Both. We are/where a major port gateway to Hong Kong/China going way back so triads came in and heroin trafficking came with it. It has always been very cheap,

Both. We are/where a major port gateway to Hong Kong/China going way back so triads came in and heroin trafficking came with it. It has always been very cheap, and supposedly high quality back when. Societal stuff is often natives coming into town already in poverty escaping reserves and getting into it, and also people from just across Canada in general that are maybe already addicts. Vancouver has the most mellow climate in Canada as well if you are homeless. East Hastings where it was concentrated was kind of a place hard partying loggers would go and hook up with escorts in cheap motels for a week, so it bred a bunch of bad stuff that never went away 40+ years later. Also neighbouring districts and suburbs don't support their homeless populations so it was just concentrating. Now that there is a affordability crisis here every suburb around has a crazy homeless tent city in parks they are kicking out and moving every 2 months, and opiates def play a big part in those. But the suburbs are full of sort of white baby boomer or new landed chinese immigrant populations who aren't used to dealing with it and don't want any homeless shelters built in their neighborhoods. The stories that make the news the most are probably the same ones in the states where it is like white kid in suburbs taking a fake xanax with fentanyl or a MDMA pill probably pressed in a same pill press or having fentanyl mixed in for whatever reason and OD'ing.