Quote:
Originally Posted by activeStick
It's a massive problem (not unique to BC, but exacerbated by the higher number of people here who have addiction problems) that impacts many walks of life. With such a cheap option in fentanyl that can stretch other drugs making them stronger at a much higher profit, it's not only taken straight on its own in place of heroin, but also laced into generally safer drugs like cocaine.
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Vancouver (and by proxy the Island) is the perfect storm for this problem.
Vancouver is a massive international water port and the main transportation hub for western Canada. Getting drugs transported and distributed is easy.
Vancouver was always expensive and always had a pretty massive gang element. If people are struggling to provide for themselves or family, or have other mental illnesses for other reasons (child trauma, abusive relationship, etc) it's pretty easy to turn to drugs for that depression.
The climate makes it a great place if you are going to be homeless.
As for the life satisfaction I can chime in as someone who moved from Calgary (basically raised there) to Victoria 17 years ago. When I moved, it was just my wife and I and we were in our mid-late 20s. We bought an average sized house for just under 400K. I absolutely struggled to find employment (I do IT Support) for about 8 months of moving here.
I found (and still do) people here to be more entitled, snobby, cliquey, and generally just less fun. The political spectrum here is also very exhausting. Protests every day. All the anti-vax people. Just stupid. Now that we have kids, I dont find this city great to raise a child. Infrastructure is lacking - the kids dont have much to do. Swimming lessons sellout in literally 10 seconds.
We wanted to upgrade the house to a larger size to complement our growing family and it's impossible. My wife and I make a decent income and no way we could afford a now average house price that would be a slight upgrade. We're fortunate enough to survive, but we're definitely not getting ahead here.
Our home is currently listed for sale (and has been for a few months) and once that bad boy sells we are coming back to Calgary to raise our kids.