DRUG ABUSE MAIMS LIVES

When you look at "Amanda," you wouldn't know she was a prostitute at
the age of 14. You can't tell she's been addicted to cocaine for the
past nine years - until you see the track marks on her arms and legs.
But in her voice, you can hear the mark that having had her two
children taken away has left.

"Losing (my daughter) has opened my eyes," said Amanda - the name
we've given this 23-year-old Penticton resident to protect her
identity. "I'm missing everything. I don't think going out to get high
can ever replace seeing your kid learn to say 'Holy doodle'."

This week is national Drug Awareness Week. And the true story of
Amanda's life is an illustration of a side of drugs young people don't
see - until it's too late. Amanda's 15-month-old daughter is in
Ministry for Children and Family care, after recent allegations that
Amanda and her boyfriend were selling and using drugs - allegations
she says are false. But she admits, that after 15 months "clean," she
started doing cocaine again when the ministry apprehended her daughter.

"I would have had her back when the investigation was done, but I
started using again," says Amanda.

Her life to date is testament that history repeats itself. Amanda's
biological parents were addicts, she says, and a failed adoption saw
her become a ward of the court when she was 12.

She ended up in juvenile detention in Alberta, where she met the kids
who taught her how to steal.

When she was 14, her boyfriend's friend needed bail money, so they
boyfriend suggested she raise it selling her body on the street.
Within a few weeks, she was using cocaine to deal with being a prostitute.

"Dope and prostitution go hand in hand," she said. "In one form or
another, it all leads to prostitution.

"It's like a circle. You go to work so you can score, then go back to
work. Once I started smoking it (cocaine), I was working to support my
habit."

Her "quota" was to earn $1,500 a night on the street. Initially she
gave that to her "boyfriend" but she eventually handed it over to a
drug dealer. "Your pimp is your dealer."

And that's how she acquired Hepatitis "C" - a form of the disease that
can slowly devour the liver.

"When I first started using, I didn't know you weren't supposed to
share the water," she said.

While needle replacement programs ensured Amanda didn't share needles
with other users, she didn't know she shouldn't share the water used
to mix with the cocaine for injection.