KSFY has learned that cocaine use is on the rise in the Sioux Empire.

Area treatment centers, local and federal law enforcement agencies are all reporting that the use of cocaine is climbing. The treatment centers are seeing more people seeking help for addiction to coke. Officers are seizing more and more grams of the stuff.

Action News spoke with one South Dakotan named Erik, who buried his face in white for roughly 12 years. Because the topic is so sensitive, he asked that KSFY only use his first name in this report. Of cocaine, he said, "Once I tried it, there wasn't going to be a moment to where I wouldn't use it."

Erik has been clean for 22 years now, but it's still hard to talk about how coke consumed his life. He said, "I worried more about running out than almost anything in my life."

So he started dealing and for a long time, he says snorting snow was so pleasurable and life was good. But then things changed. He said he was living in another reality, but could see how coke was hurting his family and friends. For that reason, he cut all ties. 

"In fact if there was the off chance that I would run into someone that would notice or recognize me, at all costs I would try to avoid them," said Erik.

Keystone Treatment & Outreach Center executive director Carol Regier says there has been a dramatic increase in area cocaine usage. As of September, Sioux Falls Police Officer Sam Clemens says they've seized nearly 14,000 grams just this year. The DEA reports record prices for coke and an increase in trafficking. 

After losing 12 years of his life to snow, Erik says it's hard to hear cocaine seems to be making a comeback. He said, "It just becomes a way of life in itself and it just slowly spirals to the point where your life and your world become so small that it's just really hard to think that anything is going to change."

But after 30 days of brutal inpatient treatment, he got clean and never went back to coke. As more people turn to the powder, Erik wants those people to know they too have the power to break free. He said, "You can walk out of this. You can turn the page. You can put together a life that's worth living."

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