The current opioid crisis pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and has taken more lives in 20 months than the coronavirus. Many have forgotten that this is the second medical emergency declared in response to overdose deaths in B.C.

In 2018, journalist Travis Lupick published his first book, ‘Fighting for Space,’ that told the story of North America’s first safe-injection site. For the Heart of the City Festival, Travis Lupick returns to Canada to relate that story to an online audience.

He reminds us that it’s, “a story...that takes place through the 1990s and early two-thousands, but tragically, it's more relevant today than it's ever been.”

Lupick has spent the past couple of years looking at the overdose crisis in the United States and has a new book, 'Light Up the Night,' coming out in the new year. In comparing the crisis in Vancouver with the U.S., Lupick says, “in certain areas, places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, the numbers are just as bad as they are in Vancouver, worse in these pockets than anywhere else in the continent.”

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You can find the video of this event on the Heart of the City festival's Website