“Out here, a cigarette is a powerful tool,” said Trahan, who’s met the woman a few times before and says she’s often on the verge of “crisis mode.”
It’s a cold February evening, just after 5 p.m., and a few dozen people are crowded together at Third and Pike. Drug dealers are selling their wares, including fentanyl and meth. Drug users are sitting on the sidewalk smoking. A man walks through trying to hawk a couple of new sweatshirts with the tags still hanging off. A few commuters wait at the bus stop — just feet away from the open-air drug market, but a world apart with no interaction between
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