SPECIAL REPORT: IF YOU WANT TO GET CLEAN, GET OUT OF ABBOTSFORD

Three years ago "JL" was strung out on heroin, selling her body for sex and
managing other prostitutes. She was 16.

Her thought process was day-by-day, minute-by-minute: "Gotta get more
money, gotta get more money. That's pretty much the only thing on your
mind," she said in an interview on Tuesday.

These days, at 19, JL is clean and "life is good." She lives in Langley
with her husband of 16 months and together they look after their 14-month-
and two-week-old sons.

But she still vividly remembers Abbotsford.

"I'm sure happy I don't live out there anymore," she said. "It's just as
bad as Surrey, if not worse."

JL's story began in early 1999 when she met an Asian drug dealer from
Surrey. She was 14 at the time. "He would invite people over to hotel rooms
he rented in Abby and give us free drugs," said JL, who grew up in Abbotsford.

"There were about 10 or 15 of us [young girls]. Everybody was doing
[cocaine]. I just did it for fun. I was never addicted to it."

About a month later a friend introduced JL to heroin to "bring me down from
[the cocaine high]."

"The first time was OK," she said of the heroin. "I liked the feeling. It
was like pot, but way better. Afterward I did it for three or four days.
Then [it was] every day - all day and night."

Once she was hooked, the drugs from the Asian man weren't free anymore.

"He asked us to do [sexual] things with him," she said. "I needed the
drugs. I did whatever I could to get them."

When the Asian man stopped coming to Abbotsford, JL had to find other ways
to get her fix. So she started stealing.

At first it was from places like Save-On-Foods or The Bay. She said she
would steal petty things "like Mach 3 razors or shaving kits."

When that wasn't enough to pay for her $100-a-day addiction, JL and a
friend started breaking into people's homes and taking whatever they could.

"I was just thinking about what I was going to get next," she said.

The most expensive item she stole was a 24-karat gold chain and pendant,
which a friend in the jewelry business said was worth about $2,000. It
netted $100 on the street.

"When you're hunting for drugs, you'll take whatever you can get," she said.

As the months passed the break-ins and petty thefts weren't getting JL the
money she needed.

In mid-1999, at 15, she began to sell her body to Indo-Canadian men she knew.

"Then they'd tell a friend about me," she said. "I wasn't on the street or
anything. People would call me on my cell [and say], 'You want to meet me?'
" Yearning to get clean, JL moved to Surrey in January 2000.

"I figured it was my only chance [to get clean]," she said. "If you want to
get clean you can't live in Abbotsford. Well, I guess you could if you're
really strong-willed. I got sucked in too many times."

Things improved in Surrey for a little while. She was clean for three or
four months, "then I ran into the people who were the drug runners for that
guy [who got her started on hard drugs]."

JL got back into drugs and prostitution. She brought out some girls from
Abbotsford "and had them working for me." She and the girls were all about 16.

JL said she made $400 to $500 a day on commission from the girls.

"I don't know," she said, describing the experience. "I think it's pretty
gross."

The cycle of drugs and prostitution continued until October 2001, when
things took a turn for the better.

JL fell in love with her future husband, who was also battling a drug
addiction.

The pair moved to Langley in November 2001 and "helped each other stay away
[from the drugs]."

Both have been clean since December 2001.

"I got pregnant and that was the end of that," said JL. "But if I didn't
have the support of his family and mine I don't know where I'd be. My dad
would take me to the methadone clinic. If I slipped up it wasn't the end of
the world. He was disappointed, but it was like, 'So what? Life goes on.' "

Today, drugs "are the last thing on my mind," she said. "They're not even
on my mind. I don't even remember myself back then. Well I do, but I don't."

JL said the majority of the young girls that started doing drugs with her
in 1999 are likely "doing the same old stuff."

She said she saw one of the girls by fluke at a McDonald's in Langley recently.

"She looked dead," said JL. "She looked like a stick. She said she wasn't
[on drugs anymore], but I could tell. One time she was in a coma for 17
hours after [overdosing]. They had to bring her back to life."

JL said hope isn't lost for these people, as long as they want to get clean.

"It takes a lot," she said. "The No. 1 thing is support from family. And
get the heck out of where you are and get around the right people."