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“There’s no way to describe this other than a disaster.” That is what Coun. Raymond Louie had to say after hearing the presentations.

The crisis isn’t just a Downtown Eastside problem. People have died across the city. The majority of them were aged 20 to 50, and most of them died indoors.

“I feel deep-down, incredible frustration and anger.” That is what Mayor Gregor Robertson said, after he held a moment of silence for the dead.

Photo by DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

It’s not just a Vancouver problem, either. Kendall offered a map that showed people have died from overdoses throughout B.C. Outside of Metro Vancouver, the hardest-hit areas per capita are central Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, the Central Interior and the northeast. More than two people are dying each day in the province.

Canada has the second-highest, per-capita-use of opioids globally, Kendall said. In the 1990s and 2000s, they were marketed as safe and non-addictive and they were overprescribed. That helps to explain part of the ongoing demand for opioids. Meanwhile, mental-health and substance-use disorders often appear together, and many users show a history of early adversity, poverty or trauma.

“We do know that overdoses are affecting people across the entire social spectrum,” Kendall said. “Our children, our families, our relatives, people we know.”

Coun. Andrea Reimer wiped tears from her eyes at one point in the discussion.

So what more can be done about the crisis? As Kendall said, we’re “unlikely to arrest our way out of this.”