How fentanyl transformed Victoria’s Pandora Avenue from downtown hub to open-air drug market

// custom header art window.tgam.meta.photo_desktop = ""; window.tgam.meta.photo_mobile = ""; window.tgam.meta.video = "https://www.theglobeandmail.com/files/editorial/News/nw-na-pandora-avenue-poisoned/pandora-main-v3.mp4"; window.tgam.meta.caption = ""; window.tgam.meta.credit = ""; // custom header layout parameters window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay = false; window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_vertical_position = "top"; // top, centre, bottom window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_horizontal_position = "left"; // left, centre, right window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_gradient = false; window.tgam.meta.two_column = false; window.tgam.meta.swap_column = true; window.tgam.meta.full_width = false; window.tgam.meta.dark_background = true; window.tgam.meta.dark_background_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.centre_headline = true; window.tgam.meta.large_headline = true; window.tgam.meta.sans_headline = false; window.tgam.meta.label_text_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.label_box_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.label_text_colour_overlay = "" ; window.tgam.meta.label_box_colour_overlay = ""; window.tgam.meta.audio_bar = false; // custom header display overrides (optional): window.tgam.meta.display_head = "Pandora’s block"; window.tgam.meta.display_deck = "As B.C. became the epicentre of a nationwide opioid crisis, fentanyl brought misery to this Victoria street. Civic leaders warn the whole downtown core could be next"; window.tgam.meta.label = "Poisoned"; window.tgam.meta.byline = "Nancy Macdonald" window.tgam.meta.byline2 = "Photography by Chad Hipolito"; window.tgam.meta.creditline = "The Globe and Mail"; The sidewalk outside Victoria’s Central Baptist Church was littered with trash on a recent visit. A woman was slumped like a resting marionette, her arms hanging from her waist. The smell of urine rose from the concrete. It was mid-week in the heart of the city’s central business district but Pandora Avenue was strangely quiet. Nobody was talking. No one was asking for change.