Pubdate: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Anthony Reinhart CRACK USE 'STAGGERING' AMONG HOMELESS ANTHONY REINHART TORONTO -- Half of the Toronto homeless people surveyed for a health study said they had used crack cocaine regularly in the past year, making the highly addictive drug more popular on the street than marijuana and throwing new obstacles at those trying to get the city's most marginalized residents off the streets. "It's an important and pretty staggering finding," Erika Khandor, a researcher for Street Health, said after the agency released a report on homeless people's health last week. "We certainly knew that it was a big issue in the homeless community, but we didn't realize the magnitude." The survey of 368 homeless adults, conducted at downtown shelters and meal programs between last November and February, found 49 per cent had been regular crack users - meaning three times a week or more - during the previous year. Regular marijuana use was reported by 48 per cent, followed by cocaine (30 per cent) and other drugs. While substance abuse has long been associated with homelessness, the stigma associated with crack - an intensely habit-forming drug that can cause erratic behaviour - can make it difficult for users to get treatment and isolates them further within the already-marginalized homeless population, Ms. Khandor said. Their numbers are growing because "crack is very readily available ... and it's relatively more affordable than other drugs," she said. Nowhere were these points more clear than at the intersection of Queen and Bathurst Streets, one of a handful of downtown hotspots for drugs and homelessness. On one corner, street kids dismissed the 49-per-cent crack use figure as inflated and denounced "crackheads" for giving panhandlers a bad name. Across the street, inside The Meeting Place Adult Drop-In, Bonnie talked about her 10 years as a user, her three days clean (she'd just been in jail), and how, of the 15 people in the centre at that moment, "at least 10 of us smoke crack. "It's a very high number and it's getting higher," she said, adding that 49 per cent might actually be low. "And the age is getting younger." Bonnie, 38, said she met five teenagers new to the street earlier this summer, none of whom had smoked crack before. She tried to steer them away; crack, after all, is why she became homeless and lost custody of her three children, why she occasionally gets arrested for shoplifting, why she lands in hospital with pneumonia at the drop of a hat. "I lost them all," she said of the five teens. "There's no such thing as recreational crack use." Two months later, the five kids are still on the street, circling the same well-worn track that Bonnie, tired of all her hard living, is trying to summon the wherewithal to leave. She got on it simply enough, on a day when her marijuana dealer came by with a delivery. "On his way out, he dropped a big piece of eight-ball" by accident, she said, referring to a chunk of crack worth about $300. Bonnie and her boyfriend traded the chunk, with a roommate, for some powdered cocaine, but wound up sharing the crack, and soon enough they were hooked. "We were living okay; we had our food, we had our roof," she said, and of course, her three children. "Once it started, everything that had a value we sold off. We lost our home and we broke up." The shock of her descent and the loss of her mate scared her off crack for four years, in which she restored a stable life in a North York apartment with her children. "Then, one day, a friend of mine came over and brought some crack with him, and the cycle started all over again." Two months later, she lost her apartment. She gave her daughter to the girl's father, placed her two sons with Children's Aid, and joined the ranks of the homeless. "Not that I like it," she said of the situation with her children, now in their mid-to-late teens, "but they're doing way better with them than they would be doing with me." With her, they would have a mother who wakes daily to a craving stronger than the urge to eat, to shower, to do such basic chores as laundry. All it takes to start is 10 bucks; a hit can be had for as little as $5, but such a small amount is not worth the effort of a seasoned user like Bonnie, who smokes 10 to 20 times a day. "I wake up in the morning and go, '... where am I going to get my stone today?' " she said, sitting in a small office inside the drop-in centre in red sweatpants and a jacket despite the day's heat. She need only go as far as the corner, panhandle for a while and she's on her way. Sometimes, she shoplifts or steals from cars, but mostly, she earns her crack in basic capitalist fashion - by buying larger pieces, selling smaller pieces at a profit and keeping what's left for herself. "I've robbed people, I've stolen, I've lied, but I've never turned a trick for dope," Bonnie said with a hint of pride. "I don't mean to put down the working girls who work hard for their money," she continued, revealing the social strata that exist even among crack users, "but then there are crack whores who'll do anything for a hit." Given the demands of survival amid drug addiction and homelessness, there is perhaps little surprise within the 64 pages of the Street Health Report, which chronicles numerous health conditions found within the survey population. The problem, in many cases, is a lack of available treatment, especially among crack users. Due to the effects of the drug on their behaviour, many also reported being turned away from shelters and drop-in centres, Ms. Khandor said. "There's a real lack of treatment available for people out there," she said. "One in five of the people we talked to who were regular drug users said that they had tried to get treatment and help for their addictions in the past year and were unable to get help." Research scientist Stephen Hwang, an inner-city health specialist at St. Michael's Hospital, agreed. "Crack-cocaine use is a huge problem in society in general and among homeless people in Toronto," Dr. Hwang said. "There are 12-step programs for people with alcoholism, but there's really almost nothing for people with cocaine addiction, and it's something that I think is a huge gap in our system right now." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek