All language subtitles for Ten.Dollar.Death.Trip.2020.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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Pure fentanyl? It is fire.

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Like it is so dangerous.

It's like the most ho-horrid,
wretched pure terror you can imagine.

And it feels like
something's slowly, like,

just pulling your life force out of you

and then you get tunnel vision,
starts getting smaller and smaller.

And around this tunnel,
it's just darkness, right?

And then it gets smaller and smaller
and smaller and closes.

And then it goes...
You're dead, that's it.

- You think you're dead?
- No, you're dead.

You're a flatline, no heartbeat, dead.

Vancouver,
a city renowned for its natural beauty,

a quote from the tourist board.

But beneath the mountain vistas,
the city has a tragic underbelly.

Despite being known as one of the world's
top three cities in which to live,

a tiny neighborhood known
as Downtown Eastside

is experiencing a huge drug problem.

Thousands of lives have been lost,

and in nearly nine out of ten autopsies,

a deadly new illicit drug
has been present.

The painkiller fentanyl is now
the number one killer drug in the US.

You can die just by touching it.

Fentanyl! Fentanyl! Fentanyl!

A fatal dose of fentanyl.

- Fentanyl!
- Fentanyl!

The potent opioid
that's supposed to tranquillize elephants.

A synthetic painkiller, a hundred times
more powerful than morphine.

Just two milligrams of the pure drug,
which is about four grains of salt

is enough to kill the average adult.

Prince died from a lethal
amount of the painkiller fentanyl.

A ten-year-old boy
in Florida has become one of the youngest...

Overall, more than 63,000 people died of...

The monster drug kills
far more people than gun violence.

And if you don't know what fentanyl is,

it is basically the new heroin,
but much, much stronger.

Oi, what's up, bro?

Not a whole lot.
I'm on a documentary right now, brother.

I'm on a documentary here
talking about opioid use and shit.

- Oh?
- Yeah.

- I'll come talk to you in a minute. Hey.
- Oh?

Wait down here I gotta talk to you, bro.

Just give me a minute.

Yeah, just another fellow bro
in the hood, you know.

- Uh...
- Friend of yours?

- Yeah, a good friend of mine.
- Dealer?

You know, uh... That doesn't matter.

Ask no-ask no questions,
I'll tell no lies.

Here in Downtown Eastside,
addiction is nothing new.

Heroin has flowed
through Vancouver's ports

to this deprived part of town
since the 1970s.

But market forces have seen
that heroin supply replaced.

Fentanyl is stronger, cheaper
and much less bulky to import.

Where are we going, Kevin?

- Where would you like to go?

- Do you wanna see what it's really like?
Sure.

Let's go. Let's go.

This is East Hastings Street now.

This is where the ghetto starts,
basically.

What you're looking at
is the Mecca of drug addiction.

We have been
an active narcotics hub for

ever since I can remember.

Maybe that's why I came here.

Yeah, yeah, that is probably
why I came here.

Illicit fentanyl hasn't flooded
the street drug supply

outside North America yet.

Do you think this could become
a global problem,

and if it does, what should people expect?

Death. Lots of fucking death.

People are gonna die
and-and it's not gonna be pretty.

It is wildfire,
people will try it, love it

and they'll never quit.

These-these streets were crowded.

You're talking about 1500,
2,000 people died just in this-this block.

♪ Mama put my guns to the ground ♪

Our government knows
what's killing them.

Now I've seen our government
address an epidemic before, SARS.

They spent multiple, multiple millions
of dollars to keep us safe from SARS.

Any idea how many people died from SARS?

I know. Fourteen people died from SARS.

We lost 14 people
last fucking week, right?

This is a huge problem.

The United States lost 72,000 people
to overdose death last year.

Canada lost 8,000.

All right? These are-these are
large numbers of people

dying of a preventable death,

and it will not be any different
in Australia, the United Kingdom,

uh, anywhere in the Western world.

It's just, uh... It's inevitable, it is.

I mean, this stuff will kill you.

♪ Knock, knock... ♪

If I wanted to buy fentanyl
right now, how easy would that be?

Well, it would pretty much be simple
for you to get fentanyl,

it'd be impossible for you to get heroin.

Because that's for... It's all fentanyl now.

And even if there is heroin,
it's got fentanyl in it.

How far do you reckon
they are from a drug dealer?

Feet.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

One drug dealer, or a lot?

A lot. A lot, you know.

- What's your name, buddy?
Sylvester.

And what are you doing hanging out
on the street corner here, Sylvester?

Uh, selling fentanyl, you know.
Trying to get by.

I live on the streets,
so I got to make a living somehow.

I don't want to rob stores or nothing.
I've got about ten years in the pen.

This way here I stay out.

And how's business, you selling a lot?

Booming, man, like,
you-you can never have enough.

So how many people are buying fentanyl
from you each day?

Hundred... 150.

- Every day?
- Every day.

Is the dealing here
quite organized,

is there, like, a bit of a kind of
chain of command to it?

Yeah. Different gangs
run different alleys.

I'm on a 12-hour shift.

How do you get that job,

'cause I don't think they're advertising
that in the newspaper, right?

No, no. Through-through connections,
mostly coming out of jail.

What's fentanyl done
to the community around here?

Destroyed it.

I lost like 40 people that I know well,
close to me, in the last three years.

People never did drugs in their life,
picked it up once, dead.

- From fentanyl?
- From fentanyl.

Is it possible any of them
got that fentanyl from you?

It's possible.

That bother you?

To an extent, but they're gonna get it
from somebody, right?

I mean,
I guess apart from anything else

it's not great business practice
to be killing your customers, right?

No. I don't think anybody
wanted anybody to die,

but the thing is...

Heroin, it used to come and it's heroin.

This fentanyl, we're making it ourselves.

You go online on the-on the dark web,

you order an ounce of fentanyl from China.

Costs you 350 bucks.

You pay an extra 50 bucks, the next day
it's delivered right to your door.

- You take that $400 worth of fentanyl...
- Yeah.

...and you make a thousand grams of down.

- Yeah.
- And you're getting anything

between a hundred and a 120 per gram.

- So do the math.
- Jesus.

It's like mining diamonds,
isn't it?

- Yeah.
- Like gold.

You're taking $400
and you're making a hundred grand.

But while it's lucrative,

illicit street fentanyl
is often being cooked

by amateur gangsters in their basements.

They're making the recipe up
as they go along,

and the final product is synthetic
and wildly inconsistent.

Customers here told us
that what they buy on the street

can be any color of the rainbow.

That's-- Like, right now
everybody wants the dark green.

They come up and ask you,
"You got the dark green?"

If you don't got it, they shop around.

Why do they want that?

Because that's the highest fentanyl.

But that's also the shit
that's killing people, right?

Yeah.
You're playing Russian roulette.

And people are comfortable
to take that risk?

Soon as they know
that that stuff's dropping,

people, they're running to you,
"Who got that green stuff?"

Because they think they can...
They're the ones

that could take half of it
or a quarter of it. Or...

And if people are dying from it,
then it must be good shit.

- Is that the logic?
- That's the logic.

Last night,
this girl just came out of detox,

and I knew she just got back.

She's all healthy and everything.

She sees me, "Oh, Sylvester!"
Comes running up to me, "Give me a point!"

I said, "You just got out, didn't you?"
"I just got out two hours ago"

I said, "What do you want a point for?"

"Oh, I'm just gonna use a little bit of it
and have some for tomorrow."

I said, "Don't use it all
because you know-you know your tolerance..."

"No, no I won't."

Ten minutes later,
the ambulance was in the alley,

they were working on her.

I don't know if she lived or died.

I don't know.

Ambulance come, police come, I leave.

So how much do you sell it for,
and what people get for that?

Ten dollars for a flap.

Can I see?

That's a ten-dollar flap
of fentanyl.

And that's green dark green.

Dark green.
That's the shit that's dropping people.

Do you know what purity that is?

Fifteen percent fentanyl,
three percent heroin.

The rest is baby laxatives, sugars...

Is it possible that I'd die
if I took that?

Yep.

All depends how high your immune system,
you know, your tolerance.

I mean, I've never taken fentanyl before.

If you took that you'd die.

- A hundred percent?
- Hundred percent.

And if I bought the same quantity
of heroin off you, would I die?

No.

- Definitely not?
- Definitely not.

- Would you sell it to me?
- If you want to buy it.

If I want to buy it? Like,
if I give you ten bucks for that now,

- you'll sell me that?
- Yup.

It's your life, bro,
you gotta make your own choices, right?

And I gotta eat. So...

Just like that, man.

The candid way
in which Sylvester discusses his day job

is conflicting.

It's easy to judge him, but the reality is

that fentanyl has become normalized
in Downtown Eastside.

And for the homeless community,
who live here in desperate hardship,

it's one of the very few
tradable commodities.

Vancouver's a very rich city,

surrounded by, you know,
very rich real estate,

and unlike most Canadian cities,

Vancouver's decided to ghettoize poverty.

As the city gentrifies,
people get squished and squished,

and it used to be 15 square blocks,

now it's down to six or seven
square blocks of people.

And, uh, most of them are in search
of some sort of drug from day to day.

So just a block over that way
I just purchased this.

- Could that be fentanyl?
- I think it could be.

I mean, it comes in all different shapes

and sizes.

Where do you think that ambulance
is going to that we can hear behind us?

Probably an overdose, yeah.

It's, uh... Yeah. This--

I mean, it's su-it's surprising
it's the first one we've heard,

because there's multiple overdose calls
in this little community per day.

And some... Sometimes
it's just been horrific.

Like, it's just been...
Just wall-to-wall ambulances

and fire trucks,
and people lying on the street.

It can look like a war zone.

People are being
slaughtered down here...

- This is the war zone.
- Yeah. You're in it.

No, you're-you're in it right now.
Like you think Afghanistan's bad.

This right here is my last ten dollars
and my only ten dollars,

that I sold a crowbar
and an angle grinder for.

I got a coffee and some dope.

Yup. Usually, you don't eat

and you live, breathe and work for this.

How can you know really
what's inside that?

So, I guess it's fentanyl.

He's also got the powder version there.

It alwa-- Like, you never know
what you're going to get.

It's a surprise all the time.

So, these are both fentanyl,
but it almost looks like a different drug.

It does, you never know,
like, it always looks different.

It's just, uh, one big fuck around,
it really is.

Sorry for the language,
but it's, um, you know,

food, clothes, shower, drugs.

It's constant.

Let's take a walk on the wild side,
shall we?

Why did you call it
the wild side, Spike?

There-There seems to be an idea here
that it might be dangerous down here.

It might be. Yeah.

Mainstream society is a little bit
intimidated by it or-or afraid of it.

I'm...
Yeah, so, I said it in jest

because it's not the wild side at all.

It's just a... It's a neighborhood of people

that, uh, are experiencing a lot of pain
and-and dealing with a lot of trauma.

What kind of pain
do people typically go through?

Well it... High poverty area,
there's-there's all kinds of people

survive all kinds of trauma
from early childhood abuse

to-to-to, you know, relationship pain
to, you know, just, yeah, just...

People have gone through a lot down here.

Do you think
addiction is a disease and is an illness?

Definitely. You know,
what starts out as an original choice

to use substances
to self-medicate from the pain

turns into a lifetime of suffering, and...

I became dependent
on using, um, heroin and fentanyl,

because reality was... was painful.

Opioids like heroin and fentanyl

belong to the same
pharmaceutical family as morphine,

and like morphine,
they were intended for pain relief.

Everyone in this self-medication community
has a back story

and pain, both physical and mental,
is all around.

- Is this person okay?
- We'll-We'll check right now.

I'm sure
they're probably breathing, but...

- Hey how are you?
- I'm fine.

Cool, uh, we're filming the wall,
but we won't-we won't...

- Okay?
- Okay.

Cool.

Sorry to in-- Sorry to...
Sorry to come into your space, ma'am.

I-I had an ugly childhood, so I-I dabbled.

Um, yeah,
I-I was running away from things,

from an awful lot of pain when I was a kid
and I-I used narcotics.

Uh, I cleaned up. In 1997,
I cleaned up to raise my child. I was, uh...

His mother killed-killed herself
and I raised my...

And I was a single dad.
I raised my ch-- my son.

And-and, uh... 'cause I-I owed him a life.

And I have an amazing son,
he, uh, turned out exceptionally well,

I... I'm really proud of the job that I did.

Uh, and then I had an accident
and it kind of brought me back.

Uh, I got hit from behind on my bike.

I broke my legs, my pelvis, my hip,
my ribs, ripped my rotator cuff,

crushed both hands,
broke my back in four places,

my skull in four places,
my face, my nose, my teeth

and with a shearing brain hemorrhage.

Uh, yeah, it wasn't a good day
in my world.

If I had met you down here ten
years ago,

what would the difference have been?

Oh! Yeah, you-you probably...
You wouldn't-You wouldn't have met me.

If you would have met me,
I would be apologizing right now.

- So, uh, completely different person.
- What would you be apologizing for?

Uh, probably for something
I had done to you, or... or taken from you.

But, yeah.
I would inject drugs 30 to 40 times a day.

- I mean, so... Yeah, I mean...
- Wow.

Just a shell of, you know, a person.
That was just--

How much was that costing?

Oh, probably a good, uh, 600 bucks a day.

Fentanyl is now sweeping through
North America at a horrifying rate.

Since it hit the streets, drug overdose
has become the leading cause of death

for those under 50.

You can't find anyone in these alleyways
who hasn't lost a loved one.

It's scary how common place it has become.

Have you lost any friends,
Michelle,

- with this fentanyl shit?
- Yeah?

Oh, my God, my brother, I lost my brother

- I'm so sorry to hear that.
- Me too.

How did your brother die,
Michelle?

- From fentanyl, yeah.
- I'm so sorry.

That's the fentanyl truck there.
No, I'm kidding.

Perhaps fentanyl's cruelest trick
is the Stockholm Syndrome

it pushes to its victims.

The more it devastates
this little community,

the more people seek solace in its arms.

But here in the hardest hit neighborhood,

the very people in the midst of its grip
are the ones leading the fight back.

Right now, we're going to go
to the Washington Needle Depot.

It's peer-led and we hand out, uh,
harm reduction supplies for the community.

Peer-led means that
the people and staff that work there, uh,

use drugs themselves
and are a part of that community?

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

It's really important that people
from the community

are the ones leading it.

- Hey, guys.
- Hello.

Hi, cameras.

So double shift,
no one showed up this afternoon,

- so we're going to go hit up the East End.
- Perfect.

And we'll... Yeah,
we got, uh, one OD this afternoon,

- one this morning.
- Oh, man.

Uh, 55 needles found
and some... two Narcan kits handed out.

- And it's your first day.
- First day, not bad.

- That's amazing. Thank you so much.
- All right.

- We'll hit it hard. You're welcome.
- Well done.

See you.

And it was this guy's first day?

- Yes.
- And he's saved an overdose already.

- Yeah.
- Is that pretty common?

Would you have an overdose
every day like that?

Well, I mean, we...
It depends of where the routes are,

but Downtown Eastside, it's pretty common.

Inside this building,
clean injecting equipment

is handed out to locals
through a hole in the wall.

The idea is to stop the spread
of bloodborne viruses

like hepatitis and HIV.

It's open 24 hours a day
and hands out a million syringes a year.

So, Cory, how many needles
would you give out in a normal shift?

Oh, wow, um, I've gone through...

One of these boxes
has 500, um, rigs in it.

And one day, I went through
four boxes of rigs in one shift.

- Two thousand needles?
- Yeah.

That was a busy day.

Why is it so important
that people round here can get access

to those clean needles?

Well, they'll-they'll use...

They'll use whatever they need to use.

They'll use a dirty rig that they find.

That's how people get
Hep C and-and AIDs, right?

They'll share rigs.

They will use toilet water, puddle water,

um, whenever they need to...
to use get water, right?

And I guess that water
is going straight into their blood stream

and that does not sound great.

Well, can you imagine
the diseases in these alleys

where people urinate and faeces.

And, you know,
this is known as piss alley.

Smells like piss, right?

I need one of these, uh...

From the back of the building,

the staff run a mobile response unit
working in shifts

to reverse street overdoses.

So, for my shift I have my vest on.

I have a... an eight...
Point eight Narcan ready to go.

I have my bike, my helmet,
and I always have extra Narcan on me.

So in case I come across
multiple overdoses.

I'll put that right here right now.

Workers like Jen
patrol these alleyways,

administering life-saving
medical interventions.

Their secret weapon is naloxone,
the fentanyl antidote.

Commonly known by its brand name, Narcan.

Fentanyl is an opiate.

And what is does is that
it shuts down your respiratory system.

So, pretend that this-this here,

this is fentanyl coming in
your system, right.

So when you shoot someone up with Narcan,
it's like a wall goes up,

and so the fentanyl hits the wall
and can't keep on going.

The more Narcan you put into the system,
the bigger that wall gets.

So, what you're saying is,
is that it's actually quite easy

- to reverse an overdose?
- Yes, it is.

So then if it's that easy
to reverse an overdose,

why do we have so many people
dying of overdose?

Because people are using by themselves.

People are really ashamed
about their drug use.

They're labelled as a criminal
or a junkie or a crack head.

So, they use by themselves
in-in dark places.

You know, like, where people can't see
or can't find them until it's too late.

If you find someone overdosed,
how long have you got?

You've got three minutes,
and that depends.

I mean, usually,
it starts off that their lips are blue,

and then you-you only got so much time
to react.

If you find them and their face is purple,
it means you're standing on death's door.

And if you find them
and their face is black,

you have like a slim chance
of bringing them back.

So, when you do find someone that's OD'ed

and you're able to turn that around
and save their life, how does that feel?

Extremely stressful and traumatic!

Um, you know, you remind yourself
this is why you do this job.

So, for myself personally
in the last two years,

I responded to 31 drug overdoses.

One Friday, we had 103 overdoses.

And then week later, we had 12 people die
in the city of Vancouver.

- In one day?
- Yeah. In one day.

Cory, how does it feel
to work in a place like this

where you're saving lives every day?

Sure, you can.

Um, it means-it means a lot, um,

because I lost, um, my son's father,
the love of my life, to a heroin overdose.

It's good, I-I like it.

It feels good to, uh, save a life,

instead of just being part
of the problem, right?

So, it's kind of like being part
of the solution.

You know, when it comes to addiction,
don't be surprised, right? It's a monster.

And, um, you don't know... They...

People don't even know
who they are any more.

How's it affected you personally?

Oh. We won't go there.
Its affected me tremendously, right?

- Changed your life?
- Yup.

- What do you need?
- Hi, can I get a tube

and four pieces of tin foil, please?

Yeah, of course.

There is more in the corner.

The City of Vancouver
has invested millions

trying to combat the crisis.

And while health responses like this
have made some inroads,

fentanyl at times has been
an impossible challenge for law makers.

It's become so bad

that the average life expectancy
is officially reducing,

and a public health emergency
has been declared.

It's caused a deep mistrust
from those in the community here

towards those in power.

Try to keep the camera-the camera
on this side of the street

- and not-not too much on that side...
- Okay.

...until someone tells us to fuck off,
we'll walk up.

British Columbia has four times
the landmass of the UK,

and yet seven percent of all its 911 calls
came from these two blocks.

There's another one over there, Spike,
there's three police cars up there.

They are horrendous, you know,
people are out here,

they are at the lowest
they can possible be,

and the police want to fucking grind them
a little further into the ground.

Like, does it make sense? Not to me.

If I'm bleeding to death,
I don't want their help.

- You'd rather just bleed out?
- I don't want their help.

They're not my friends.

And-and you know what,
I'm sure I've played a part

in every single interaction.

I-I have a colorful vocabulary.

And I've... I've been known
to have a bit of an attitude,

however, they're professionals,
I-I'm not a professional.

I'm not, uh...
I'm-I'm not a professional, they are.

There's always cops somewhere.
There's three cars right there.

And to be totally honest,
I think a lot of it is just like PR

to show they're out there, you know.

'Cause they...
They don't give a shit about us.

The cops are literally
watching them shoot up,

and they do not arrest them.

They've got a bunch of drugs on them,
and they do nothing

- because they want to contain it...
- Yeah.

...and keep it away from the city,

keep it away from-from where people
are spending money.

And if the cops had rolled up
when you were selling me that fentanyl,

do you think they would have arrested us?

No, they'd tell you to fuck off.

They'd grab me,
put me against the wall, search me,

take my shit and then tell me to fuck off.

They'd say,
"Go explain that to your boss."

In spite of the ill feeling
towards them,

the police say their approach
is based on pragmatism.

And it's certainly true that there's
open public drug use in full view of them.

You guys live on the streets out here?

Yeah, we've been
Downtown Eastside for over a year.

Is that hard sleeping rough
when it gets to winter here?

It's, uh... Last night was

- very, very, very rough.
Last night was very cold. Yeah.

No, we got...

There was rain
and the... the blankets were wet.

We had to move.

- Um, or...
- We had weird, uh...

We had weird people, like,
watching us and...

- And we just had--
- Watching you?

- Yeah.
- Yeah. No.

There were weird people, like,
that came up and just like,

who were standing at the end of, uh,
like, the foot, like, of our "bed",

- and was just staring at us.
- Yeah.

- Yeah.
- It's kind of creepy.

- It is creepy.
- It is. It's very creepy.

This stuff happens here every single day.

Yo, we rappin'...

Iceberg, Cold World...

You'll love it, bro.
Yo, you guys can check this rapper out.

Iceberg, Cold World.

Free, free VDs for you for life.

We're in the background,
and we love it, yo.

Yo, free VDs, we got...

I don't know what that means.

How did you guys meet?

We met at the library.

- And he...
- I ran after her.

- He chased me.
- Yeah.

Why did you run after her?
Love at first sight?

Yeah. We-were-We were in the library
and we were catching eyes.

And then I left,

and then-and then she left,
and I saw her walking down the street.

- And he ran.
- And I said, "I cannot let her leave."

So, I ran after her.

- And I freak... And I freaked her--
- He came up and was like, "Hey!"

And I was like, "Whoa!"

But you have to admit though,
five minutes later, we were making out

- right around the corner there.
- Yeah.

- Right there?
- No, no, no.

- In that spot? Oh.
- No. Not here.

But, we're-we're... We did-We did make out

- like five minutes later.
- Yeah, yeah.

Is this person okay over here?

- Well, no, this is-this is...
- This is normal.

- This is-This is--
- This is totally normal.

It's what we call-it's what we call...

- "The nod."
- ...the, uh, "The nod"

or-or the, uh, the "Hasting's shuffle."

We-We've been there.
We-We've-We've smoked heroin.

- I overdosed.
- Recently...

And I had-I had somebody Narcan me twice.

- Okay?
- Saved your life?

- Yeah.
- I almost died.

- His lips were blue.
- My lips were blue, I was dead.

- You-you shouldn't do it anyway.
- Stop doing drugs all together.

That's why liquor and weed is all we need.

The person who gave it to us

- said it was heroin and it wasn't.
- Yeah.

What do you think it was?

- Fentanyl.
- Fe-- Definitely.

- We didn't even have that much.
- No.

- We each had like a dragon.
- Yeah.

- Like we are stop doing it.
- And I-And I... I was--

A dragon, as in one--

- You just inhaled once?
- You just, uh, smoking it off of a foil.

Smoking it off of a foil.

We each did, like, one, like,

- hoot basically.
- Yeah.

And I-And I basically almost died.

- And then we--
- From one inhalation?

- One.
- Yeah.

I was freaked out,
because they said like he was OD-ing.

What would you have done if I'd died?

It would have crushed me.

I don't even want to think about it.

How does it make you feel
looking back on that day, Steven,

thinking you nearly did?

I'll never do it again.

Never again.

It was stupid.

It's not worth it.

- I love you.
- I love you.

Homelessness in Vancouver
is at its highest since records began

and as hardship rises, so does addiction.

Across the water
on a disused construction site,

300 homeless people are forming
a temporary community.

The conditions here are brutal,

but they feel
they have nowhere else to go.

People are very vulnerable
out here.

Families with jobs and kids
cannot find housing.

They're sleeping in tents.

It's a total human rights violation,
is what it is.

You know, I've seen refugee camps
in other countries,

this is exactly what it looks like.

We are Canadian refugees.

This is a Canadian refugee camp.

Do you mind if we have a look
at your tent and see where you're staying?

Okay, it's way down here.

This is my tent.

I'm embarrassed because
it's usually cleaner than this.

Hmm. This is my buddy.

This is Bruce.

He's been with me since I've been here.

And I've got eagle feathers up there,
they're saving me,

they're keeping me safe.

- I golf, so...
- Oh, you play golf?

I'm not any Tiger Woods
or anything.

- Okay.
- But...

Good job.

Whoo! Oh... Fore!

I think it went in my tent.

I think it smashed the side of your tent.

Oh. That's all good.

I got grandchildren.

I haven't seen them for a while,

so I have toys out here just
to remind me of them, my grandsons.

And, um...

And you've actually got
Narcan here, all around the flower pots.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've got them
hanging all over, right? Hmm.

Because it happens all the time,
it's-it's an epidemic.

Uh, naloxone, uh,
that's the overdose kit.

I've had to Narcan somebody ten times,
and one was a husband and wife, actually.

We're taking care of her,
and he started overdosing.

And they were laying kind of head-to-head,

- and they were reaching for each other...
- Yeah.

...as they were overdosing, like they knew.

For many here,
drugs are the only source of comfort.

Overdoses are a regular occurrence.

But from the roadside
at the perimeter of the camp,

a small group of activists are helping
to reduce the death toll.

In here, we have most of our supplies.

So, we've got a generator,
chairs, a table.

Um, we've got Narcan, um,
we've got information pamphlets.

We've got bottled water that we like
to hand out to people. Yeah.

Everything you need
to keep people alive today.

- Yeah.
- Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

In a few hours,
campers will come to this pop-up tent

to smoke and inject drugs,

including fentanyl
under the watchful eyes of the volunteers.

Safe in the knowledge that if they do OD,
then someone will intervene.

That one. This corner is broken I think.

Yeah. That's all right.

You know,
technical difficulties sometimes.

Rather than giving
clean equipment for users to take away,

the volunteers here invite them
into the tent

to use their drugs under supervision.

But what is the legal status
of the tent?

It's illegal, uh,
when the police do come by,

and they might come by today,

we kind of just remind them
we are in the midst of an overdose crisis.

It's been declared a health emergency
by the province of BC.

And, uh, you know, we are not here
with the intention of breaking the law.

Right? We're here with the intention
of, you know, providing people

with a safe supervised space
in which to use drugs,

and, uh, respond to overdoses
should they happen.

It's an odd situation.

Although fentanyl is illegal
and the tent is unsanctioned,

the medical supplies are directly provided
by the health department.

In times of crisis,
sometimes laws become secondary.

In the case of overdose,
if fentanyl is the assassin,

many believe societal attitudes
to the homeless are a key accomplice.

Isolation is a big problem.

Shame and stigma
drive many battling addiction

to use alone.

There's a lot of hate, you know,

people think that junkies
are thieves, crackheads.

Um... sure, there's that.

A lot of thieving and stuff going on,
but there's real people here, you know.

We get people driving by throwing bricks,
throwing bottles. Very hurtful.

A lot of people take it to heart.
I try not to, but, hmm, still do.

You know, it does hurt, for sure.

I worked many, many years. I pay my way.

And, um, I collect bottles every day.

I average ten to 15 dollars every day.

If you make $15 today,
let's say,

how would you spend it?

Uh, ten of it would probably go to drugs.

- Fentanyl?
- Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sad, but true.

- Yeah.
- And why do you do it?

What does fentanyl feel like
when you take it?

Just a big hug...

It's... Yeah, just a warm
place and nothing can hurt you.

Homelessness and addiction
has caused real damage here,

but community life is vibrant
and humanity abundant.

And in an area of so much intoxication,
a sobering thought emerges.

How many of these people would not be here
if it weren't for Naloxone?

As night falls,
the injecting tent opens for business,

and the first of the campers arrive.

The governments here in Canada
support the use of spaces

where people can use drugs
under supervision,

and many that begin life
as illegal pop-ups like this one

go on to be sanctioned.

Across the world,
there are more than 100 such centers.

Over 30 of those are in Canada,

and there's never been an overdose death
in any of them.

Ah! Wakey, wakey,

- rise and shine.

This is Breakfast
with the lovely Holly C.

And the very charming Jamie Bell.

With you 'til 9:00 from officially
the world's best city to live.

- OMG!

That's right, folks,
number one and that's official!

Hashtag, amazing.

So, my gorgeous Vancouverites,

it's another gorgeous crispy morning
and its Friday!

And on this morning's show
it's going to be Fri...

Yay!

The phone lines are open,

and today we're asking what can be done
about this pesky opioid crisis.

Plus, it's time for you guys
to go head-to-head on another round

of Fish or Sausage.

But first from the news desk,

he's the man with his fingers
on the pulse!

But... you take your dope,
wherever you got, right?

And put it in your little cook pot,
put a little bit of water in it.

Take your syringe.

That's like...

Filter?

Some people use a filter,
some don't.

All right. Nothing is going to fit
through the syringe

that isn't already in there anyways, so...

- Are you going for a vein?
- Yup.

- How does it feel?
Uh, great. Ha! That's why I do it.

Drugs are, uh,
really what you make of it, man.

Like there's functioning addicts out there
and there's non-functioning addicts.

You know, there's people
that, uh, like, do drugs

until it runs them into the ground
and then they die.

And that's it, you know,
they're just another statistic.

Where are you heading to now, Ronnie?

I'm heading down to the mall.

I'm, uh...

Well... gonna go, uh, shoplift

so I can get some money,
and, uh, support my habit.

Because that's what you've got to do
these days, right?

I fucking feel like shit already

because that was
a four dollar and 25 cent shot I just did.

- And, uh...
- Is it already worn off?

- It was only a couple of minutes ago.
- Yup.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

You know, if I don't go to fucking jail
like trying to do it,

then maybe I'll get paid
and get some more dope,

but it's not fun, man, I hate it,
like I can't stand it, dude.

- I've spent over ten years of my life...
- What do you hate about it?

...behind bars, like, for what?

A fucking drug addiction?
Something that fucking kills me?

Like, I know what I'm doing.

And I know that it's bad for me,

but, like, you know,
we've all got our problems,

and I'm just trying to cope, man.

What's fentanyl done to your life?

My life has been absolutely dragged
through the mud.

I've lost friends,

I've lost family members,
and I have nothing.

I live on the fucking street.

I freeze almost every night,
and I steal to eat and to support myself.

I hate my life. I fucking hate it.

I wake up in the morning wishing I didn't.

That's opioid, drug use,
intravenous drug use for you.

I feel terrible.
I wouldn't wish this on worst...

I wouldn't wish living like this
for the person I hate most in the world.

It's not living, man, it's dying.

Like, you're running yourself
into the ground every day

and willingly doing it.

And why? Because you're too scared
to be dope sick or get off the drugs.

No, it's because it's, uh...

When you've done something for so long
that's all you know, man.

All I know is jail and crime
and fucking drugs.

That's all I know.

I'm lost.

It sucks.

I have a five-year old son, man.

Doesn't know who the fuck his dad is.

Some people say
that people who use drugs have a choice.

You're-You're not choosing this,
are you?

I'm not choosing this, man.

I made... I had one choice,
and I made the wrong fucking one,

and this is what I deal with now.

Do you have hope for the future?

Sometimes.

I don't know how far my future
is going to go, man.

I could be dead 20 minutes from now,
who knows?

Fuck, man.

Thanks.

The chaos that you see
around the streets

is only partially due to the drugs
people are taking.

It's more to do with what they have to do
to get money to keep the economy going.

And whether its sex work
or stealing from cars. We could fix that.

How?

The current crisis is because
people are using poisoned drugs,

and I'm at the point now
where we really need to think seriously

about giving people
a safer supply of opiates.

And right in the heart

of one of Downtown Eastside's
worst affected streets,

one small medical Centre
is looking to do exactly that.

So, we're going to go
to Crosstown clinic.

And what happens
at Crosstown clinic?

So, um, we provide
injectable hydromorphone

and injectable diacetylmorphine,
uh, to clients

with severe opioid use disorder.

And what is diacetylmorphine?

It is, um, pharmaceutical made heroine,
really.

- Okay, let's go inside.
- Come on in.

That's right,
it's a medical Centre

that gives heroine to people in addiction.

Door needs to close.

There we go.

So come on in.

So, the clients are here, so the nurses
do a pre-assessment for them.

Sorry, ladies.

They enter in through this room,

they come up to this window here,

and they'll give their name,
their birth date,

and the nurse will provide them,
or hand them their syringe.

Rick, can you just pass me a syringe?

Thank you.

So you can see here that we got...
This is the dose.

So it will tell us the client name
and then the drug that they're on.

What are you getting there,
Dave?

Uh, heroine, diacetylmorphine.

- And how often do you get that?
Three times a day.

And this is my lunch time fix.

It's another drug transaction
in Downtown Eastside,

but rather than toxic dope
sold in a back alley

and injected behind a dumpster,

it's a regulated pharmaceutical
given in a medical setting

and supervised by people who care.

I'm, uh, introducing heroin
into my body now.

It is now in there and it's itchy-wah-wah.

Makes me itchy all over.

Like, serious itchy.
I turn red and...

Uh, get really itchy, but my, uh...

Um, my desire for heroin is met.

It's... Wow, that was good.

Prescribing people heroin
as treatment for addiction,

it's a challenging concept,
but the evidence is persuasive.

Switzerland opened a similar Centre
in 1994,

and since they've seen a huge reduction
in overdose deaths,

HIV rates and drug-related crime.

The theory goes that if you take people
out of a life of street-drugs,

they have a chance to introduce routine
and make incremental life changes.

When people start with us,
they're using illicit drugs every day,

and by six months in care with us

that goes down
to a handful of days a month.

People reconnect with families.
Uh, they go back to school.

Uh, they start working.
They start working part-time.

- They start volunteering.
They get housing.

They get housing.

But more importantly,

my most recidivist patient
had been in and out of jail over 200 times

before he came to treatment here.

And since he's been in treatment here,
he's not been back to jail.

That's a huge success.

How many banks have you robbed?

Uh, how many banks have I robbed?
Lots. Over 60 banks.

I served a prison term of 22 years,
two months and two days.

It costs $27,000 a year
to supply heroine for one patient here.

And it's funded by the government.

It's not cheap, but independent research

suggests the service saves the tax payer
double that by reducing crime,

policing, health care
and ambulance callouts.

And in the midst of a fentanyl crisis,
there's a further saving,

one that's harder to quantify.

The cost of human life.

We haven't lost any of our clients
to a fentanyl overdose

because coming here prevents all of that.

- Are you still robbing banks?
- No.

No, I'm very grateful to say that, uh,

I'm a retired, uh, bank robber.

I no longer need to do that.

Our time in Vancouver was up,

and the little neighborhood
of Downtown Eastside disappeared

in the rear-view mirror.

The opioid crisis here in North America
is out of control

claiming a life every seven minutes,

and seeing it up close and personal
has been heart-breaking.

Heading for home means escaping it,
but for how long?

♪ I hurt myself today ♪

♪ To see if I still feel ♪

We always look at the action.

You know, we're so focused
on the substance

that we've actually forgotten
the value of human life,

and that's just tragic.

But at the same time,
these people are beautiful.

I got hopes though, so it's powerful.

♪ I don't remember the rest ♪

Sorry, guys.

If you could back to the day

when you first put that needle
in your arm,

would you do it again?

No.

Absolutely not, man.

The day that I put
the first needle in my arm, wow.

It took every day of yesterday
to bring the man that you see here today.

And-And the man that you see,

I'm-I'm a good man,
and I'm-I'm happy with who I am.

I still love this woman.

People don't realize
they're just a paycheck away.

If I make 300 bucks tonight,
50 bucks of it, I put away,

I put away, I put away, I put away.

I've been doing that now for four years.

Another year of this...

I'll head out of here with a 150 grand...

and not look back.

You gotta stand strong
and keep your chin up and keep going,

'cause if you don't,
you end up as a statistic.

A mark in a book, man.

You're just another one
of those fucking people who died.