DRUGS RAISE DANGER FOR PROSTITUTES

City sex workers are making a dangerous job more dangerous through drug
abuse. Former prostitute Bonnie Pool, 28, said use of drugs like crystal
meth causes sex workers to lose their sense of danger.

"You don't think about consequences," said Pool.

"You just don't realize that you should not be in this car."

Pool's 19-year-old friend Samantha Berg was found dead under a pile of snow
in a truck parking area near 7829 127 Ave. on Tuesday.

She had been involved in the sex trade for several years and was addicted
to crystal meth.

Pool and Berg shared a room in a safe house in 1991.

Pool finally defeated her drug habit. Berg did not.

"I saw her at a function in December and she gave me hug," recalled Pool.

"She was talking about getting into recovery and she looked worn out. I
know she'd tried a few times to quit and she wanted to go back to school."

Berg's death is being treated as suspicious. Homicide detectives are
withholding results of her Thursday autopsy and toxicology tests have been
ordered.

Though Pool is now off drugs, she remembers what addiction was like.

"The drugs trick you into thinking that you can't get by without them," she
said. "It's like a demon doing push-ups in the back of your head saying,
'Take me, take me.' When I was working I just wanted the drug so bad."

Kourch Chan of Crossroads said drug abuse can be a gateway to prostitution.

"Women become addicted to drugs and then turn to prostitution to pay for
the drugs," he explained. "And then the drugs act as a shield to help them
go through with the prostitution."

Professor Terry Allan, a drug expert at the University of Alberta, said the
kinds of drugs prostitutes are often hooked on can not only impair their
judgment but also their physical abilities.

"They have problems recognizing reality and they make bad decisions," she
said. "And their physical response to danger is impaired."

Police are now tracing Berg's final days.

She was seen alive in late December.

In December 2003, Berg gave personal details to the RCMP-led Project KARE,
which is investigating 79 cases involving Albertans who have "high-risk
lifestyles" and have been found murdered or have disappeared.