20 seconds of euphoria in a world of misery

There were trays of sliced pears, plates of cookies and sandwiches, and there were pots of coffee set out on the tables in a bright warm room last Friday morning.

Forty people milled around, chatting easily. One woman, a crack user, snagged a piece of pastry for now and stuffed some sandwiches in her handbag for later. That’s a coping strategy; good for her. She and the others had come to the Queen Street Community Health Centre for the release of a study called, “ Toronto Crack Users Perspectives: Inside, Outside, Upside Down.” I have a hunch the woman with the sandwiches is very well aware of the inside, the outside and the upside down.

I picked up a copy of the study and sat and listened as Lorraine Barnaby, a member of the research team, presented a verbal summary of the findings.

It might be more accurate to call it a litany of misery. Of the 108 crack users interviewed she said, “ We asked for demographic data. We found there was a huge over- representation of aboriginal people.” No surprise, this, given that aboriginal people are over-represented among the ranks of the homeless. She said, “More men than women had lived in squats. About half the people were on social assistance. People relied on panning, sex work, the drug trade, or they worked under the table for a living.” As she spoke, I leafed idly through the study; it is riddled with observations from the participants. Why do people use crack?

“ It’s like heaven.” “ It reduces inhibitions.” It is, “15-20 seconds of sheer euphoria.” “ It gets rid of loneliness.” “Once you start, you can’t stop.” And this chilling observation: “Crack is easier to get than weed. A lot of people wanted weed and couldn’t get it, so they bought crack.” What happens after you use crack? “The mental issue is number one; when you’re coming down, you get depressed, when you get depressed you get suicidal.” The answer? I guess it’s easy to do more crack.

Lorraine said, “ Health problems include mental illness, hepatitis C and foot problems.” The man next to me whispered, “ Cookie foot.” I was curious. He told me later that “ cookie” was slang for crack, and he said that, during bouts of prolonged drug use, people tend to neglect their health, and in particular their feet; they develop foot sores and are prone to infection; hence, “ cookie foot.”

Lorraine noted other health problems, including paranoia, mood swings, anxiety, HIV and various other sexually transmitted diseases, dental problems, bruises, cuts and sores of the lips as a result of improvised or shared pipes. She said, “ People reported a lack of money to pay for medication. They were refused services, sometimes because they had no health card and sometimes because they said they were users.” And I flipped through the report, looking for more quotes, and found them easily. “ Health care professionals think you don’t care about yourself, so they don’t bother helping you; they think you’re dumb.” “ At my family doctor’s I am out of there in 30 seconds; they tell you to come back in a week; they don’t take you seriously.” “People think crack users are illiterate and don’t have knowledge about anything.” And this: “ Doctors and nurses don’t properly identify the issues, they just write everything off as associated with drug use.”

Lorraine continued, “ The social issues people are dealing with include poverty, homelessness, harassment, discrimination, homophobia, violence and sexual assault.”

I went back to the report for more quotes: “ People think you’re dirt.” “You’re a crack head, you’re a thief.” “ If you are female, they think you are a crack whore.” “ Crack users are the bottom of the barrel, socially.” Those recruited for the study were all active users, but crack is not all they were using. Lorraine said, “ Drug use included alcohol, crack, weed and tranquilizers.” The man sitting next to me nodded his head in agreement and nudged another man and whispered, “ In about that order.”

Lorraine said, “ Reasons for using crack were as a means of coping, or because of loneliness, pain, sleeplessness, family problems, violence, homelessness or escapism.” And a casual observer might suppose that crack is a kind of self- medication; if so, it leads to problems more severe than the ones it eases.

Finally, Frank Coburn of Street Health spoke to the assembled. He said, “ I’m an outreach worker. I’m a user. I mean I’m a nonusing crack user. Very little is known about crack use by society. There are misperceptions. It’s time for crack users to be taken seriously, time for crack users to have a voice. This report should be taken seriously. The alternative is that crack users will continue to be marginalized, short- serviced.” He’s right.

Afterwards, three of the respondents answered questions from the audience. I will report on what they said in a future column.

I also note there were no police, nor any city councillors, in attendance. Given that crack use is on the rise all across Toronto, cops and councillors would do well to get this study and read it carefully. Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca