Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

by Johann Hari

In 2012, the results of a decade of changed policies came in. The average life expectancy on the Downtown Eastside, according to the city’s medical health officials, had risen by ten years. One newspaper headline said simply: LIFE-EXPECTANCY JUMP ASTOUNDS. The Province newspaper explained: “Medical health officer Dr. John Carsley said it is rare to see such a shift in a population’s life expectancy.” Some of this improvement is due to the fact that the neighborhood is no longer seen as a disaster zone, so some wealthier, healthier people have started to move in; but the Globe and Mail newspaper reported, using figures from the British Columbia coroners’ office, that drug-related fatalities were down by 80 percent in this period. To find a rise in life expectancy this drastic, you’d have to look to the end of wars—which is what this is.