Since the pandemic, my GF has been accosted three times walking to work. Thankfully, not touched or anything, but obviously events that affected her. It's certainly gotten to a point where more focus is needed.
I first moved to Calgary in 2007(?) and I remember getting off the C-Train downtown to go to the bar and there were scores of drug dealers around offering drugs (first rock is free!). I havent seen that since.
Mayor Bronco had instituted the Guiliani "broken glass" policy - or something similar which probably helped; but, I do think this type of issue is cyclical in some sense.
There are also issues with globalization and the rise in synthetic drug manufacturing. Chinese and Asian drug manufacturing (as well as the traditional drugs and smuggling ventures) are rampant and fueled by insatiable thirst for ever-increasing addictive substances. Global trade is far too large to actively police the importation of all cargo (billion dollar cargo ships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpiOLdnAGBw&t=733s
I believe the pandemic was the biggest driver of the crisis in a multitude of ways. Job-losses, isolation, boredom, living with abusers etc. on top of rising costs for housing and goods post-pandemic have certainly pushed many to the edge and over it. Coupled with the relative desolation of downtown core workers, and a tweaker would certainly get used to the ability to do things out in the open. Calgary (and several other cities and towns in Alberta) have the added difficulty of being close to large reservations where many homeless/tweakers come from while also being impossible to coordinate strategies for reduction.
Long-term strategies are the only way to fix these things. That costs money. Money people don't want to spend and would rather see the tweakers die in a back alley or on a midnight ride. The issue is that we probably already pay more money to patch these problems: hospital stays; remand center stays; insurance claims and loss of property etc.
Housing probably won't fix the tweaker out there right now (saw a half dozen sharing the crack pipe in a bus shelter by Chumir last night on way home); but it would certainly aid in stemming the tide of future tweakers down on their luck and ready to taste.
The current tweakers, they need help and an attempt at rehabilitation. I think "forced treatment" should be a requirement. Have you ever met a form drug addict who regrets getting clean?
We also need to increase the presence of police / social workers / security in public areas. C-Train stations and cars; public parks etc. Boots on the ground so to speak. Perhaps some new forms of remand centers that are similar to drunk tanks but for tweakers? someone tweaking out on the C-Train, send them to there to sober up away from Jane Doe on her way home from work.