The Best Place: Addiction, Intervention, and Living and Dying Young in Vancouver

In both local and international imaginations, Vancouver, Canada, is often celebrated as one of the world’s most beautiful, cosmopolitan, and livable cities. Simultaneously, the city continues to be ground zero for successive waves of public health emergency and intervention, including a recent and unprecedented drug overdose crisis driven by the proliferation of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and related analogs in the local drug supply. In __The Best Place: Addiction, Intervention, and Living and Dying Young in Vancouver__, Danya Fast explores these politics of place from the perspectives of young people who use drugs. Those who are the subject of this book were in many ways relegated to the social, spatial, and economic margins of the city. Yet, they were also often at the very center of city life and state projects, including the project of protecting life in the context of the current overdose crisis. CONTENTS FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DRAMATIS PERSONAE PLACES INTRODUCTION Part 1 DREAMS OF PLACE Lee, the best place on earth, 2009 Jeff, paradise, 2009 Big-city dreams Lula and Jeff, paradise, 2012 Senses of place Lee, world city, 2009 Where i’m going, lee, 2011 Jordan, normal places, 2012 Danya and Nancy, the field, 2010 Lee, not these service places, 2009 Jordan, normal people, 2008 Frictions Danya, around downtown, 2008 Janet and the lost boys, never never land, 2008 Trajectories Carly and Connor, family, 2009 Geographies Patty and Joe, home, 2012 Part 2 SOMETHING Patty, coast Salish territories, 2009 Vital experimentation Shae, Lula, and Jeff, lighthouse shelter, 2009 Momentum Laurie and Aaron, Trafalgar hotel, 2010 Moral worlds Terry, jail, 2011 Carly and Connor, apartment, 2013 Stagnation Janet, Trafalgar hotel, 2010 Patty and Joe, Mackenzie hotel, 2010 Endless business Terry, field office, 2012 Lee, Mackenzie hotel, 2012 Reentering never never land Jordan, Beachwood hotel, 2013 Shae, Mackenzie hotel, 2009 Disappearances Lee, gone, 2015 Part 3 LOST Patty, city of glass, 2011 Community care Patty and Joe, Lakeshore hotel, 2010 Losing everything Patty and Joe, St. Mary’s, 2012 Boredom Aaron, Northwest apartments, 2013 (No)Exit, Shae, 2013 Flashbacks and futures Patty, terminal city, 2013 The dance of death Patty and Joe, St. Mary’s, 2013 Where we’ve ended up, Patty and Joe, 2013 Waiting Terry, St. Mary’s, 2014 Flights Patty and Joe, Lakeshore hotel, 2014 Part 4 NOWHERE Patty, Saltwater city, 2017 The will to intervene Shane, passages, 2017 Living on the edge of change Jessica, horizons, 2018 Filling the hours Shane, downtown, 2017 Stalls and dead ends Lula, Wenonah house, 2016 Everything we need, Carly and Connor, 2013 A churn of intervention Raymond, downtown, 2017 The colonial present Aaron, field office, 2017 Living with death Lula and Jeff, field office, 2017 The broken promise land Janet, Johnny, Rachel, and Gordo, camp under the tracks, 2017 Exits, Janet, 2015 Part 5 EVERYWHERE Jordan, Rain city, 2016 Laura, field office, 2017 Shae/Trix, apartment, 2017 The way home, terry, 2011 Laurie, downtown, 2018 Aaron, Beachwood hotel, 2019 Lula and Jeff, Greystone hotel, 2019 Dom, Bc children’s hospital, 2020 Carly and Connor, field office, 2018 Joe, field office, 2018 Patty, everywhere, 2018 Where we’ve ended up, Patty and Joe, 2013 AFTERWORD NOTES REFERENCES INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR