I thought I would talk to women who dressed provocatively, who were out at night trying to make extra money. What I found when I went out with police was a lot of women who are so addicted to drugs they will do anything for a quick fix. If that means charging somebody 10 bucks they’ll do it. I can’t imagine being that addicted to something. I can’t imagine being that addicted that I would think so little of myself. But that just shows you what drugs and addiction will do.

My photographer and I met two officers uptown on a Wednesday night. I thought we would find more prostitutes out at night, but they told me they are out at all hours of the day. It wasn’t hard to find them. I was shocked.

We roamed neighborhoods very close to Uptown and it didn’t take us long to see women. One had breast implants, bought by a John. Another was so cracked out, she could barely stand up. We saw her an hour later and she was much more together, the crack had gone through her system. She told me that night that she knew it was the drugs that kept her out looking for a John, but she wasn’t ready to quit. I wonder if she ever will be ready. I wanted to tell her there was so much more to life than what she was doing. Easy for me to say. I was standing there in my designer jeans and my television producer badge. My life was much different than hers.

I was impressed by how the police officers related to the women. They talked to them like friends. They’d tell them to get clean, get off the streets. The prostitutes would smile and say they understood. But, many will never be successful at getting off the drugs. The officers told me the majority of the women will end up dead before they try to get clean. They’ll go get off drugs and pretty soon, they’ll be back where they started.

It was really sad. I went home that night to my Dilworth apartment and thought about those women and thought about my life. I wonder where those women would be if they never used drugs. We all have choices in life, but what if you don’t know what other options there are? What if you grow up knowing nothing but the streets, do you know that you can do something else with your life?

I don’t know what the answer is for those women wrapped up in that lifestyle. The simple answer is to never start using drugs, get off the crack, but with addiction it is not that easy. You can see it in our prostitution story. As the officers told me, all the women who got arrested, didn’t grow up wanting to be a prostitute.