So it's a rainy and windy morning in Vancouver and I'm just walking down the street in the

area of the city called the Downtown East Side which is really the heart of the opioid

crisis. There are a lot of people lying on the sidewalks kind of crashed out a sleep

on the sidewalk in the rain. I just passed a couple of people who were cooking fentanyl

on the sidewalk. I just walked past a middle-aged woman in pink track pants with a ponytail

who was slumped over us, in case. From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrof. This

is the daily. All right, we've been reporting this week on America's Worsening Fentanyl

crisis. The number of people dying from fentanyl has recently tripled. The opioid crisis has

gotten much deadlier because of an influx of the highly lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Fentanyl. Fentanyl. Fentanyl. Which is increasingly contaminating all kinds of drugs. Fentanyl

is like rocket fuel in the sharp rise of this crisis. They're lacing other drugs with fentanyl,

so no drugs are safe. Nearly 108,000 Americans died from overdose last year. That's the most

ever. To try to save lives, officials are searching for solutions. Communities and leaders across

the United States are desperate to stop the skyrocketing rates of overdose deaths. Today,

the White House released its plan to address the crisis. What we're really talking about here

is steps that we're taking as a federal government to address the opioid epidemic.

Fentanyl. Today, my colleague, Stephanie Nolan, reports from Vancouver, Canada, where the city is

trying a novel and surprising approach to combat the fentanyl crisis. It's Friday, September 2nd.

Stephanie, you're a global health reporter, and you've covered drug use and health policy

in a lot of places around the world. Tell us about what's happening in Vancouver.

So, you know, the opioid crisis has people all over North America trying to figure out what to do.

And I've been paying attention for a while to what's been happening in Vancouver.

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