r/pics • u/CompleteBeginning271 • 1d ago
Light switch on Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. From the short "Nuggets".
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u/OnTheDeathExpress 1d ago
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u/No_Sell4159 1d ago
Hasting street makes you think you were in a different country. Does Toronto even have an equivelent?
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u/drinkinbrewskies 1d ago
The drug users of Canada all eventually migrate to Vancouver and/or BC. Nowhere else in Canada comes close to how bad it is in Vancouver. Even Winnipeg, despite reputation, has nothing close to Hastings.
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u/AusCan531 1d ago
I think for the same reasons American drug addicts and homelessn migrate to California. Better weather for living outside and somewhat kinder governments and programs.
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u/A100921 1d ago
The problem with Winnipeg, is that they’re all spaced out. We just haven’t centralized them like on Hastings, instead they’re just destroying our entire city (especially downtown).
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u/drinkinbrewskies 1d ago
Although I agree with you, that Winnipeg isn't centralized and the issue has ruined downtown, it is also still true that per capita the issue in Winnipeg is fractions of what is happening in Vancouver.
Every major city has drug problems, Winnipeg's is worse than average, but Vancouver is an outlier of extremes. Only Philadelphia compares with Vancouver in North America.
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u/hoopopotamus 1d ago
I am not aware of the stats but I’ve been in Vancouver a long time and the DTES is bad but most cities I go to in Canada have similarly rough parts and since fentanyl got popular it’s the same everywhere. I was in Ottawa this summer and Bank street was very bad. Everything closed down and addicts everywhere. The Market was the same story. A few years back I was in Louisville KY and man the streets were grim. All these beautiful buildings but so many desperate people. Newark NJ was pretty friggin bad too.
There was a time where Vancouver was uniquely bad. Fentanyl seems to have made it a lot less unique.
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u/NewAssumption4780 1d ago
Vancouver is the only place you can survive the winter in a tent. That's why it gets so bad.
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u/boneologist 1d ago
In the good old days, cops in the prairies would give out Greyhound tickets to Vancouver. To be honest, that's a hell of a lot better than pigs giving starlight tours.
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u/Much-Chip-2648 1d ago
Idk I’ve been to skid row and Hastings and they are both pretty damn bad. Never been to Philly tho
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u/adrienjz888 7h ago
Not really. BC overall is worse (1826 vs 354 in 2025) but Winnipeg in specific isn't far behind in overdoses compared to Vancouver, and is worse for violent and non violent crime. https://canadacrimereport.com/crime-severity-index
314 overdose deaths in Vancouver https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025PSSG0059-001081
203 in Winnipeg https://winnipeg.citynews.ca/2025/11/03/winnipeg-records-major-drop-in-overdose-deaths-since-2021/
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u/NSA_Chatbot 22h ago
Other provinces have historically bought one way tickets to Vancouver, but that's totally stopped and nobody does that anymore.
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u/snomeister 1d ago
Church and Queen is where a lot of junkies hang out (there's a lot of public housing and outreach programs around there), but I doubt it can compare to Hasting.
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u/FrabjousPhaneron 1d ago
Yeah definitely not quite the same. You’re right that the Moss Park area is probably the closest equivalent but I’ve been to both and nothing compares to East Hastings
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u/Aidan11 1d ago
Moss Park is like 10% as problematic as east Hastings.
Toronto does have its own problems though. There's a ton of poverty surrownding the new imagrants (as well as the crime that follows at poverty's heels). This isn't a racial comment. A lot of that crime comes from locals taking advantage of desperate imagrants, though the opposite is also true.
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u/eljo555 1d ago
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u/Gho5tWr1ter 1d ago
I have seen that video thrice or four times and it hurts every time I watch it.
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u/poopshanks 1d ago
Yeah, as a recovering addict with almost 2 decades of sobriety under my belt. I have only watched this once. It hit me very hard.
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u/Thyanlia 1d ago
As someone without active addiction, who grew up around active addiction, it touches a part of me I thought I'd forgotten. I watched it without context a while ago and it hurt.
Recovery is very hard and I am proud of your hard work. You deserve this peace.
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u/DT_Grey 1d ago
Heads up: if you remove everything after the ? In the link you shared, your info won’t be shown to everyone who clicks it.
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u/Fafnir13 1d ago
I’ve been hearing this for a bit. Does it apply only if you are logged into YouTube?
So here’s a link from just googling up the video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HUngLgGRJpo&ra=m
Obviously deleting everything after the ? Makes the link not work so I’m a bit confused about the advice.
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u/gltovar 1d ago
It is specifically the "is=xxxxxxx" up until an "&" or the end. The "v=xxxxx" is the Video id, so if you see that and delete it, doesnt know which video you want. Extra tip, if you want to skip to a certain time in video "t=8h8m8s" would skip inwards 8 hours 8 minutes 8 seconds. You can omit the unit of time that isnt relevant
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u/WoolooOfWallStreet 1d ago
Depends on how it’s formatted,
your link is formatted for mobileEverything after an SI= or IS= is a share identifier
I remember it used to show up even if you weren’t logged in, but doesn’t seem to if you are not logged in now
Don’t quote me on that though
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u/eljo555 1d ago
I came across "Nuggets" on a Reddit thread years ago about what being on heroin feels like. I immediately showed it to my high school students who were absolutely riveted and transformed by it.
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u/HiddenSquish 1d ago
I include it in every substance use presentation I do, it is such a profound video.
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u/HistoricalChef1963 1d ago
It's so powerful it actually makes me feel sick.
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u/KentuckyFriedEel 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s not explicitly about heroin, but it can be interpreted to mean any addiction to anything and the subsequent dopamine rush/numbing/crash that follows. It could apply just as much to other drugs, energy drinks, coffee, shopping, alcohol, online shopping, collecting, gambling, porn, social media etc etc etc.
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u/Gestrid 1d ago
who were absolutely riveted and transformed by it.
In a good or bad way?
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u/Preindustrialcyborg 1d ago
been to that area quite a few times since im from BC. that place is an experience that stays with you, especially if you go at night like i did.
if you arent from the area, i really would implore you to avoid that place at all costs. ive met enough tourists who say they want to go there for a quick peek, and i tell them each time to not even go near it. aside from treating immense human suffering as a sight to gawk at, its not exactly safe. and for the love of god, dont be one of those dumbass parents that drives your young child through the area.
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u/Tucancancan 1d ago
I've read Maclean's magazine articles that were originally published in the 1950s that mention parents taking their kids on drive thru tours of slums in Toronto. That's been a thing forever
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u/Preindustrialcyborg 1d ago
and its still dehumanising as fuck to the people there, to treat their addiction and suffering that way.
its also generally unsafe for your kid, and you really shouldnt take your kid somewhere where seeing someone whose dead or actively dying is likely.
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u/Tucancancan 1d ago
Why is it dehumanizing? I'd argue it's extremely humanizing. Dehumanizing would be pretending it doesn't exist at all. It's literally "This is humanity, for good or ill, whether you like or not"
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u/Preindustrialcyborg 1d ago
most of them view these people's suffering as a chance to teach their kids a lesson about how all drug addicts are stupid and chose this life and that as long as you dont choose to do heroin on a random tuesday, this wont happen. rather than to teach them how easily one can fall into a fate like that, or that each and every person there had a unique life which brought them to a terrible point like this. or that many never chose to do drugs in the first place, and that they were forced or coerced into them or saw no other option due to the cirumstances of their life.
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u/katiekate135 6h ago
I went through there when I was about 7 we'd only been walking through for a few minutes when someone yelled out kid on the block and everyone immediately gave my mom and I a huge amount of space. My mom gained a huge amount of respect for the people there for that
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u/Preindustrialcyborg 6h ago
yeah, most of the people there are chill as fuck and they obviously already know what its like to struggle, and they have no desire to make a child suffer hoe they are.
unfortunately, it only takes one asshole or one person having a horrible trip to cause problems.
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u/throwawayqweeen 1d ago
That's so sad lol it's practically saying "drugs this way." When I was a kid my dad kept taking me down to east Hastings to "show me what happens to people when they choose drugs," eventually I got old enough that I had to tell him to fucking stop because it's dehumanizing to the homeless people. As someone who lives in downtown Eastside yes I am sick of them always asking for change and forgetting my face in a minute so they come back and ask for more, but these people are still HUMAN and should be treated with dignity. Difference between us and them is ONE choice.
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u/slap_n_giggle 1d ago
Well…are you a drug addict?
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u/throwawayqweeen 1d ago
Yeah lmao and alcoholic too. I'm not a crackhead and I'm almost fully functional but I'm so dependent on weed that if I don't smoke I'll be crying over random things after about two hours. I used to do cocaine most days but I stopped bc that shits very bad for you socially and mentally. So no, my dad's anecdote didn't quite work. Honestly what he actually taught me by doing this was that you should never put people in a box like this, they're somebody's kids and nobody wants to be used as a lesson to teach lol
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u/UngodlyImbecile 22h ago
I think your dad was showing you the dangers of injecting heroin not smoking weed lol
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u/throwawayqweeen 20h ago
Yeah I agree lol, but more like the dangers of fentanyl. Fentanyl is the worst ever drug of all human history. And it's dirt cheap, and you need literally ONE SPECK OF FENTANYL to get high. Imagine that.
But also, it's not about smoking weed. It's about raising an adult who's functional enough that they wouldn't turn to drugs. The years that I used to do cocaine, I got fired from multiple jobs because I couldn't hold my mouth (side effect) and i don't even remember the things that led to me getting fired. Idk why I'm saying all this sorry I've had a couple beverages.
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u/slap_n_giggle 1d ago
Nobody WANTs to be used as a lesson…but, good or bad that’s literally how every lesson is taught. Everything. When it’s your turn to teach, you’ve either seen it, experienced yourself or been taught it by someone.
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u/WattleWaddler2 1d ago
Their minds have been taken over by drugs and they don't treat themselves with dignity.
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u/ZOMBiEZ4PREZ 1d ago
It’s weird that it looks like a Kiwi, and there’s a city in New Zealand called Hastings
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u/SirButcher 1d ago
It is a kiwi bird from the short video called "Nuggets"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUngLgGRJpo
It is painful.
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u/koalacrime 1d ago
Moved to Canada solo,
Airport-skytrain-downtown-check in to hostel and then snoozed.
Woke up couple hours later to go explore my new home.
The first street I came to was Hastings. Do I go left or right? I thought.
Dear reader, I went left, on dusk, down the most notorious street in North America. That was my introduction to Canada! I should have backtracked but instead I went around in circles.
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u/GimmickNG 1d ago
Dear reader, I went left, on dusk, down the most notorious street in North America.
I can think of some places that are more notorious and dangerous in the US than Hastings...
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u/koalacrime 1d ago
More dangerous yes, but Hasting is definitely know more world wide. Even turning skid row into a tourist attraction hasn't given it the number one spot
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u/GimmickNG 1d ago
Really? Feels like I heard about say Gary, Indiana before Hastings. Well, today is the first time I heard of Hastings..
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u/admweirdbeard 1d ago
lmao, cambie hostel gastown? I did the exact same thing on my first visit to town, spring 2001. Never been offered street drugs so many times in such a short period before or since.
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u/Capital-Pea-2565 23h ago
East Hastings isn't as bad as places like in Philly or LA. This is over exaggerated tbh.
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u/cindy224 1d ago
I am sorry and I am so clueless. I thought the signage meant to encourage people to help water birds cross the street. Pls don’t laugh too hard at me? I come from another time.
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u/FullofContradictions 1d ago edited 1d ago
Google "Nuggets short".
There's a few minute long animated short with kind of an intense message. I won't spoil it for you, it's really worth a watch.
Edit: grabbed a link https://youtu.be/HUngLgGRJpo
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u/FroggiJoy87 1d ago
Is there like an AA meeting place across the street? That's a very powerful animation on addiction and legit helped me 💚
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u/OrneryConelover70 1d ago
I have never seen a more appropriate and representative crosswalk sign for a neighbourhood
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u/TeriyakiHairPiece_ 1d ago
I stayed at a hotel on E Hastings years ago not knowing much about Vancouver. I’m from the Seattle area, the conditions and sheer amount of people on the sidewalks was shocking.
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u/Hashi856 1d ago
So crossing the street is like drugs?
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u/toiletcrab 1d ago
this is an intersection you go to if you want to see people shooting up right in front of you on the street
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u/ebolaRETURNS 1d ago
I'm in Portland, and had to think a sec as to whether that would seem odd...we get people chasing fent off foil in the open but not much visible intravenous use, for whatever reason...
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u/Starblast555 1d ago
think of either of those things, 24/7, 365, hundreds of people lined down the road like skid row in whatever city skid row exists in and you'll have a more accurate visual
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u/ebolaRETURNS 1d ago
ahhh...
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ebolaRETURNS 20h ago edited 20h ago
a couple blocks away you've got upscale restaurants and cocktail bars and touristy areas
That's interesting. In Portland, our area of most prolific open 'hard' drug use is also next to a ritzy area of restaurants I can't afford and bars that are a rip-off (The Pearl District).
And also, when I visited Vancouver, I didn't run into anything like this.
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u/Zeestars 19h ago
Curious. They put a switch in and a sign. But they don’t just fix the mess and drugs?
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u/asoftquietude 1d ago
My pet peeve is people who keep pressing the button like it's going to make it change faster.
Once is enough, my friends.
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u/fkathhn 1d ago
For those not in the know: East Hastings is notorious for drug use, and this sign references an animation about addiction.