TEEN CHALLENGE HELPS CRACK ADDICTS CHANGE

You know you're in the middle of crack-cocaine war zone when you look out
the window and see a drug dealer lowering a "rock" from his apartment
balcony with a fishing rod.

That's the reality around the 400-block of Edmonton Street, where there are
more crack deals going down in the middle of the afternoon than there are
children playing in the playground.

Dealers regularly use fishing rods from apartment balconies to lower
"rocks" of crack cocaine to customers, said Steve Paulson, executive
director of Teen Challenge, a drug and alcohol treatment facility on
Edmonton Street.

It's a scene that plays itself out regularly around the Edmonton strip. And
it's one that can be seen across the lane from the bedroom windows of Teen
Challenge's 60-bed facility.

"We see that all the time and we call police when it happens," said
Paulson. "(The dealers) are here for one reason and one reason only -- for
the money."

Winnipeg's crack-cocaine problem continues to grow unabated in the city's
core area. It's the cornerstone of organized crime in the city and it fuels
the West End's street prostitution problem.

Talk to people at Teen Challenge and they'll tell you it's no coincidence
that the $40 price tag for a rock is the same as what hookers charge for
oral sex.

Sadly, the rapidly growing prevalence of crack is breeding a whole new
generation of addicts hooked on a very dangerous drug, said Paulson.

"A crack addict who's on a run will do just about anything," said Paulson.
"You want it and you'll do anything to get it -- they're dangerous." And
you'd be surprised who gets addicted to this stuff.

Take James Foster, 30, who graduated from Teen Challenge last month after a
seven-year roller-coaster ride with crack cocaine.

All Came Crashing Down

Foster grew up in a small town near Edmonton. He had a good upbringing in a
stable, loving family. He had everything going for him, including a hockey
scholarship in Minnesota.

That all came crashing down at age 21 when he jumped off a balcony during a
drunken house party and crushed his heel bone and broke a leg. Foster would
never play competitive hockey again.

Soon after, a distraught Foster was introduced to cocaine. And it was all
downhill after that.

It wasn't until he overdosed and drove his car into a tree that he decided
to turn his life around. "I bit right through my tongue and I had blood all
over my shirt," said Foster. "It was at that point I really knew I had an
addiction."

Talk to anybody hooked on it and they'll tell you there's nothing that can
grab you and wrestle you to the ground like crack cocaine. It consumes you,
it changes you and eventually it will kill you, if you don't get help.

"I remember crawling on the floor on my hands and knees, looking for little
pieces of crack on the floor," said Foster, who's been clean for 16 months,
thanks to Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge, a Christian-based facility, is a
bright spot in an otherwise gloomy area of town.

It opened amid a firestorm of controversy in 1999. Some area residents
didn't want addicts in their own backyard.

Of course, they already had them. They're turning tricks on Ellice Avenue
and buying crack off of fishing lines. At least now some of them are
getting treatment.