She described the image as reflecting the "sad reality of the opioid crisis", and added the hashtag # notstaged, indicating she believed the image had not been faked in any way.

Staff Sergeant Randy Fincham said the image “was captured by our Homeless Outreach Coordinator during an inspection of a vacant room."

Vancouver is experiencing an epidemic in the use of fentanyl, an analgesic estimated to be up to 100 times stronger than morphine.

In December nine people died from fentanyl opioid overdoses across the city in one 24 hour period. Two milligrams of pure fentanyl - the size of about four grains of salt - is enough to kill an average-size adult.