Safety Measures

Vancouver community advocate Sarah Blyth is helping to curb drug-related deaths

- Christina Palassio

THE VENDOR STALLS of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Street Market are piled high with ’80s action-movie DVDs, parasols, handknitted booties and Justice League comics—a trove of treasures for all types. The sprawling social enterprise gives sellers, many of whom are living on low incomes, a chance to earn extra money. It buzzes with the chatter and convivial chaos typical of such places, but in 2016, when the city’s opioid issue became a fullblown crisis, that flurry of activity turned ominous.

At the time, community activist Sarah Blyth was working as a manager at the market, which is located in an area that is popular with drug users. She started witnessing more and more overdoses—sometimes up to five a day. (According to a B.C. Coroners Service report, fentanyldetected deaths increased in Vancouver from 32 in 2015 to 280 in 2017 due to the potent opioid narcotic contaminating the drug supply.)