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The volume of emergency calls for overdoses and opioid-related deaths spiked again last week, and this week promises to be no better.

Downtown Eastside residents endured the near continuous sound of sirens Wednesday after income assistance cheques were issued.

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“Our women and elders tell me, ‘I hate cheque day. I don’t want to go to sleep because I don’t know who is going to be alive tomorrow,'” said Harsha Walia of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. “Some people are in a constant state of grief and, however people cope individually, there is a collective sense of trauma and death.”

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services answered 169 overdose calls last week. Police report that eight people died, bringing Vancouver’s total overdose deaths to 126 so far this year.

“This is a really intense reality and not what you’d expect in Vancouver. It’s like living in a war zone, and it has the same psychological effect,” Walia said.