Alcohol, drugs and money led to life as a sex worker for Sarah

In the middle of a snowstorm, in the knees-knocking, teeth-chattering cold of an Upper Canada winter's evening, Sarah refuses to move from her spot. She hasn't eaten in days and is suffering the effects of frostbite. Even still, she can't think of anything except for the next person who will stop and offer her money for sex … enough money at least to buy some crack cocaine.
"You don't understand it," said Sarah, whose name has been changed for this article. "All you know is that you're there. And you can't leave until you have that hit."
Sounds like the end of another woeful tale of an inner-city woman lost hopelessly in a cycle of drugs and prostitution. It's a vicious means to an end, one that has led many girls to their destruction. But Sarah's still here to tell the tale.
What few people consider, she says, is where it all began. In her case, it was Pictou County at the age of 13.
Now in her late 20s, she's moved back to this community. She's been sober for several years, but still suffers the after-effects of being an addict.
"I suffer from anxiety, depression, PTSD, I have nightmares, guilt - grief from losing (two) children. It's been a horrible, horrible life to have to get sober to."
It can't be said for everyone who enters the sex trade - but alcohol, drug use and a complete lack of social structure was the way in for Sarah.
"We started with just having a couple beer - then it went to going to parties and having a lot of beer, mixing it with marijuana, mixing it with hash oil and drugs," she said. "And, at those parties, most of the time it was a lot of older men hosting these parties and supplying this liquor."
She added often these men sought young girls and homosexual boys. "And it's sick to say, but the younger the better."
"I had an offer (from a man); being a young girl, you don't get a lot of money through allowance and things like that. Along with the drugs and alcohol mixed in the picture, I said yes (to the offer). It became very appealing to know that a young girl like me could get so much money so easily."
Sarah made $100. She imagined her next party and thought about going shopping.
"It went from there. Always going to these parties (with) him - he referred (me to) his friends while at these parties. Eventually, it led to going to Halifax. I lived on the streets and partied."
At that age, she couldn't find anything that would make her money as quickly as sex. Within two years, she was living in Ontario and that taste for booze and pot had become a predilection for kedamine (Special K) and G.H.B., known to be a widely used date rape drug. Later she became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine.
"After a couple of years of it, you're so wired on the drugs - you're so stuck in that familiar life - that there is no other life."
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Though there isn't a great deal of research on the sex trade in Atlantic Canada, a 2007 study conducted in New Brunswick, suggests that Sarah's story isn't unique.
The Sex Trade Research Initiative interviewed sex trade workers to determine the extent of the sex trade in that province - but also to identify needed programs and services for the people involved.
It found that 53 per cent of sex trade workers entered the trade between the ages of 12 and 20 years, while 25 per cent were between 12 and 16 years.
Additionally while most in the sex trade work in their hometowns, many moved to larger centres, like Moncton, from smaller towns.
RenÉ Ross is the executive director of Stepping Stone, a Halifax-based non-profit organization offering a drop-in centre and provides support services to members of the sex trade.
She said she has dealt with sex trade workers who've moved to Halifax from smaller towns.
"While some may start in rural cities, others start in larger areas, et cetera. They do enter the trade for a variety of reasons."
The overwhelming majority enters for economic reasons, Ross said. But at the same time the biggest misconception is that all sex workers fit within one definition - "That they were all sexually assaulted as children or that they all have substance abuse issues - or they were all forced or coerced into the trade."
"It's not like what you see on the movie Pretty Woman, not the typical picture of the woman in high heels on the corner. That's not what's happening. The biggest thing we want to convey to people is that sex workers are people - and that there's so much stigma and discrimination attached to it."
It can happen to the best of kids, Sarah said.
"There are no barriers - It can affect any age, race - it can happen and that it has drastic, drastic consequences."
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Raising a teenager, parents deal with a rapidly developing person, someone that possesses complex emotions.
It may not be immediately apparent what a teenager is going through - but it never hurts to ask questions.
"My big thing," Sarah said. "It's ok for parents to trust their children. But, if their child is out, there's no harm in asking who they're going to be with, when they're going to be home. Don't be scared to ask questions."
And be open, she said.
"I mean, you have the sex talk with your kids - but broaden it a bit. Let them know, not just about the consequences of, say, pregnancy but explain to them to that people will try and take advantage them."
When it comes to youth involvement in the sex trade, she said "You're looking directly at parties, especially where there's a lot of underage drinking. Somebody's supplying that booze. And a lot of times, I have to say, it's older gentlemen."
These days, she says she can spot the signs of drug use in this community. During the summer, youth hang out in groups near Sarah's home - sometimes they're drunk.
"It may seem like a harmless couple of beer to start. But you can get wrapped up in it so easily. It can pick you up and swirl you around without you even noticing. You can have everything taken away so easily."