FALLING INTO CRACK

If Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderberg was interested in doing
a sequel to the movie Traffic he ought to consider the corner of Queen and
Sherbourne as a location.

What goes on there, day and night, is downright tragic -- for both the drug
abusers and the area residents who have little choice but to come into
contact with them and their aggressive nature and desperation.

You also have to feel for the cops at 51 Division, who are embroiled in
this losing battle every day. Just yesterday, the Regent Park Task Force,
complete with help from Consts. Terry Pheby and Joe daSilva on board Harry
and Sunshine Boy of the Mounted Unit, were out in full force trying to make
their presence felt.

But with or without the police presence, that area is a sad, sad sight to
see with people stumbling around in a dazed stupor.

Seeing people stagger out into traffic is commonplace and the pain on many
of their faces is horrifying -- the result of the most powerful urge for a
hit of a little manmade dignity-remover called crack. With some, it's
obvious. Rotting teeth, thin frame and poor hygiene are a giveaway -- but
not with this couple. "We are the kind that shower every day at the
shelter," says Adair, 36, from Halifax. He adds: "I am intelligent, but I
am on crack -- and my (common-law) wife is wired along with me."

They say they have both recently returned to the street from jail. "It's a
two-minute high but don't do it once, because once you do, you are
screwed," says Joanne, 28, of Toronto.

"One hit is too many and 1,000 is not enough," adds Adair. And this is why
the couple, who have an eight-month-old son named Dylan in the care of the
Children's Aid Society, spend their night cruising for the stuff.

Joanne does it by working the street. "Sometimes I am out there for 12
hours," she says. "I don't lie on my back. I only do (oral sex)."

Adair grimaces. "Personal and business are two different things," he says,
then admitting, "It does bother me. I loathe it."

So what's going to happen to Adair and Joanne? "It's hard," Adair says of
kicking crack, but adds: "There is always hope.

"We need to relocate."

"Do you want to buy a watch?" asks the woman at what is known as the crack
corner of Sherbourne and Queen. Rosa Kai is asking "$15 or $20," but
insists it's not for crack.

"I bought (the watch) myself at Walmart. I even have the instructions."
Now, she says, she wants to "buy a sleeping bag."

Born in Hong Kong, Rosa arrived here as an 11-year-old and says she's out
in the street because of schizophrenia. "I am on medication. It helps," she
says. "I am what you call stabilized."

Her hands are covered with blisters. "It's from frostbite."

When people don't buy the watch she gets upset and and hollers, "Please
give me $5 to help me out. I am hungry."

There's lots of hunger there.