Pubdate: Fri, 01 Feb 2008
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Jody Paterson

CRACK, AND A LIFE WHERE RATS WOULDN'T LIVE

Guy Grolway and I came across each other at a bus stop near city hall 
one morning a couple weeks ago -- me looking for someone out there 
who felt like talking, him taking in the morning before another day 
on the streets.

He's 57, and up until a couple years ago was making good money as a 
heavy-equipment operator in Fort McMurray, Alta. But then he met a 
woman -- and soon after, crack cocaine.

And, wouldn't you know it, crack cocaine was the one that stuck around.

"I came to this city from the Ottawa valley 35 years ago with 
nothing, and two years ago found myself like I started," says 
Grolway. "There's a lesson to be taught from all of this: Never get 
involved in crack."

Grolway has been a drug user all his life. Marijuana first, starting 
at age 11. Cigarettes at 12. Crystal meth at 13: "My best friend put 
a needle in my arm and I woke up seven years later." Then cocaine for 
most of his adult life, but never so much that he couldn't hold a 
good job and keep a roof over his head.

Cocaine can be injected, snorted, or smoked as "crack" -- a diluted 
but more addictive form of the drug. You wouldn't think method would 
matter in terms of the impact on someone's life.

But when Grolway switched from snorting powdered cocaine to smoking 
crack a couple years ago -- mostly out of curiosity after seeing his 
new girlfriend do it -- he ruefully discovered that at least for him, 
it mattered a lot.

"I started recreational use of crack, and within three or four months 
knew that THIS wasn't recreation," recalls Grolway. "I was totally 
out of control and spending every last dime, including the rent money."

He lost his house five months ago, and his girlfriend soon after. 
Like him, she's now on the streets, passing the time chasing crack cocaine.

There's only one day a month -- Welfare Wednesday -- when Grolway 
actually has anywhere near the $1,000 he's capable of spending on a 
single jag. But not a day goes by when he isn't on the hunt for 
crack, even just a "hoot" from a friend.

"The thing with crack is that you're never, ever going to get what 
you want. It's not there," says Grolway. "All that's there is heavy 
addiction, paranoia, flailing, loss of control of your body.

"You'll be up 10 or 12 days without sleep, and then you'll finally 
crash and sleep for three days. But to shake that hangover -- it 
takes the life right out of you -- you're going to go looking for 
more. Then it just spirals into this cycle: Buy it, sell it, middle 
it -- whatever you need to do to be able to afford at least some of 
your habit."

I ask Grolway what prevents him from turning his life around. There 
are some obvious ones: No place to detox. No place to live while he 
tries to clean up. No ability to find and keep work in the meantime.

"But there's something else. I can't get something straight up here," 
he says, pointing to his head. "Something has happened, like a short circuit.

"A lot of us out here have hepatitis C, and that alone can cause 
confusion. But then you add in the stress of no money, the police 
always harassing you, the drugs you're using -- there's just so many 
issues to deal with. It's almost like we missed the train, and it's 
not coming back."

Like most people on the streets, Grolway doesn't like all his 
problems being on display in the busy downtown. But every "hidey 
hole" has been locked up, gated, mowed down or otherwise done away 
with by fed-up merchants and city cleanup crews trying to get a grip 
on the mess of homelessness.

"They're only making the problems worse," he says. "There's nowhere 
to go anymore. We're living where rats wouldn't live."

Grolway suspects people on the streets will eventually band together 
in their misery, and some will turn to violence. Politicians might be 
"hoping the problem just goes away," but he sees new faces arriving every day.

"I just hope they come up with some kind of resolve soon," he says. 
"If you were to go down a dead-end road 20 or 30 times, you would 
think that you'd start to see by this point that it was time to go 
down a different road."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart