Vancouver's drug crises of days past

The fentanyl crisis sweeping across Canadahas captured the attention of many in B.C., where the drug is said to be linked to most of the505 people who died of an overdoselast year.

As CBC'sinvestigative team highlighted last week, the crisis has touched the lives of many who struggle to escapethe powerful opioid'sgrasp and seek treatment.

This isn't the first street drug crisis Vancouver has been through. As a port city, Vancouver has long been the gateway of many illicit drugs making their way across the country.

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The video shown above (featuring a young Adrienne Arsenault reporting) was broadcast in 1993, when a potentand cheap strainof heroin called China Whitecaused more than 300overdose deaths that year.

According to Vancouver historianLaniRusswurm, Main and Hastings streets wereseen as "the epicentre of the heroin scene" in the 50s.

But he saysit wasn't until after the Second World War when gangs became more organized and the port got busier that more powerful forms of heroin were distributed.

By the '90s, China White had made its way onto the streets and a public health emergency was declared. Russwurm says the crisis is what prompted the city to adopt its "Four Pillars" drug strategy to tackle the issue.

From the archives: Crack cocaine takes over the streets of Vancouver in 1998

8 years ago

Duration 3:22

A look at Vancouver's crack cocaine crisis in the '90s on the Downtown Eastside.

Around that time, crack cocainefollowed a similar trajectory. The crystallized form of the popular party drug led to widespread addiction issues.

In this second video, former CBC reporter Kathy Tomlinsonfollows a couple of police officers as they "clean up" the city's streets.

Crack cocaine was cheap and relatively easy to use as it could be smoked instead of injected, and it quickly overtook heroin as the illicit drug of choice in Vancouver.

At the time, many believed Honduran immigrants and refugees werethe primarydealers of thedrug; theywere the targets of several drug busts in 1998, when the video was broadcast.

The convergence of crack and heroin was a problem throughout the city, but its focuson Vancouver's Downtown Eastside solidified the neighbourhood's reputation as one of the worst in Canada.