowe, head of the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID), says the use of crack or cocaine is not widespread in Jamaica.

"If crack cocaine was a significant feature within the Jamaican circumstances, then we'd see a lot of overdoses. We would see those coming up within the health sector and other areas. Not to say that there are not users and there are not dealers, but it is not overly significant."

"We do not find that Jamaicans in general are heavy consumers of cocaine or crack cocaine. But we know that it's a concept, we know that there are dealers, we know that there are users, and as is our mandate we are pursuing some of these large traffickers."

"We place significant emphasis to ensure that we go out and educate people about the risk of drugs, that particularly our young people, and our Jamaicans at large, are not consumers of this dangerous substance, and do not become addicts of drugs, whether it is cocaine, fentanyl, molly, or any form of synthetic or hard drugs," he added.

However, a probe by this newspaper has found that cocaine is not only being used, it is easily accessed.

"Mi have whole heap a place mi can carry yuh go get it," one user, Stunna*, said. "It never short cause if one man nuh have a next man sure fi have it," he added.

He took this reporter into a zinc-fenced yard, situated just off a busy main road, where a man sold him a small bag with what looked like crystal stones for $250.

"See it yah, three likkle piece, but when it mash out a nuff and you can use it two time," he said.

Cocaine is a powder typically snorted or injected, while crack cocaine is a crystallised form that is usually smoked.

Stunna, who is in his late 40s, said he has been using cocaine for more than 10 years. He used to smoke his crack cocaine from a pipe, but these days he mixes it with ganja, and smokes it as a joint.

"When yuh bun coke wid weed, it mek yuh feel nice. Yuh haffi try it fi understand, cause mi just feel high," he said.

A long-time weed seller who operates in Kingston said he has seen a shift in the street market.

"Right yah now mi a tell yuh seh di yaad man dem bun nuff weed, but yuh have man out yah a buy dem cocaine too. Most a dem a like deportee still, dem used to it from foreign," he said.

Rowe noted that a kilogramme of cocaine sells in Jamaica for $500,000, and so far in 2025, the FNID has seized over 811 kilogrammes of cocaine, equating to about $500 million.

"We find that cocaine trade is normally for the major traffickers who sell in large quantity but crack is normally for small dealers who sell to people who want to get high," he said.

*Name changed to protect identity