Police say cocaine is causing huge problems in Eau Claire - the number of cocaine cases shot up last year.

Investigators say another drug is to blame, at least indirectly. Detectives say new laws make it harder to make methamphetamine, so drug dealers and users in Eau Claire are turning to cocaine.

Cocaine is nothing new to James stanek.

"When I first found cocaine, I think I was 13 or 14 years old," Stanek says.

At first, Stanek, who lives in Chippewa County, says selling and using cocaine was manageable.

"It was a 24/7 party. You were up for days at a time. You never stopped. Just go, go, go. You didn't stop to wash your clothes - you just threw ‘em away and bought a new pair."

But slowly, his life spun out of control.

"Eventually it just took over. I lost my house, I lost my wife. She took the kids. I ended up in prison. Pretty much lost just about everything for a while."

Now drug investigators say more people are at risk of losing everything.

The numbers are clear. In 2005, there were 22 meth cases. Last year that dropped 550 percent to just 4 cases. Over the same time period, cocaine cases skyrocketed from 11 to 61- a 550 percent increase.

Recent laws put over-the-counter medicine with pseudo ephedrine behind pharmacy counters- that makes meth harder to make.

"Now we're seeing that people who probably were involved in methamphetamine use or were involved in methamphetamine use are involved again with crack cocaine,” says Jeff Wilson, the West Central Drug Task Force supervisor.

So Wilson says the Task Force has shifted its focus from busting meth labs to cracking down on crack cocaine.

For James stanek, the battle continues. He used as recently as March and now gets help from the Libertas treatment center in Chippewa Falls.

“They teach you how to attack the urge- how to knock it down to figure out what is causing you to feel that way,” Stanek says.

Wilson adds drug dealers target Eau Claire because cocaine sells about $75 to $100 per gram. In the Twin Cities or Chicago- that same amount sells for $40 or $50.