Pickton Trial

Survivor's Strength

drug use.jpg

I was an intravenous drug user: Cocaine, heroine, whatever I could get my hands on to put me out of my misery.


I’ve been there, done that and learned from it. I was a chronic junkie with a $500-a-day habit of what I call ‘up, down and all around’. '
By Citizen Correspondent Pauline VanKoll , Vancouver, Canada
Date Posted: 10/02/07
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As you know, the Pickton trial is nearing its end. I’ve been attending court for the past year and I’m sure anxious to find out the results. With Crown finished with their witnesses and now listening to Defence make their case, it sounds like the same ol’ stuff; personal witnesses and now a professional witness, Ashby, talking mumbo jumbo scientific terminology about how they assess the stain on the mattress to tell whether it’s a blood stain, or something else.

They use either a soluble such as Ethylene Chloride or a Hexane solvent to remove the stain from the mattress and process it under a microscope to find out if it’s an organic matter - listening about this process reminded me of my favourite subjects in school: Biology and chemistry.

I’m sure this trial has opened everybody’s eyes to different needs for the skid row community and what the politicians need to decide is what will work best for the community. Or, maybe it should be the public that needs to voice what they think would work best.

Recent news is that the safe injections site in Vancouver is worried they might be closed down. I was actually not upset when I read about it in the newspaper; I think they may as well give junkies a loaded gun because giving them a place to do their drugs only enables them to slowly kill themselves.

I’ve been there, done that and learned from it. I was a chronic junkie with a $500-a-day habit of what I call ‘up, down and all around’. In other words, I was an intravenous drug user: Cocaine, heroine, whatever I could get my hands on to put me out of my misery. I’d inject it, smoke it, snort it and swallow it because all drugs do is put you out of your misery temporarily. Let alone make you sick, and in the long run, affect your medical condition as you age. And people should also realize that not all junkies use drugs on the street corner. I seldom did because I always found a room to do it in if I wasn’t at home.

I was asked if this trial has opened people’s eyes as to what should be done regarding prostitution.


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