The Best Place On Earth, that was British Columbia’s slogan for a while. It even showed up on license plates leading up to the Vancouver Olympics.
Around the same time, Danya Fast was embarking on a project that would span the next fifteen years of her life. Her goal was to hear from young people who use drugs and live in poverty, to learn what they thought about Vancouver.
Several youth would stay in regular contact with Fast for more than a decade. They’d meet up in her office, in coffee shops, wherever the youth were staying.
Sometimes they’d travel the city together to take photographs. Over the years, the research, and relationships would evolve.
People would move through various forms of housing or treatment programs. Couples would separate and get back together.
Fentanyl would enter the drug supply.
Fast has compiled the stories and perspectives of around twenty five of the youth she followed into a book called The Best Place: Addiction, Intervention, and Living and Dying Young in Vancouver.
Many of those Fast spoke with would die during the course of the research, the book is dedicated to their memory.
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube