ADDICTS GETTING VITAMIN C HIT

City health officials are handing out thousands of free packages of
powdered vitamin C to help crack cocaine users dissolve their drugs before
injecting them into their veins.

"There's a lot of demand for the vitamins," Shaun Hopkins, manager of The
Needle Exchange, a city program operated under the board of health, said
yesterday.

Hopkins said a small amount of the vitamin is placed with the crack in a
spoon and mixed with drops of water to form a solution, which is heated
with a lighter and injected.

'More Dangerous'

She said the vitamins replace vinegar or lemon juice, "which is more
dangerous for their veins. It causes infections." She said the use of
vitamins is cheaper than a visit to a doctor to treat the infection.

Hopkins said the cost to taxpayers is minimal. The vitamin packages are
taken to users on the street in an Exchange van or obtained from their
Victoria St. office.

Hopkins said the Exchange has been distributing several thousand vitamin
packages yearly for the last three years.

She said the packages won't encourage crack use among young people:

"People will be using drugs anyway," she said. "This is part of our
harm-reduction program."