NURSES PATROL MEAN STREETS

As the green van cruises slowly down the downtown street, a dark-haired
woman darts out from the curb, waving for it to stop.

Virginia Wheeler rolls down the window.

`We are in dire need, man. I need some points,' begs a middle-aged
prostitute with circles under her eyes and sallow skin.

Wheeler reaches into the back of the van to retrieve a box of hypodermic
needles and some alcohol swabs, which she pops into a brown paper bag. She
also tosses in a plastic baggie containing several brightly colored condoms
and a yellow lollipop.

`Thanks...' sighs the woman on the street, taking the bundle back to her
space on the litter-strewn curb.

Wheeler and her colleague Diane Nielsen are the angels of mercy on
Calgary's meanest streets.

The two public health nurses are the heart and soul of SafeWorks, a
needle-exchange program run by the Calgary Regional Health Authority. They
hit the streets and back alleys in the Chevy van with tinted windows on
Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays in an effort to supply clean
needles and other supplies to the city's growing addict population.

The SafeWorks van isn't only needed in the downtown core or the seedy
streets east of city hall. It is often called to neighborhoods such as
Hawkwood, and Edgemont.

Their youngest heroin client is a 14-year-old boy, still in school. `The
drug problem is invisible in Calgary,' says Wheeler. `That's one of the
unique things about this city, there isn't a slum here.'

Besides clean needles and condoms, SafeWorks also provides HIV and
hepatitis testing, pregnancy testing, and vaccinations for flu and tetanus
right out of the back or the van, or through their office at AIDS Calgary
or the Calgary Urban Projects Society (CUPS).

A new office is scheduled to open by the end of the month at the health
centre at 8th Ave. & 8th St. S.W. to reach those who won't use services
targeted at street people, such as youth, steroid users and business people.

Last month, Wheeler and Nielsen handed out 33,000 clean needles to
Calgary's drug users, and accepted 36,000 dirty ones back. `They buy them
at pharmacies, too,' explains Nielsen.

The needles are used to inject heroin and cocaine. The van is also stocked
with bottles of bleach to kill the HIV virus, and small vials of water for
drug users to make a `shaker' - to mix the coke or heroin before injection.
The lollipops are a treat for the prostitutes.

The SafeWorks pair leaves bright yellow needle collection buckets in
alleys, hooker strolls and even nice homes in the suburbs. Drug users will
drop in their needles, knowing SafeWorks will soon be by to pick them up
and hand out a new supply.

The van continues to prowl the hooker strolls in town, up Centre Street,
down to Eau Claire with higher-priced hookers, and then back behind an
abandoned warehouse in east Calgary lined with graffiti and scattered
needles. It soon pulls onto the grassy area surrounding Fort Calgary, and
is almost immediately flagged down by a uniformed police officer pedalling
hard on a mountain bike.

`Come take a look at this,' says Const. Quinn Jacques. `It's getting to a
point where it's a crisis.'

Jacques shows Wheeler some nearby bushes, dotted with used needles, tissues
and other garbage. `It's horrific,' says the cop, who wears specially lined
gloves to prevent accidental punctures.

`It's brutal out here...they clean up one day and four hours later it's
like this again.'

The mobile SafeWorks service started in 1993. It's anonymous, although
people receiving needles must register with the program using a code word.

An average of 350 people register each month, and they estimate they see
about 40 hard-core heroin users.

When asked if a clean hospital would be a safer career choice for these
nurses than rattling around in a van jammed full of buckets of dirty
needles, both women grin.

`Been there, done that,' laughs Nielsen. `Besides, a lot of our clients out
here really appreciate what we do.'

`I think we're probably the two safest women out here on the street at
night,' adds Wheeler.

`If they mess with us, they lose their service.'

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski