Toronto mayor seeks substance abuse help

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will take a leave of absence to seek help for substance abuse, his lawyer says, as a report surfaced about a second video of the mayor allegedly smoking crack cocaine.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday it had viewed a second video of Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine in his sister's basement.

The national newspaper reported two Globe reporters viewed the video from a self-professed drug dealer showing Ford taking a drag from a pipe early on Saturday morning.

The video is part "of a package of three videos the dealer said was surreptitiously filmed around 1.15am, and which he says he is now selling for 'at least six figures'," the paper reported.

News reports of the existence of an earlier video of Ford apparently smoking crack first surfaced last May, igniting a media firestorm around Ford.

The latest crack tape report comes as Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, said the mayor will take a leave of absence for substance abuse. Ford is seeking re-election in the October 27 vote.

Morris said he spoke to Ford earlier on Wednesday and said Ford accepted he had a problem.

"He acknowledges he has a substance abuse problem and he wants to do something about it," Morris told The Associated Press.

Ford, who launched his campaign for re-election earlier this year, acknowledged last year after months of denials that he smoked crack in a "drunken stupor" after police said they obtained a video that appears to show him smoking crack. The video has never been released to the public.

Ford has lurched from one scandal to another, becoming a national embarrassment for many Canadians.

The mayor has refused to resign, despite mounting pressure after a string of incidents, from public drunkenness to an appearance in another video that showed him threatening "murder" in an incoherent rant.

Toronto's city council has stripped him of most of his powers.