Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2005
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Mark Bonokoski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

A BAG WORTH NOTING

Cocaine Found With Instructions -- From City -- On How To Inject Drug, Mark 
Bonokoski Says

THE BOYS hanging about crack corner -- drug-savvy, as many of these 
Queen-Sherbourne denizens are -- figured the bag of dope that was lost and 
then found in a nearby alley contained enough cocaine to muscle up a couple 
of rocks the size of 8-balls.

Stepped on a little, maybe three eighth-of-an-ounce pieces.

"Judging by the size of the bag, you're looking at a street value of 
anywhere from $300 to $500," said the uniformed cop manning the front desk 
at 51 Division.

"Yes, two good 8-balls for sure."

For almost two decades, the discoverer of that bag of cocaine has been part 
of a volunteer team dedicated to cleaning up the Don River landscape, and 
so he goes weekly -- garbage bags in hand -- to help pick up the litter 
that tends to pile up under the warren of overpasses and fences that 
provide little beauty in that part of the east end.

"I simply love this city," he says.

In all those years, however, he had yet to find any notable treasure, let 
alone a bag of cocaine.

"I thought I'd might find an Indian arrowhead one day," he says. "But I'm 
still looking."

There was a small typewritten note inside the bag of cocaine -- directions 
on how to mix crack with vitamin C powder, how much of that mixture to put 
in the spoon, and then how much sterilized water needed to be added to 
create the perfect blend for smooth injection.

The cop at 51 Division had never seen such a note before.

But the boys on crack corner had.

It comes in a harm-reduction kit that has been handed out to street junkies 
for almost 10 years, with each and every kit paid for by the taxpayer -- at 
$7.37 a pop, according to a spokesman for the city's health department.

Each kit contains six syringes, an elastic tourniquet, six vials of 
sterilized water, alcohol wipes, a cooking cap, a bag of vitamin C powder 
and, of course, the note.

It contains everything, in fact, except a book of matches.

"The vitamin C powder? Mix it with water and it's easy on the veins," said 
one of the boys on the corner. "Otherwise, it comes down to vinegar or 
lemon juice to cut the crack and make it easier to shoot.

"And that eats at you. Rots the veins."

These needle-exchange kits have been under the radar screen for years. But 
then safe shooting zones for addicts were suggested by City Hall, and the 
fan got hit.

According to Lori Steer, a harm-reduction counsellor at the Street Health 
drop-in centre, the boys on crack corner a few blocks away know of what 
they speak.

"Using vinegar or lemon juice (to cut crack) is truly hard on the veins," 
she said. "And they are easily contaminated, all which can lead to other 
problems, including blindness.

"As for the free kits, well, it helps us get addicts, especially the 
homeless ones, into the system where they begin to feel less marginalized. 
And then we can get them help.

"But our critics just see it as helping junkies shoot up easier," she said. 
"They don't see the long-term benefits of these kits -- like the small cost 
of the kit compared to the huge cost of treating someone with hep C."

As for the bag of cocaine that was found by the man helping to clean up the 
Don, well, it was poured down a sink not far from where it was discovered 
- -- at the nearby Humane Society where the man also volunteers as a dog walker.

He took pictures of it, pictures of where he found it, and then it was 
flushed away -- enough cocaine for two 8-balls, gone down the drain.

"Maybe I should have called the police," he later said. "But I was afraid 
of having it on my possession.

"I just wanted to get rid of it as fast as I could.

"But the note inside was strange," he said. "And I wondered why it was 
there, what it meant, and where it came from.

"It made me curious."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom