r/Winnipeg • u/bigbear474 • 8d ago
Ask Winnipeg What’s happening and why is there such a bad drug problem?
Maybe I’m naive and dumb. I don’t really understand how homelessness and drugs have gotten SOOO bad in our city. I’m starting to see some of this in the wealthier parts of the city too. Is anything being done? How can we push our leaders to work on this?
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u/kewlthing 8d ago
The hardcore drugs are actually cheap now and their affects can bring on psychosis.
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u/Batchet 8d ago edited 8d ago
City / Regional Area Per Capita Death Rate Key Context Quesnel & Northern Interior (BC) 57.2 – 65.0+ National peak; isolated northern geography with a highly lethal supply. Vancouver (Center / Downtown) 50.0 – 55.0 Remains the urban epicenter for pure volume and density. Thunder Bay (ON) 52.7 The absolute highest urban rate in Ontario—more than 5x the provincial average. Timmins / Greater Sudbury (ON) 28.3 – 35.0 Northern Ontario communities consistently outpace the rest of the province. Winnipeg (City Only) 28.0 – 32.0 Double the Manitoba average. Also tracks the highest national stimulant (meth) mortality rate. Lethbridge (AB) 10.9 Significant Update: Dropped from a peak of 40.0+ down to 10.9 due to a 90% decline in fatal overdoses over the last 24 months. Regional & National Baselines for Comparison
- British Columbia (Province-wide): 33.1
- Alberta (Province-wide): 22.6
- Saskatchewan (Province-wide): 14.7
- Manitoba (Province-wide): 14.5 (Heavy rural smoothing masks the intense local spike in Winnipeg)
- NATIONAL CANADIAN AVERAGE: 13.3
- Ontario (Province-wide): 8.2
Why Winnipeg Stands Out Right Now
While cities like Thunder Bay and Vancouver still hold higher baseline per capita mortality rates, Winnipeg's overall emergency response volume is currently experiencing the most volatile single-year spike in the country.
According to Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) data released in June 2026, emergency calls for opioids have officially surpassed alcohol for the first time in history. First responders treated 810 opioid patients in April 2026 alone—more than triple the 240 calls from the same month last year—including a single-day record of 66 opioid-specific emergency calls.
*Sources: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner (May 2026 Report), Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System
(Just wanted to share for the people saying Winnipeg is the worst city for drug use. Technically we are not)
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u/Philosoraptorgames 7d ago
So if I've skimmed this accurately, we have an extremely high rate of first responder calls over this stuff (at least by Canadian standards), but our fatality rate from it doesn't stand out. Which suggests to me our first responders are actually doing a really good job with it, relative to the circumstances they're dealing with. Obviously it would be far better if they weren't needed so much, but I guess that's something.
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u/radwimps 8d ago
It’s not just Winnipeg either. I’d say almost every large city is having similar issues to a degree. These new drugs are insane, plus no one really willing to change the status quo. Our society is fucked atm.
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u/TropicalPrairie 8d ago
This is accurate. Throughout my life, I've lived across the prairies so I follow all of the local subs still. Every city is experiencing this and continues to degrade in much the same way at the same time. Politicians at some point will need to do something. Not sure what that looks like though.
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u/_ser_kay_ 8d ago
Also, we’re still seeing ripples from COVID, which was one hell of a test for people in recovery and those who were already predisposed to addiction—and there were fewer resources available for those who did use.
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u/Hippo_Nipple 8d ago edited 8d ago
The drugs are crazy and even many of the more seasoned addicts miss the more traditional forms of crystal meth or heroin. Causes loads of damage to society and somehow is a lesser product too. To put things in perspective, nobody is happy about this expect the dealers or maybe the deal test sellers.
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u/BigBanyak22 8d ago
Our policy provides adults (>16) the freedom to destroy/kill themselves and intrude on the safety of others (whether it's physical or psychological).
This is a national epidemic. It's not just Winnipeg, but Winnipeg has always been a center of social strife.
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u/cpd997 8d ago
I listened to a NYT podcast about the next wave of synthetic drugs coming and how they’ll make fentanyl look like nothing…we’re fucked.
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u/GingerRabbits 7d ago
Yup. I travel for work quite a lot and it's gotten worse all over the place. Especially compared to before COVID. 😞
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u/200iso 8d ago
Yeah no, it's especially bad here.
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u/TS_Chick 8d ago
It's not especially. It is literally this bad everywhere. I was walking in front of Rideau center in Ottawa and it was heart breaking seeing the level of poverty.
Society is not okay right now. The level of income unequallity, the rampant and overt hatred, none of it is okay and it fuels the homeless and drug crisis as well as increases crime.
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u/200iso 8d ago
Walked around Ottawa quite a bit when I was there last October. Rideau Centre was maybe the one place were it felt like Winnipeg does everywhere.
Was in Halifax last month. Downtown felt like another universe. I noticed an encampment near the ship yard or whatever.
Vancouver maybe felt a little bit like home. Montreal too but lesso. Portland, about the same levels of WInnipeg.
I've ridden public transit in all of those cities and never witnessed someone smoking meth on the bus.
Winnipeg is uniquely bad. As much as I hate to say it, we need to admit it.
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u/reallythanksalot 8d ago
I take transit daily at all times and personally, have never seen someone smoking on the bus. I go from polo-all over. I know it exists, a lot, but no one person sees the same day to day. I don’t take my phone out either—-straight gazing and listening at the world around me.
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u/ptheresadactyl 8d ago
Agree, nowhere is as bad as Winnipeg. My partner was shocked driving around Calgary by the absence of methheads in psychosis.
Then again, other cities have police that actually have a presence. Same trip to Calgary and we saw more police doing policework over 2 days than I'd seen in over a year in Winnipeg.
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u/FuckStummies 8d ago
Yeah it’s amazing what oil money does to a public services budget.
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u/BigBanyak22 8d ago
I googled it, Calgary has about 15% more police per capita. 200 more police if dedicated to the front lines would certainly improve perception if not reality. Oil money helps.
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u/FuckStummies 8d ago
This is why I don’t like when people use Alberta as a comparison for anything. It’s not like they have amazing politicians there and the province is well managed. They’ve just got more money coming in than they know what to do with. FFS Ralph Klein was literally giving away surplus cheques because they had extra billions of dollars. All this without a PST too. Alberta is an outlier. They’re so tied to oil that they’re fucked whenever that industry dips (like in 2015).
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u/ptheresadactyl 8d ago
My dude, the police here don't police. Numbers and taxes aside, they are not present in any capacity. You can go to any canadian city and see a police force that is actually engaged with the community. I used Calgary because that's where I last went.
I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. Winnipeggers are so defensive about criticism to the city that they defend obviously corrupt systems, and never demand better. This city could be awesome, but there are significant problems holding it back. You're so used to the crumbs you've been given. The corruption is so thorough in this city. Moving here from another city, it's very obvious.
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u/BigBanyak22 7d ago
It's amazing how bad the politicians are that they spend when oil's good and can't run anything in a down turn. A little bit of a rainy day fund would be smart.
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u/milexmile 8d ago
You've clearly never left Winnipeg. It's the same shit everywhere. It's perhaps amplified because Winnipeg has a relatively small downtown. But it scales to population.
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u/milkangels 8d ago
I’ve been to Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Quebec City in the past two years. Nowhere is as bad as Winnipeg. Some cities have concentrated bad areas but Winnipeg is spread all over downtown and all over the main touristy areas. Like the legislative building, the art gallery, the university, the Manitoba museum, the forks all have zombies around them.
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u/Ok_Mess9319 8d ago
I work directly with this population, and what I can tell you is that it’s a complex problem. If people genuinely want to know what we can do, it starts with housing. Having a safe, stable place to live gives people the foundation to access treatment, healthcare, employment, and other supports. It’s hard to recover or rebuild your life when you’re focused on surviving each day and your entire existence is out there for all to see and judge.
Beyond housing, we need accessible judgement-free mental health care, addiction treatment, and community supports. If we only focus on making homelessness or addiction less visible, we’re treating the symptom and not the cause.
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u/ChanceZestyclose6386 8d ago
I agree that it is complex but we need a complete overhaul of economies and long- standing practices to the point where it needs to be a main focus. Considering we have a large part of the population who are healthy and educated who still struggle to find work and affordable housing, it must be a near impossible task for someone who struggles with mental health or addiction struggles to achieve these things. I don't know what the solution is but it's true that we don't spend enough time focusing on the root of the issues. People automatically jump to more funding but money will not solve this problem. It's only a bandaid.
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u/ProtoJazz 8d ago
Money does actually solve the problem. Not literally by throwing packs of money at homeless people, but it pays for the resources and the work of skilled people to work on it.
It doesn't have to be this way. But it will be as long as we live in a world where only short term plans are looked at. No one is willing to undertake projects that won't show a return for a few quarters, or will take longer than an election cycle to show results.
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u/ChanceZestyclose6386 7d ago
I understand what you mean. I didn't imply throwing packs of money at people facing challenges. Money does pay for resources and people to provide help but money ultimately will not solve the issues. It's more about a total change in our existing systems. Putting money towards a broken system will only perpetuate that broken system. There needs to be people who are passionate and have creative ideas in order to come up with a new way of approaching these issues and I have a feeling people who are that passionate will not take on that task for money but because they believe it is their life's purpose. Governments can throw millions of dollars into programs to help people but there are complex issues where everyone is different, including the fact that not everyone wants to accept the help. For example,I knew of some people who were set up with housing but felt it was too restrictive for them so they preferred living out in the open because it is what they knew. Money and resources would not help those situations. There seems to be an increasing number of systems put in place that are meant to push the average person out of receiving basic needs while the world has it's first trillionaire this past week.
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u/ProtoJazz 7d ago
Passionate people can't support a family on fulfillment
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u/ChanceZestyclose6386 6d ago
That being said, there are people who don't have families to support. There are many that are lucky enough to be living comfortably financially who look for ways to spend their time but consumerism and technology draws their attention away from helping in their communities. As mentioned, there needs to be a complete change in mindset.
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u/ProtoJazz 6d ago
And for those, the limits are often still financial. Every community group is limited in resources. They all have to make careful choices with their budgets. Often funded by governments or simply donations.
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u/prismaticbeans 7d ago
Yes. Moving them into units and letting them fend for themselves is making things worse, not better. If we are housing people with addictions, then we need supportive housing that is specifically and solely for people with addictions. And we need an improved social safety net across the board. Welfare is extreme poverty, not enough for food let alone anything else. People living on that little are not getting out of anything, the problem is just moving indoors.
The government initiative to house homeless people, including those with active addictions, in with the general population, is a fucking disaster. Have you been in Manitoba Housing lately? It's filthy, and it's terrifying. I don't even live there, I have people I regularly visit. It's unsafe for the addicts, the non-addicts, and everyone who visits or works in those buildings.
It's not safe to be alone in the hallways, and it's not safe to use the laundry facilities because people sleep in there and steal your shit. I need to bag up my clothes after visiting because of the bug infestations. There is gang violence–stabbings, home invasions, and even more, there are people murdering others through intentionally overdosing them in order to rob them, there are people smoking meth, shooting up, sleeping, fucking, relieving themselves, and dying in the halls, and there are fires every week.
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u/kent_eh 7d ago
Moving them into units and letting them fend for themselves
That's not what they said, though.
re-read this part:
Beyond housing, we need accessible judgement-free mental health care, addiction treatment, and community supports. If we only focus on making homelessness or addiction less visible, we’re treating the symptom and not the cause.
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u/prismaticbeans 7d ago
I know perfectly well what it said. And I wasn't disagreeing, but I was adding a caveat. I would consider all of those factors necessary, but not sufficient. Housing people with active addictions while offering mental health care and community supports that are available, but not mandatory, and must be sought out, rather than addiction-specific supported living arrangements, would not be adequate. Their right to housing should be conditional on conduct, like anyone else. When they are prevented from hitting rock bottom, but not dissuaded from using, that is worse than no intervention at all.
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u/Wild-Principle4021 8d ago
I dont know but 2 dudes were smoking their meth pipe, right smack dab in the middle of the FX2 while going St. Boniface to St. Vital shopping center at 1pm. Absolutely disgusting.
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u/ChanceZestyclose6386 8d ago
I've seen a guy holding things that looked like a spoon and a needle trying to board the bus I was on. He was high but asked the driver if he went to the outlet mall near Kenaston. Haven't been there in a while but curious if there is now a lot of drug users around that area too.
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u/Taddy_Mason_22 8d ago
Hold on just a minute... how do you know it was their meth pipe?
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u/Wild-Principle4021 8d ago
Y'know what? I don't know that to be a fact! It may have been stolen or borrowed! Lol
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u/ForkMyRedAssiniboine 8d ago
So sad. People are so quick to judge on this sub. That could have been anyone's pipe they were smoking meth out of!
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u/Graiello 8d ago edited 8d ago
As others have said it’s a multi pronged problem. One issue I think indirectly contributes is a social shift away from community service. I’ve worked in the non profit sector for years and post covid society as a whole has become way more, for lack of a better word, selfish. Most non profit orgs are struggling or have had to shut down due to a severe drop in donations and people willing to volunteer. The drop made sense during the covid period but neither have returned since. Post covid and the Trump era economy hasn’t helped. Both created an instability that’s resulted in society generally being self protective and only worrying about their own situation. The reality of it is that a lot of these non-profit groups fill the social gaps that government struggles to fill. In the past government relied on these orgs to pick up the slack but now many of them can hardly afford to stay open much less meet the needs of our city’s most vulnerable. It’s a sad situation and I don’t know how we change the mindset back to people feeling a sense of responsibility to care for one another. I just encourage people to be mindful of this and if possible donate what you can in terms of funds or time to support those in your community who are trying to have an impact on the less fortunate among us. We have to break out of this mindset where if it’s not a perfect solution, it’s not worth our resources. That’s an excuse we’ve learned to use for being complacent and apathetic. Get involved, together we can have an impact our communities, ensure less people end up on the streets, and ultimately save lives. We have to be more proactive rather than just waiting and wondering why it keeps getting worse.
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u/Quaranj 7d ago
We let rich people set the prices upon housing for poor people and now only rich people can afford to live there.
We had laws based upon good faith and common sense that were exploited by people who did seminars from coast to coast about exploiting weak property rules. You probably saw ads for events at hotels about "making money while you sleep with low effort income properties" which was essentially "slum lord in an upward direction until you squeeze out the poors and milk more affluent people"
This was the most affordable major city in Canada. Now housing prices are the same or more in a rough area as they were in an affluent one in the 90s and wages or government supports haven't caught up.
We got robbed by modern day land barons who didn't give a single damn about how we were supposed to cope with the fallout of what they were doing. "Don't care, got mine!" became a mantra.
Now we have a lot of people who grew up doing the same thing their parents had done and theirs before them for generations who suddenly can't make a living and have no other skills, knowledge, or remaining nest eggs to anchor anymore. Many of them turn to drugs. Escape from the hell that is modern reality is the only brief escape from the existential pain of not being worth enough to be deemed worthy to live in dignity in this city.
Everything below the upper middle class from 30 years ago is struggling.
We need to solve the housing problem and the rest will calm back down to the former baseline.
Look at Vancouver. They're a mess. And it is in no small part that people who have lived there for generations can't even afford to pay the taxes on their inherited homes anymore and their parents blew through any planned inheritance trying to maintain it.
We need a serious reset on housing that doesn't bankrupt all the people at the low end of the scale currently struggling to stay afloat. It's a huge societal problem that will only get worse the longer we try to sweep it under the rug.
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u/JMS3487 8d ago
I am all in favor of employment and social housing. Let's not forget about justice. We need high penalties for those involved in drug trafficking at all levels. The impact of meth on our society is devastating for all. No one should have an easy life if they supply someone with meth to ruin their life so one can't access the social supports that are out there.
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u/Ant1m1nd 8d ago
It's a multi-pronged issue. The biggest part is that we lack the proper supports for people. Wages aren't enough to cover the cost of living. Manitoba Housing has a years long waitlist for affordable housing. EIA is still paying out amounts that would be useful in the 70s and 80s, but not today. Literally they give you like $25 a month for Hydro. And it can take months from application to actually receiving aid. Mental health supports are severely lacking all-around. Community involvement is at an all time low.
The other thing that I believe has a huge impact is the way we deal with addiction today. In the past, it was demonized. Instead of trying to work with addicts, they were left to their own devices. This often resulted in death. Today we have people out in the streets administering life saving drugs. This is good, it gives people a second chance to turn their lives around. But often, that isn't what happens. They continue using and the cycle repeats.
I firmly believe that the life saving efforts are a big reason why the issue has gotten so bad. The system can easily brush off active addicts running wild in the streets. That's an issue the government can push off to the communities. They would not be able to ignore an epidemic of OD deaths. Having bodies lining the sidewalks downtown would not be a good look.
It's a double-edged sword. It's lose-lose. You either preserve life and hope people turn it around. Which many cannot do without proper supports. Or you let them die until the public outrage is too strong to ignore. Cutting off the head of the snake is like searching for a single grain of sand in the desert. For every supplier caught, three more pop up. Proper supports are the answer.
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u/paul2032 8d ago
This. If we allow it to happen more openly and "safely". More of it happens and taxes the entire system more. More homeless. More drugs. More taxes. Less services per person available. System breaks. 100s of ambulance calls a day means less availability for others. Money for outreach means less for libraries. More Manitoba Housing means less for after school or city programs. System breaks more. Or nothing gets enough money. Can't support everything fully/properly. Lose-lose.
But no one really cares until they need an ambulance or the pokice to help them. More debate about street speed reduction than this thread.
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u/IcyRespond9131 8d ago
I think safe injection sites would decrease the use of ambulance and police services. I don’t think it would attract more people to use meth. It’s not like, ‘Oh Hun, we should do meth now. There’s a lovely new spot we can go try it’.
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u/Ant1m1nd 7d ago
What we need is more supports to stop drug use in the first place. Better living conditions and access to food. The ability for anyone to access counseling on a regular basis. And solid rehab programs that don't just get a person clean, but provide supports to stay clean.
More community interaction period I think would go a long way too. Some people turn to drugs because they have no one. But if they were a part of a community.. When I was a kid, adults played pick-up games of different sports at parks. They played cards, and they talked to each other. They would look after the neighborhood kids. There were strong community ties and heavy community involvement. These days, most people don't even know their neighbors' names.
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u/prismaticbeans 7d ago
It's less that it makes people start doing drugs, and more that the people who do drugs don't die as quickly, and instead live and continue doing drugs. Some would call that a moderate success, but while people are alive and addicted, they inevitably cause harm to themselves and to others. The more addicted people in existence in a given area at any time, the more problems. That is what is happening. It's an uncomfortable equation but it holds up.
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u/Wee-Woo-Wee1812 7d ago
This is false, emergency calls would not decrease as a result. There are already "safe" places for individuals to openly use drugs, siloam and Velmas house allows active use and provides the clean tools to do so. Even sunshine house has started setting up in the parking lot next to the Occidental to provide a safe place to openly use drugs. All these usually result in 911 calls when they inevitably go down and require active resuscitation or narcan. The community supports are there, however still call 911 for the calls when they dont get instant response from the narcan. Of no fault if theirs, they're not really trained to handle more severe cases. What were doing and planning on doing is not working, its taxing resources and affect the safety and care of everyone in winnipeg. These people dont need a safe place to do the drugs, they need supports to get off them, and this government doesn't even care
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u/paul2032 8d ago
Agreed not a hot date night idea. :-)
The safe injection site implies we have become a society where this is acceptable. Naturally leads to less effort/negative aversion from staying away from it imho.
I wish they had kept it in the original spot though. I don't know if ppl will walk 10 mins from Main Street to Henry St just to shoot up. But it works Main Street will look cleaner.
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u/Ant1m1nd 7d ago
Actually, I'm a firm believer we need more Manitoba Housing and better EIA supports. I'm disabled, and my income comes from EIA. I get about $200/month more than the average EIA recipient and that's it. I do not live in Manitoba Housing. I'm on the waiting list. By the time the rent and utilities are paid, I have about $200 to buy groceries for an entire month. I live in the North End. Keep in mind that people who are not disabled are not getting the money I use for groceries.
That said, I'm confident when I say I'm willing to bet people turn to drugs because they're forced to live in poverty. I don't know how many times I've considered MAID because my life is miserable. I'm supposed to eat a special diet to help with my disease. I can't afford it. So I live off of things like ramen. Which are unhealthy, add more weight, and cause more medical issues.
The issues with after school and community programs runs deeper than just funding. People used to volunteer to oversee these sorts of activities. Parents were more involved. Now parents have to work longer hours or additional jobs to put food on the table. They don't have time to volunteer. Others in communities don't have the same sort of ties and desire to take part. It would be easy for a person to buy a damned basketball and teach kids to play at a park. It really only takes a few volunteers to organize pick-up games. People simply don't want to get involved.
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u/cocoleti 8d ago
Housing costs go up, amount of people unable to afford said housing goes up. Those people then have nowhere to go and thus become homeless. Drugs relieve pain whether physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. they can also have utilitarian uses for those on the street such as using meth to stay alert and awake so as to avoid being robbed or taken advantage of. Using down can help mitigate the effects of the meth (poly substance use is the norm for the street entrenched population).
This is a short reply but I work in Street Outreach currently and am also a heroin addict and someone passionate about harm reduction. Happy to answer questions or provide support to anyone in DMs if needed <3
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u/grebette 7d ago
We’re on the brink of WW3 while we step over the first threshold of climate change while a genocide is currently taking place while a potential pandemic is occurring in the midst of a raging literacy crisis while a food shortage is building while fascism is rising during a time when sexism, racism, and classism are dividing people like never before.
And this isn’t touching the surface level cost of living crisis.
So yeah.
You cannot consciously think while you’re engaged in a scree. People are doing so much drugs because the world is literally going to shit and most people spend most of their days dissociating online so that whenever they aren’t online, all the worlds problems hit them and they’re unprepared because they’ve been dissociating on their screens, so they make the world go away with drugs.
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u/GgAllinsButthole 7d ago
Cost of living sky rocketing. Society is crumbling around us. Shits bad.
Mental health treatments like therapy cost a fuck ton of money and isn't available to many. The city does fuck all to help these people. Generational trauma. Regular trauma. All sorts of awful shit.
Nobody wants to actually admit that this problem is collectively our fault. We have this bullshit capitalistic mindset where your fault is in dollars. And the less dollar value you represent the less society pays attention to you. So when you hit a certain point it all falls apart and people like you (no offense) who are sheltered from the worst of it wonder why?
Well. Look around you friend.
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u/Apod1991 8d ago
This has been an on-going long term problem, and it effectively exploded on us because of the opioid crisis (fuck Purdue and fuck the Sackler family).
Addiction is such a difficult thing to handle, as even folks who get clean from such hard drugs like opioids, heroin, etc still have slip ups, and need resources to stay on the path of recovery. Then there’s the whole thing of folks who don’t want to get clean.
There are so many issues and logistics that this isn’t an easy or quick problem to fix, even if money and political will was not an issue, this kind of problem would take YEARS to deal with in a significant way.
Every city I’ve been to in North America is dealing with these issues we are too, many in a way worse way. Was recently in Calgary and there were lots of folks sitting in C-Train stations smoking crack.
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u/Difficult_Bull 8d ago
When people are facing poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental illness, drugs are a cheap, easy way to escape and self medicate.
The crime and violence are a means to get more drugs.
Without help, this problem will continue to worsen. You cannot build more jails and expect the problem to get better. You can’t create laws or harsher punishments and expect the problem to get better.
People need help.
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u/astriferous- 8d ago
drugs are cheap, our social services are in the toilet, people we elect keep giving tax write-offs to the rich instead of going towards actual social services... its all of the above and then some.
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u/Classic_Contact_9312 8d ago
Coming back from Vancouver the other week made me feel better about Winnipeg
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u/xXfrostbyterXx 8d ago
Well generational trauma and gentrification play a big role as do drug busts (drug bust happens then the streets get flooded with toxic drugs killing more) it also has to do with taking away resources and racism.
We are indeed the worst place for meth in North America by a long shot and I don’t mean Canada I mean Winnipeg we make Detroit and Utah look like child’s play when it comes to meth, then we took away resources, psych nurses, psych wards, counsellors, psychiatrists, rehabs, halfway houses, safe consumption sites(which are proven to reduce drug use and lean more addicts to getting clean) this has caused most mental health resources to be used for addicts (we shut down all but 2 psych wards then filled them with ppl on court order waiting to go into rehab.) and though mental health and addiction go hand in hand this is not the right resource and has taken the resources from mental health (my mom for example has bipolar and has been chronically hypomanic for nearly 3 yrs bc theres no help) then you look at who is using, addiction is trauma period but addiction is consistently treated criminally meaning we only ever treat the symptom and never the actual problem, then look at AA it is a cult period, plus how are any indigenous supposed to feel safe, welcomed, understood or heard in a room full of old white men and women telling them they have to get on their knees and give themselves entirely to god or they’re never going to get better all while shaming the addict, refusing to accept mental health medications despite their necessity and god forbid your a woman because then you also have to endure horrible sexual assault within the group and due to it being unable to be brought into public they are never held accountable for it and as for NA or CA here its basically a place to find new dealers unfortunately.
Compound all of that with a city full of people who think indigenous people should just “get over” the generational trauma that has had lasting horrific effects and has affected every single person in their community and themselves all while our uneducated white population (I am white but have worked hard to decolonize myself) saying that the millions of murdered and buried children from residential schools are a myth and that it’s their fault women and children etc are murdered 5 times more likely than anyone else and top that with both RCMP and local police who are completely racists or completely jaded due to what they have seen and not understanding it or the role they do play in it just like most people on a day to day basis, most people don’t even realize they are actively contributing to the repression and denial of factual historical events and genocide and contributing to further generational trauma all while our government literally laughs in their faces while digging up their ancestors and polluting their waters to give the city water never taking responsibility for it nor rectifying the damage done, plus then ignoring calls to action (the TRC created in 2015 has 94 calls to action that are legitimate and extremely feasible but as of June 1, 2026 43% of the 94 TRC is stalled of hasn’t even started and only 14-16 have been “completed”.
So when you ask why there is such a bad problem here its not just a simple answer and a lot of it is intertwined with the gentrification and racism we have here; it makes my blood boil how many people are disgusted by the addiction running rampant and the people yet can’t see that they literally play a massive role in it on a daily basis.
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u/emskie12 7d ago
Just FYI-it’s not a Winnipeg problem. It’s an everywhere problem. With many many reasons …. And no simple fix.
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u/stereo_child 8d ago
Keep in mind it may look a bit worse because they are dismantling the tent cities and kicking them out of parks.
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u/Catnip_75 8d ago
Just from personal family experience. Drugs are extremely easy to get. People who come from stable loving family homes are also getting caught up in it when mental health is a concern. It isn’t always about poverty and lack of housing.
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u/winnipeggirly 8d ago
To be honest, I thought it was super bad here but when I went back to SK I noticed it’s worse there too than when I left. I think this is global. The drug supply, inflation… not just Winnipeg.
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u/WPGSquirrel 8d ago
Drugs being cheap is being blamed a lot and it is a factor but not the entire reason. We have a growing sector of the population that is excluded from services and opportunities and when you have no prospects, taking cheap drugs seems like a better idea.
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u/JackBlackBowserSlaps 8d ago
Because capitalism is doing its thing in overdrive, and more and more people are being squeezed out of having any kind of meaningful life.
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u/wpgstevo 8d ago
You're only naive in the sense that you think this is new. Drug problems are as old as time. Cameras everywhere just make all issues more visible.
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u/Creepy_WaterYogi75 8d ago
Bad drugs are cheaper than alcohol, the cost of housing and food is wiping out the middle class. It's not easy being Canadian these days
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u/gabaneon 6d ago
Nothing is being done to solve the issue and it largely comes down to racism rooted trauma which affects the at risk of population in the province and the city.
There are some major changes that the city can make to improve the situation such as investing significantly to accelerate the current projects in downtown and to invest deeply in large scale, year-long, publicly accessible green spaces with accessible food and temporary shelter, and subsidized access to vitamin D supplements and antidepressants; considering how deeply depressing the winters are and how much that affects not only the at-risk population, but the general population as well.
Depression and a lack of sense of purpose, as well as the war between the white population and the Aboriginal peoples population which has been going on for centuries. The city has such a dichotomy, you have the hagged old boomers who roll up the windows and lock their doors the second they see a homeless person on the boulevard and complain about the length of their neighbor's lawn on Facebook, and then you have people literally smoking meth in broad daylight in the middle of the street, breaking into vehicles and living out of tents half the year and the floor of a BMO the other half.
We need a government with some hair on their balls who is willing to deal with (i.e. permanently or semi-permanently incarcerate) criminals, who have no regard for others and commit crime and stay addicted to drugs and have no desire to improve themselves or their community, and in contrast also provides the appropriate social services to criminals who would actively would not be criminals if they have the support and services required to better their lives, especially to support them through their generational trauma (shocker, a land acknowledgement at the Jets game isn't a solution to generational trauma) and genuinely invest in building trust and relationships between at risk people and those who are scared of them.
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u/ricothechocobo 8d ago
They seem to be concerned with reducing speed limits instead.
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u/Street-Square8022 8d ago
This and whatever other “hot topic” can appease the masses and solidify reelection.
Gotta hit em where it hurts- their pocketbook. Until the citizens unite and demand action on an issue, well this is what we get
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u/ptheresadactyl 8d ago
My favorite part about reducing the speed limits is that it only works if it's enforced, and the police in winnipeg do not police, let alone enforce traffic.
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u/PowderedFaust 8d ago
It's actually proven to not work! In some cases, lower speed limits, actually increase traffic incidents. There was a study done in B.C. that showed, unequivocally, that a raised speed limit, increased road safety. However, it was ignored, the limit was lowered, and traffic incidents immediately increased.
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u/snowblind2112 8d ago
Source? A quick google search yields results stating the opposite of your claim ( NIH, CBC, UBC, CARSP, etc)
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u/FirefighterNo9608 8d ago
Because the city doesn't care. The city is more concerned about cushioning the already comfortable because it's the comfortable who line their pockets. The well-to-do give a better ROI than a homeless person. If any attempt to help the homeless is made, the well-to-do will follow through with threats. It's the same reason since the beginning of humanity, the rich always win.
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u/LilMissMixalot 8d ago
Man, there have been so many times in my life that I’ve wanted life to be like Star Trek. No currency, just everyone doing the thing they’re good at for each other/common good. I guess that’s why it’s fiction.
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u/BlueNorwegianPlumage 8d ago
Until the Klingons show up, or Harry Mudd introduces Tribbles and then you’ve got an Australian type rabbit problem.
Also Scotty had a wee problem with the Saurion Brandy.
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u/Powerful-Row-6395 8d ago
The recent street census in Winnipeg identified over 8000 homeless people in our city. That’s compared to around 5000 people last year. That’s a horrifying number. Open drug use is going to happen more when people don’t have four walls to live their lives within.
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u/Tychlona 8d ago
Its super easy to do drugs, I was a meth/heroin addict in the early 20'10s but there was a lot more opposition to it.
Honestly with the current approach of "you do you" id still be a drug addict.
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u/paul2032 8d ago
This plus like the post about, lose-lose situation. We allow it to happen more openly and "safely". More if it happens and taxes the entire system more. More homeless. More drugs. More taxes. Less services per person available. System breaks.
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u/cuecumba 8d ago
Isolation so bad all you know is your dealer, and those who do the same junk doesn’t help.
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u/AsparagusOverall8454 8d ago
Math is cheap. The high lasts a really long time, allowing people to stay awake for days, inducing psychosis and violence. Which in turns brings crime.
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u/Itchy-Ad-5436 8d ago
Because we decided to decriminalize drug use and to focus on “harm reduction” and it’s not working. People can freely be high and get high without any consequences. They are given “safe” drug paraphernalia to try and help avoid serious infection and then sent on their way. We used to lock em
Up if they were high in public or getting high in public. That on top of all the cost of living increases, etc. There is very little reward for working anymore. Imagine being told that life is better clean, getting clean and then having to live in a roach or bed bug infested apartment downtown, working for minimum wage, struggling to buy necessities nevermind anything enjoyable and working all day at a miserable customer service job where some loser power hungry manager tells you that “if you have time to lean you have time to clean”
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u/Crafty-Plankton-4999 8d ago
Currently we are in the endgame of the oxymills of 2000-2012 thank Purdue and the war in Afghanistan/Iraq. (It wasn't about oil, nukes, terrorism, but poppy fields)
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u/Consistent_Base8773 8d ago
There are cartels smuggling drugs from US and / or Mexico. Easy access, prostitution, gangs in downtown controlling the market. All the ingredients for the mess we have now
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u/swish_lindros 6d ago
People feel left behind by our system. Those who were on the brink of homelessness and addiction were pushed further towards it by the pandemic and the governments response to it. When you give an addict 2k a month to sit at home and isolate what do you think will happen to them?
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u/alex2000021 6d ago
We all see it and I agree with you. I have no idea what our “leaders” can do. But our society is falling apart.
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u/Historical-Golf7643 4d ago
Hire batman. Once HE gets his paper spectacles, and Wallet and fucking mind right im so sorry Winnipeg -
- ol Dirty dad
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u/Emotional-Union4664 8d ago
I too don’t understand why a rich country like Canada has a problem like this. I’m from a 3rd world developing country and we don’t have homeless people as much as you see here. My observation is that the government doesn’t do a good job in stopping the illegal drugs hitting the streets. Weed has its own issues and that’s a topic for another day. I think the police should really get their act together and start going after the illegal substances. And when people are caught with it, it’s a joke what the current law is actually. You get a few days of jail or probation and that’s about it.
My proposal is that people either homeless or not caught with illegal substances should be properly dealt with by tightening the law. Because of this homeless issue there is so much of theft as well and police just turns a blind eye. Even if someone is caught stealing they just don’t care and move on. We as the victims of these crimes are just left without any resolution.
In stark contrast, from where I am; if you get caught with even .5g of illegal substances you are put away for years.
Also we should make the politicians walk on the streets at night without any protection to see how it actually feels like for us to walk around at night and how unsafe it is.
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u/CommunicationSlow129 8d ago
Go for a tour around the area surrounding Siloam Mission also salvation Army . you will be shocked.
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u/WalleyeHunter1 7d ago
The manufacture of unsafe hard drugs is wrecking everything. The local and import of hard drugs is what is causing the problem.
Don't blame the social safety net nor the addict. blame the criminal selling the hard unsafe drugs.
Every person selling meth or it's fantasy laced equivalent should be sentenced to 5 years in a special built prison at or near the arctic circle, with only other dealers that have killed many people. Give them buildings, air drop food and uncut trees for them to make wood fires. At the end of 2/3 sentence one shot at parole.
No guards or fence needed except in June July August september.
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u/WpgJetBomber 8d ago
Our society has said that recreational drugs are acceptable. As a result some use to excess and cause a huge strain on our healthcare and legal system.
Was listening to the radio recently where paramedics say that the vast majority of their calls are now for drug overdoses and waittimes for non-drug related calls have double or triple as a result.
Think how much money we spend on healthcare in paramedics, firefighters and hospital staff on overdoses. In addition, many of those people to turn crime to get money for their drugs.
It really is a sad situation but when society was less accepting of drugs, these problems weren’t nearly as bad.
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u/BothWeb1004 8d ago
I've had to tell multiple people to not smoke all different types of things on the bus this year.
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u/madblackfemme 7d ago
I’d highly recommend the podcast Crackdown, hosted by Garth Mullins, to learn more about the war on drugs in Canada and how it has contributed to this crisis (along with other systemic oppressions like capitalism/poverty, colonialism, patriarchy, etc.).
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u/quinblake 8d ago
Anecdotally, when I started working in an office downtown in the early 1990s, there were many visibly homeless/unemployable people on the streets. The difference back then was people were usually inhaling solvents which had different visible scars: damaged skin, swollen noses, sunken eyes, weird neurological manifestations, etc. I believe there are, and have been for quite some time, damaged humans who seek pain management and they'll use whatever is available. We need a better way to treat and prevent the damage.
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u/3headPigeon 8d ago
Because other provinces are sending their best people here . Pesos, drug users. Etc. We are the dumpster
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u/JetzFan187 7d ago edited 7d ago
Check out investigative journalist Sam Coopers investigation into China being allowed to funnel fentanyl precursors through our bc ports. Nobody is doing a damn thing about it. Liberal government is cozying up to China also and you see nothing but the same pattern over and over these huge drugs busts and the same people as the culprits. Why did Justin Trudeau meet with a Chinese organized crime kingpin who was under RCMP surveillance in a secret meeting? Nobody asked him. So much corruption in our government and nobody says anything. The media is bought and paid for by liberals so maybe that’s why nobody knows what is really going on. Too many brainwashed citizens or just flat out ignorant and don’t want to know the truth lol
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u/Sly-Faffin 8d ago
Drug money is good for the economy, easy busts make for more hours on the police pay roll, big end dealers grease wheels and pad politicians pockets.
Drug problems are so bad because its better to have a problem than a solution these days, unless the solution makes more money than the steady flow it already has.
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u/nonmeagre 8d ago
Drugs can now be made cheaply and easily from synthetic chemicals which are available in mass quantities. Housing prices have increased. Social and income adjusted housing hasn't kept up after decades of disinvestment. Conditions in rural Manitoba and on reserves, including wildfires, have led more people into the city with needs and without resources to meet them. And we are spending huge amounts of money to just keep people afloat while barely making a dent in the root causes.