A FIX FOR SHERRY

Sherry Cowx is a beautiful young woman, and she looks her best -- relaxed
and radiant, as you can see from this picture -- in the minutes after she
has injected herself with heroin. She does this, or smokes crack instead,
several times a day.

You may find you like Cowx. Certainly you will grow to know her. She is one
of two Downtown Eastside residents and drug users who, over the past
several weeks, have allowed Vancouver Sun reporters complete access to
their lives.

Over the past decade the Downtown Eastside has festered and fallen; it
approaches and perhaps surpasses infamous American ghettos as the
continent's worst repository of human misery. The neighbourhood is much
talked about, little understood, much agonized over, little acted upon.

Now there are signs this last thing will change. Perhaps as early as next
week, the City of Vancouver will release a plan of action that recommends
some very bold changes -- some of which borrow heavily from liberal
European drug policy. The document has been months in gestation, and Mayor
Philip Owen believes it is the most nuanced, scrutinized and high stakes
document to flow through city hall channels in recent memory.

Definitely it will be controversial. To help readers understand the many
issues surrounding drug abuse and the Downtown Eastside -- and out of the
belief that something must be done -- The Sun has committed unprecedented
resources to the story. Reporters investigated shiny new injection sites in
Germany and the cleaned-up year-2000 version of one of America's most
infamous crack corners. They traced the genesis of the current impasse and
listened while dealers explained the nuances of the business.

The words they have written, and the pictures taken by Sun photographers,
would fill a book. Over the next two weeks, we urge you to read it.