OpenTube

Love in the Time of Fentanyl

VICE

267,687 views

At the height of the fentanyl overdose crisis, drug users in Vancouver started taking it upon themselves to try to save lives. Colin Askey’s intimate documentary follows volunteers at the city’s Overdose Prevention Society, where a group of misfits, artists, and drug users operates a renegade safe-injection site. Executive-produced by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker (Anora, The Florida Project), Love in the Time of Fentanyl reaches beyond the stigma of drug use, revealing the courage and compassion of those trying to keep their community alive.

Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE

About VICE:
The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don't even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE.

Connect with VICE:
Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-Videos
Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com
Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice
Follow VICE on Twitter: Twitter: vice
Follow us on Instagram: Instagram: vice
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vice?lang=en

The VICE YouTube Network:
VICE: vice
MUNCHIES: munchies
VICE News: vicenews
VICE TV: @vice-tv
Noisey: noisey
Motherboard: motherboardtv
@vicesports
Waypoint: waypointvice

20 Comments

@princess_juice 6 months ago (edited)

I worked at the Waves Coffee on the corner of Main & Cordova in the 2010s. I was just a kid who needed a job at the time, but the year i worked there changed my life. It taught me about violence, and not in the way you think.

I met the "junkies, psychos and prostitutes" I'd been told were dangerous - and they told me their stories. Residential schools, domestic abuse, psych hospital closures, family abandonment, veteran PTSD - crippling pain (mental and physical).

Meanwhile, I watched cops chase down limping seniors to fine them for jay-walking. I watched ambulances run out of Narcan. I watched tourists take pictures of people ODing. I watched tent cities get crushed and bulldozed because they were "unsightly". I watched as gentrification continued to push this community even further east. Canadians ooking away, hoping these people would disappear like pests.

The DTES taught me what systemic violence was.

The Canadian govt only started caring when it became clear that fentanyl wasn't only killing the poor, homeless & addicted.

Big love to all my old regulars and all those who believe in harm reduction. Your kindness radicalized more than you will ever know.

@HeavilyMeditated111 6 months ago

I tried to use heroin to get off of fetty, holy hell I was so sick, it was as if I took nothing. Clean for 14 months by the Grace of God 🙏🏼❤️

@BurritoPup 6 months ago

So many people think “why are you enabling them to do drugs?”
Wake up, they will do the drugs no matter what and keeping the spread of disease and death to a minimum is the best we can do right now.
This is important work.

@zmbievdka 6 months ago

This is from 2022 for anyone wondering

@BrittanyLonardo6516 6 months ago

This was my reminder to put my narcan in my purse, I took it out a few days ago cleaning my purse out and never put it back in.....so thank you. So many people will argue why should I have to carry narcan around to help some junkie out, they should carry it themselves and to those people I say I would be extremely hard for someone who's OD'ing to give themselves narcan and two at the end of the day that junkie, addict, scum you look down upon so much could be your loved one, a friend, your child .......or even you one day. No one ever walks up one random morning and thinks to themselves " hmmmm I would how I could ruin my life ......oh I know I'll get hooked on (insert drug choice) and left my life go down a slippery slope till im an empty hallow shell of nothing" I surly didn't think that when I started using, so please don't be so harsh and quick to pass judgement when AN INDIVIDUAL HUMAN is going through a rough patch in their lives ❤

@janeyjonesbones2 6 months ago

Laying here in the dark, insomnia when this popped up-
Sleepless as I lay here missing my beloved daughter who I lost in 2019. She died alone in her car and wasn't found for 10 hours. Next Saturday marks 7 yrs but it still feels like yday. When I went to clean out her apartment, there on the top shelf was a box of narcan.😢😢😢

@phatdawg1 6 months ago

Glad to see regular people trying their hardest to make the world a better place. Saints.

@briarrose222 6 months ago

Great group of heros. But, FYI, Narcan doesn't always work. My husband was Narcan-ed 3 times & still passed away in 23' of a fent*nyl overdose. But, organizations like this are lifelines. I've been clean almost 3 yrs & I couldn't have gotten better without help like this. Beautiful ppl. 💜

@sarahmaclellan1719 6 months ago

I hate that there's such a negative stigma surrounding drug addicts. People need to wake up to the simple fact that we're not all so different from one another, as that one guy stated "the only difference between you & me was ONE bad decision." So, for those of us who were fortunate enough not to have ever made that "bad decision" we need to start being there more for our brother's & sister's who did - even if it just means not being so judgemental of them. After all, they're a class of people who by the grace of God we could never understand. I pray that we see an end to this horrible crisis soon.

@NANA-vq9ro 6 months ago

This is my city, in october 2025 I relapsed of hydromorphone i was sourcing from main and e. Hastings, they are 50 cents a pop for the 8mg pills. Within a week of that relapse i was on fetty and shooting up 50 dillys a day at insite. OPS and Insite got me into detox, and then treatment and im sober since November 28th. God bless their souls, i was dead exactly where the man at the start was and they brought me back.

@WendyLacey-c7g 6 months ago

My son has been there surviving the past 7.5 years. Tears my heart out. Tommy I miss you ❤

@jenna_jayy 4 months ago (edited)

I was a hardcore junkie for 12 years and I promise you this is no way to live. I would go to these facilities to get needles. They never offered treatment, but I knew it was a resource if I want treatment. Before picking up my needles and exchanging them. They would ask me 2 questions. Are you suicidal and how many needles do you want with what gauge?
Honestly, it saved me a lot of money cause I used to go to Walgreens and buy a box for $30 so when I found the exchange, it was in my routine. I know they’re trying to be compassionate but they should ask if anybody’s interested in treatment. They are supposed to ask every time you pick up and they just never would. I had asked once, but no one could help me. There was so many times I was so ready to get clean. I wish someone would’ve stepped in. I had so much potential and now I have it back because someone else told me I mattered. That’s all we need.

@corderoc4250 4 months ago

the appeal of vice is how raw there docs are for good or for bad. honestly wish that there was somewhere like this near me that offered what i will call paid volunteering. im out there often but i wish i could be out there with a purpose

@louiss1625 6 months ago

and people have the gall to think themselves better than these beautiful souls

@DLC-sy7pp 6 months ago

Man I'm so glad i quit opiates 12 years ago, and never looked back.
I most certainly would be gone by now if i hadn't.

God bless all you out there who are struggling with addiction, i hope you manage to quit before your body quits.

I did 18 years on brown and white and just know it's possible to move on.
If i can do it, anyone can.

@helloInternets 6 months ago

Throwback old school Vice.

@shpongled587 4 months ago

The War On Drugs abomination is what is killing 99.99% of those people.

@coopersmith9828 6 months ago

I work casino security in Reno, and there are few things that stick in my craw like tweakers. I still carry Narcan on my person as often as I can, because no matter how crass or annoying they can act (at times), they are still human beings, same as me. And I could not live with myself, nor face my maker knowing I watched someone die because they bothered me. I'm proud to say I cannot recall the last OD fatality we've had on shift.

Your local equivalent to OPS will have drop boxes with free Narcan. If a jerk like me can do it, so can you.