A YORK mother told today how her son's crack cocaine addiction was destroying her life.

She claimed the young man's desperate need for money to buy the drug led him at one stage to point a gun in her baby daughter's face to intimidate her.

"He said afterwards it wasn't loaded, but it was terrifying."

She said he had stolen her jewellery, money, mobile phone, ornaments and even siblings' toys, and she now kept most of her remaining possessions safely in storage to stop him taking them as well. "I hate it when I have to tell my other children that something else has gone."

Her actions have left her living in a house almost bare of furniture, with a cupboard almost empty of food. "I daren't put more inside in case he steals it when he is coming down from a high and needs lots of food.

"He is a lovely lad but crack turns him into an animal. He has abused me. I never thought I would cower from a son of mine."

The woman, who does not wish to be identified, said she was speaking out to warn young people in York and their parents of the rising menace posed by crack. She believed many did not realise it was as dangerous as heroin even though it was not injected, and also that it could cost hundreds of pounds a day.

"People say crack's not addictive," she said. "My son says it's not, but you can see that it is from the way he behaves to get some more.

"I also worry that he will owe someone too much money or take too much crack and that one day police will come round and say: "We have found a body."

"We used to be such a close-knit family. I am at the end of my tether, but who do I turn to? I have reported his violence towards me to police on some occasions, but it is difficult for them to deal with what is a domestic and complicated situation."

The woman claimed that there were dealers living within five minutes of her house in every direction.

"I got so sick of it the other night after finding that yet another thing had been taken that I almost went round to one dealer and shouted at him: "Stop laying it on to my son! Just stop selling it!" Friends stopped me because they knew I would be endangering myself."

The woman said she believed other parents of crack addicts were going through a similar nightmare in York, and suggested it would be helpful if such people could meet up and talk through their problems.

Crack cocaine is a potent hard crystalline form of cocaine, the addictive drug derived from the coca plant and used as a stimulant. The euphoria of a user is followed by a "crash," involving anxiety, depression and possibly paranoia, and intense craving for more of the drug develops.

Updated: 10:47 Friday, September 12, 2003