The Shadoe Davis Show - April 15th⧸2026- Exposing the Hard Drug Problems in Van w⧸DrewCouver56 !!

00:00:00.000 We'll be right back.

00:00:30.000 guitar solo

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 guitar solo

00:02:00.000 hello everybody welcome to the shadow davis show this is wednesday april the 15th 2026

00:02:16.740 don't forget to like and share this we are out on all the social media platforms tonight

00:02:21.420 meaning facebook youtube twitch x we're on rumble tonight we're on telegram tonight and

00:02:29.540 of course we are broadcasting live on shadow davis.com if you're not an all access member yet

00:02:35.720 become one go to the website sign up monthly or yearly we'd love to have you and don't forget to

00:02:40.740 join the shadow at night community group on telegram tonight our guests and don't forget

00:02:47.560 like i said did i say this before like and share make sure everybody knows to be here tonight we

00:02:52.840 have such an interesting show for you guys tonight you've heard about all of the decriminalization

00:02:58.680 and then recriminalization of hard drugs in Vancouver.

00:03:01.840 You've heard about the safe injection sites.

00:03:04.400 You've heard about the safe supply nonsense,

00:03:06.680 all perpetrated by the federal government

00:03:09.360 under Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney

00:03:11.200 and the provincial government in BC

00:03:14.200 led by the NDP's David Eby,

00:03:16.740 who seems to be riddled with bad policy.

00:03:21.040 There is a man named Drew Coover,

00:03:23.620 well, Drew Coover 56, that's his ex-handle.

00:03:26.520 and he's well he's a lot of things actually we've had a couple of great phone calls in the last week

00:03:32.020 or so he is a mediator negotiator crisis and trauma interventionist also an investigative

00:03:39.100 reporter he goes out to the tough areas of vancouver to see if he can find some truths

00:03:45.820 and help people at the same time there are people that are hopelessly addicted with absolutely at

00:03:51.700 least at this point no hope of ever getting off the drugs they're addicted to because of the

00:03:57.900 government i played one of his videos on the show a couple of weeks ago and i'm going to play another

00:04:04.920 one for you right now this is the top video on his x channel it's been seen like i don't know

00:04:11.240 25 30 000 times or something maybe more but watch this but what you don't realize is within 10 feet

00:04:19.940 there's two more this is crazy like i have never i haven't seen it this bad and i've been saying

00:04:37.440 this for about two months because of fifa i've been saying you watch what's gonna happen there's

00:04:42.580 gonna be a whole bunch of people that are gonna be on alive here in the next while and over the

00:04:47.960 past two days i've literally watched 27 people flatlined in front of me i've personally called

00:04:55.440 the police and paramedics three times and i'm walking home i'm trying to leave but i get a

00:05:01.900 half a block and i end up calling the paramedics again or bringing someone back with narcan shot

00:05:08.480 i can't believe i just said that because i don't like to carry it on me but today

00:05:13.360 i've administered it three times

00:05:15.700 you know

00:05:20.140 David Eby

00:05:22.200 you're to blame for all this 1.00

00:05:24.020 all these stupid MLAs 1.00

00:05:25.420 that have voted for this shit 1.00

00:05:27.040 you're all to blame 1.00

00:05:28.360 people in Canada are dying

00:05:30.620 people everywhere are dying 0.87

00:05:31.800 you guys just like

00:05:32.540 oh this is a good

00:05:33.680 harm reduction model

00:05:35.100 we'll just give the people

00:05:36.420 opportunity 0.99

00:05:37.080 to stay the fuck high 0.97

00:05:38.960 so that you can 1.00

00:05:40.080 oh we'll wait for them

00:05:41.500 to make a decision

00:05:42.420 I'm sorry son

00:05:43.660 but when I'm doing

00:05:44.620 crack cocaine

00:05:45.500 and I'm coming down a little bit I'm not thinking about getting clean and now there's no opportunities

00:05:51.220 for anybody to get clean because you don't give people an opportunity to get clean at the detox

00:05:56.820 you just give them more drugs and how is that working hey David Eby how is that working

00:06:03.960 government you need to change policy so people stop dying and then what I get followed by the

00:06:14.540 harm reduction workers the harm reduction workers that don't like me because i'm trying to take

00:06:19.320 their jobs away i can't believe it what are you doing why are you taking pictures of me

00:06:24.040 i love it i'm like the last you're the last person who needs to ask that question i don't

00:06:29.060 god bless you why are you following me dude because harm reduction is zero reduction people

00:06:34.520 still staying loaded people still staying high and that's no good because they're not going to

00:06:40.320 make the choice to get sober they want to get more high well you should take this stuff out of

00:06:47.140 his jacket and stuff right well she's coming with me well it doesn't matter you the person's passed

00:06:53.220 out on the ground okay so here we are so the guy came alive this so this guy's this guy's back

00:07:02.140 from wherever he was and you were gone bro you were gone i picked you up and threw you against

00:07:09.620 the ground with your back there was a pillow like a bag under your head so you didn't get hurt but

00:07:14.180 that's when you took a big breath and thank god the paramedics came because they brought you back

00:07:18.420 but you seem to be pretty level right now i'm all right you're all right i'm just i'm

00:07:25.140 working grateful that that you came back to me bro you came back to the world

00:07:31.380 i'm a little bit disappointed uh like um don't be disappointed just my torch lighter and stuff

00:07:37.940 like that well they robbed you that chick robbed you what chick uh the girl that was here earlier

00:07:44.180 she robbed you man i can't remember she was wearing all black yeah not the girl that was with 0.99

00:07:53.900 you but that's what happened so they get robbed he's pissed he's he's he's more fucking pissed 0.97

00:08:01.320 off that he got robbed while he was overdosed and not grateful at all that I saved his life 0.55

00:08:08.760 and finally and god bless these paramedics like they all need to get paid the firemen paramedics

00:08:16.000 police officers that work down here they need to go back and do their job the government needs to

00:08:21.080 allow them to go back and do their job because all they're doing down here is administering

00:08:26.640 Narcan administering an opportunity for the person to wake up so that they can

00:08:31.680 go get loaded again. How is that for your mental health paramedics? How is that for

00:08:37.140 your mental health firemen? 1.00

00:08:41.480 It's disgusting! 1.00

00:08:45.620 no no no my friends the tree of life look at there's a skid mark on one of them 0.90

00:09:02.140 oh you took it off there's a skid mark on one of them

00:09:05.100 that's pretty horrific

00:09:11.580 Drew Coover is my guest

00:09:14.900 tonight and he joins the show

00:09:17.540 in one minute

00:09:35.100 We'll be right back.

00:10:05.100 hey buddy how you doing boss very good thanks thanks for coming on the show tonight appreciate

00:10:32.960 it uh these phone calls we've had these two phone calls we've had in the last week or so have been

00:10:37.940 very eye-opening for me and my first one my first question to you especially after watching that

00:10:43.440 video and by the way if you guys watching have any questions on any of the platforms we're streaming

00:10:48.440 to tonight don't be shy write them down in comments and i'll try to get to them a little

00:10:53.280 bit later on how are you so comfortable walking through that area that's the famous east hastings

00:11:00.360 area right yeah yeah listen boss you know I'll switch back this afternoon I was watching Rambo

00:11:08.320 um I think it was one of the last ones was the one where they're in Vietnam and uh the the the

00:11:15.680 ministry people go out into the jungle and they hired this group of soldiers to come and save them

00:11:22.240 and Rambo wanted to go with the group and the group went allow it and they didn't realize who

00:11:29.260 Rambo is you know Rambo has been in a lot of wars and I sort of see myself is like a Rambo

00:11:36.840 I have an extensive history and the work that I've done working with people that are on the 0.98

00:11:46.440 streets mentally challenged they're just done and I come from a place myself where I was homeless 0.63

00:11:53.840 for 19 months on the streets of Vancouver. I got stabbed and died. A lady from Washington, D.C.

00:12:02.100 found me in a pool of red paint behind the shark club. And God bless her. I don't know her name, 0.99

00:12:09.740 but I always think of her. I always say thank you at Christmas, Easter, my birthday,

00:12:15.120 the most important times. But I had a decision to make after that. Do I want to live or do I

00:12:21.360 want to die, you know, and I chose, chose life. And what I found afterwards, it was quickly after

00:12:28.500 that was that I had, I was, I'm drawn to this stuff. I'm drawn to that type of chaos. I feel

00:12:38.160 most comfortable in that space. And people are like, how can you do it? And it's like, it's not

00:12:44.880 scary for me. I've lived it. I don't think there's, I think it's really important that the people

00:12:51.280 down there helping have had some sort of life experience we always joke to the social workers

00:12:56.920 that never worked in a foster home you know in order to be a good social worker

00:13:02.260 to work with kids in care you should work in a foster home for six months to really see what

00:13:10.180 it's like live in and see what it's really like because when you have that type of lived experience

00:13:15.100 you're able to go into those places shadow yeah in the video you talk to many of those folks

00:13:23.600 they know you they trust you obviously but i saw you get emotional not just with you know the the

00:13:30.720 rage at the bc government because i think a lot of people like millions of people feel that same way

00:13:36.800 but the emotion was you know how many how many people did you help that night with narcan

00:13:43.560 three did you say three and that's the only time i've actually ever used narcan

00:13:49.680 and how how is that administered is it administered in the heart popular culture

00:13:56.860 tells us from pulp fiction we oh you got to put it in her heart man is that is that just into a

00:14:02.660 muscular just usually into a big muscle usually like in your butt cheek your your thigh your

00:14:07.880 hamstring usually they put it right in their thigh because people are laying on their back

00:14:11.620 of course right any big muscle you can get it into where there's less clothing is the most important

00:14:16.860 so you're you're seeing these people strewn over bus benches and laying on the sidewalk

00:14:27.440 covered in newspapers and uh old filthy filthy rags and clothing and you know you pointed out

00:14:36.340 too that that guy was more pissed off about losing his lighter than he than he should have

00:14:41.100 been about you know being thankful that he's still alive because of what you did i mean

00:14:45.660 having lived experience like this does it still get to you here in the heart

00:14:52.960 uh you know with the dudes out there on the street you know doing their thing it doesn't

00:15:00.920 it doesn't really affect me as much it affects me when i when i see a kid that lived in my home and

00:15:09.600 You know, a foster child that lived in my home in 2007, sorry, 2011 that I had just, you know, seen last week down there.

00:15:20.120 Vulnerable, he's got, you know, he does have developmental delays and he is on the streets addicted and he doesn't know how to get off.

00:15:27.640 So it affects me when the vulnerable men are there, not when the straight like tough guys are out there doing the hustle and the side stuff. 0.95

00:15:35.480 What really affects me is the females.

00:15:37.800 the females down there it it it hurts it really hurts because you're seeing kids down there like

00:15:48.060 you know young is what 10 12 11 11 is the youngest that i've had a conversation with

00:15:54.200 that has told me they're 11 usually when that happens i'll call i'll call the right authorities

00:16:00.380 to come in but these like how do they get there in the first place and and this affects you

00:16:09.040 have you befriended them like how can you help them the thing that people want to know

00:16:14.820 when they're walking down the street in in a situation like that where they may see a few

00:16:20.280 i don't even know what what do we call them uh humans no i know that but we call them

00:16:30.080 we call them uh we call them people we're just like addicted people i mean like because

00:16:35.880 they're in a they're in a state man and they're they're not responsible for themselves they're

00:16:42.040 not contributing to themselves or society physically dependent okay they're just physically

00:16:47.880 dependent humans physically dependent humans humanoid you know people want to help right i

00:16:55.860 mean if you're walking through a situation like that you might want to throw a few bucks is that

00:17:00.080 probably the wrong thing to do funny enough absolutely um do not give these people money

00:17:06.200 that normally they have 50 or 100 bucks on them and a whole bunch of drugs um it's it's the food

00:17:13.020 it's the vitamins you know one thing that the government does do well um with this whole harm

00:17:18.640 reduction stuff is they actually give vitamin c little vitamin c packets i do know working in

00:17:25.140 addictions because i i do uh i do interventions i travel around north america doing this the first

00:17:30.400 and most important thing i do with any client that comes in front of me is i fill them up with

00:17:35.080 vitamins vitamins and water as long as they're in vitamins and water they're going to stay alive

00:17:39.760 so what is the situation now we had heard that in the end of january the bc government uh got

00:17:49.420 rid of the decriminalization of the hard drugs i can't even believe that the pilot project lasted

00:17:54.360 for three years like it did but it did um and and maybe you can draw us a comparison between how it

00:18:01.860 was then the decriminalization and what it is now that hard drugs are criminalized again albeit in

00:18:10.140 different quantities you know i don't you know i'm i'm down on the streets of vancouver anywhere

00:18:16.680 it could be in surrey i've been as i was in surrey i go all over across the lower mainland but what

00:18:21.700 i'm what i'm seeing most recently is is the police are engaging with the people that are actively

00:18:28.320 using on the street and the police are saying we're going to press charges unless you put it

00:18:34.240 away right so normally the addict on the street will just put it away if the police have an

00:18:41.420 opportunity to to dispose or take some things they will normally the police don't like to touch the

00:18:47.680 pipes and all that stuff so they just sort of they just leave i couldn't imagine being a police

00:18:51.960 officer so i think that's mainly all i see and i the purpose behind that i believe it's fifa

00:18:58.660 i believe it's the the world cup you mean yeah they're pushing they're pushing these i i believe

00:19:04.980 this is what it is i mean i i don't know uh from all the politicians that talk and all the things

00:19:11.740 that are happening wait a minute you're saying they're trying to clean up the streets so it

00:19:15.320 looks good for when fifa plays a few world cup games there 100 percent you know they did that

00:19:23.900 in winnipeg in 1999 when they had the pan am games yeah they did the exact same thing they

00:19:29.740 cleaned up the streets for a period of three weeks maybe a month and then i went back to the

00:19:34.860 way it was before i've had confirmation from uh boots on the ground that as you know i've traveled

00:19:40.840 quite extensively across my province and throughout Alberta but there are a lot of people being

00:19:47.240 dropped I know there was a dozen men that were dropped in Prince George which is the

00:19:52.460 central part of British Columbia two weeks ago they were bussed up there I have confirmation

00:19:58.980 from people up there that work and now there's a another gang war in Prince George so by displacing

00:20:06.260 these people uh they're creating uh gang wars in different parts of the province how how is that

00:20:13.980 happening so people are being offered and you know officially unofficial right this is just from the

00:20:22.000 words on the street and the information that i get from people and from workers um they're being

00:20:27.400 offered to go home oh where are you from oh well i know that person's from prince george so let's

00:20:32.380 offer them a bus trip let's offer them to get them up there so they'll send them up to prince

00:20:36.820 george they'll send them to mckenzie they'll send them to colonna i believe i don't know but i'm

00:20:42.740 pretty sure it's the ministry of social development which is welfare they'll give them a bus ticket

00:20:47.740 they'll pack their stuff up they'll get them out of town and there has been a lot of people that

00:20:53.540 like downtown east side has cleared out quite a lot in the last couple weeks when is the world

00:20:59.000 cup anyway is it like july i don't even know they're all july they're already busy doing this

00:21:07.080 trying to clean up downtown vancouver has completely changed there's going to be

00:21:11.800 uh massive swaths of area that you're not even allowed to be part of um downtown vancouver uh

00:21:21.640 they're basically taking like there's a couple of spots downtown where

00:21:25.800 the tent cities, right? They have people that have tents in this area. So the police will come

00:21:31.120 in the morning and say, take your tents and you have to leave for the day. You're not allowed to

00:21:34.940 have tents up during the day. So people pack up their tents. They sit there for the whole day and

00:21:39.300 all night until the dark comes. And then they set their tent up. So the last week or so, there have

00:21:44.200 been news reports. I haven't seen this, but I've talked to people about it. The police are now

00:21:48.880 saying, you have to take your tent and move. You're not allowed to be in this area. And they show

00:21:53.200 the homeless person a map saying this is a block area you can't be in so go outside of this area

00:21:59.820 and so where do they go then three blocks away but do they disperse

00:22:09.960 so that they're they're not all in one clump yeah so the cops so the cops pressure them the

00:22:15.740 cops are pressuring them to move that's that's a police job now to push people a couple of blocks

00:22:21.660 away have you gotten to know these kids not all of them obviously i mean how many would you say

00:22:28.560 are are down there in that area at any given there's about 2 000 i think there's so there's

00:22:33.420 third there's about 3 500 people in sros there's about what's in sro single room occupancy so for

00:22:42.020 instance uh the old american or the ivanhoe or the maple hotel these old hotels right so they

00:22:48.940 have rooms in them and basically it's a single room occupancy so the one floor has 20 rooms and

00:22:56.520 then there's one bathroom per floor with 20 people so they call them SROs so these people live in

00:23:04.820 there they get their welfare check they live in there and that's an SRO then the other type is

00:23:11.480 of like a long-term housing but it's for like low income there's about 4,000 of those two

00:23:17.880 and i believe there's about two or four thousand people that are on the street in vancouver

00:23:23.580 homeless there's about 12 000 people that are down in that area that are suffering

00:23:29.160 why do they go to that area like what what is it like is it like i want to be around people like me

00:23:36.880 you know the drugs are available like what's the situation that area has been uh known like you

00:23:44.620 You go back to the early 1900s, historically, that's where all the forestry guys would come into town for a week.

00:23:53.200 They'd set up shop, they'd stay in the hotels, they'd drink, the brothels were there.

00:23:57.480 So that one area has been sort of the condensed area that everyone was sort of pushed to.

00:24:03.720 So all the pubs, all the bars, all the bars open 24-hour, from like 9 a.m. to 1 a.m., that's where they all were.

00:24:12.000 and that's been like that for decades so let's talk about safe supply because i've been

00:24:19.120 you know this show we've got people from every corner of the country watching this and this is

00:24:24.480 this what you're describing drew is happening in every major city across the country and even some

00:24:30.560 of the smaller sized cities too um but in bc it's different because the government is actively

00:24:37.060 pushing what they call safe supply through vending machines, correct? Yeah, there's no

00:24:43.640 more vending machines, but yes, that was what was happening. No, they're talking about it in

00:24:49.660 Manitoba, I believe. Alberta and Saskatchewan are obviously not interested in doing that. Ontario's

00:24:55.020 still juggling the ball. I'm not sure what's going on in the Maritimes or Quebec, but exactly

00:25:01.180 how does this process work, this safe supply? Does the attic just go into a designated location

00:25:07.040 and say okay here's what i need for the day do they do they have a prescription like how does

00:25:11.940 that work out you got to sign up with the government so there's a there's a story i

00:25:16.640 turned around to look i've got a i've got a big whiteboard behind me with all my information

00:25:21.880 there's a spot called crosstown clinic that actually prescribes like heroin and fentanyl

00:25:28.800 patches right on hastings and basically if your doctor prescribes then you can go into these

00:25:36.060 clinics and they'll give you what they call is harm reduction medication um or safe supply

00:25:43.900 which means which just clearly means this boss if you're an alcoholic they'll give you a drug

00:25:51.760 called no uh no i can't pronounce it it's just a simple pill it's kind of like the drug you may

00:25:59.400 know remember the drug called antabuse no give her so alcoholics uh would go to their doctor

00:26:06.260 and be i'm an alcoholic so you'll get a drug called antabuse you take the pill if you drink

00:26:11.080 on it even like one shot of booze you'll get sick you'll just like start puking everywhere

00:26:15.840 right so they've got me this medication down and they basically give it to you and now with

00:26:21.440 alcoholism you can have a beer or two a day but as soon as you get to a certain point you start

00:26:27.220 getting sick that's what they do with alcohol so what they do with fentanyl and the harder opiates

00:26:32.960 is they'll give you fentanyl patches so for instance if you're smoking street fentanyl

00:26:37.820 you can go in and get now fentanyl patches as a deterrent to smoking it on the street

00:26:43.500 so i've interviewed probably 20 to 30 men usually men they have you know depending four to 12

00:26:54.160 patches they're like the cigarette the nicotine patches all over their back and it's just slow

00:26:59.260 release fentanyl all day so what's what's the difference between doing it in the streets and

00:27:07.260 getting it from the government anything oh yeah bro the the you get it from the doctors it's just

00:27:14.560 it's clean it's it's better man it's like i'm a i'm a living uh you know if you want to go down

00:27:22.940 that rabbit hole I was a you know I wanted to be a pro football player so I went and played pro

00:27:28.860 football I go and go figure right broke my back my career ended before it really started but in

00:27:34.480 2008 I went on opiates I was on opiates from 2008 to 2022 so in 2020 2019 got into a car accident

00:27:44.120 you know I go in the hospital I come out I'm on a triple dose and now I'm drooling at the dinner

00:27:50.700 table so when I go to the doctors to say I got to go to detox and I want off of all this stuff

00:27:56.980 they're like well we'll take take another drug take hydromorphine or take this or take that

00:28:03.240 now is terrified to go to the street because I honestly I ran out a couple of times of my

00:28:08.500 prescription I get my prescription every two weeks so you know sometimes you know I might be

00:28:13.360 hunting in Haida Gwaii or you know down in Maui fishing or doing my thing and I'd run out of my

00:28:19.620 prescription because I took a few extra. Not abusing it, but I just took a few extra.

00:28:25.600 Now I'm shaking, and now people go to the street and do the street drugs. Those drugs are so toxic

00:28:31.280 because they're not regulated, but people don't understand. A drug is a drug is a drug. All drugs

00:28:37.580 are toxic, whether they're prescription or they're from a drug dealer. They're toxic, and if you

00:28:43.580 don't know where it's coming from hence safe supply safe being from the doctor then good

00:28:51.220 now what they used to do and I don't think they do this anymore but for instance I was on opiates

00:28:56.860 for over a decade every two months or you know every like well I don't know when but my doctor

00:29:02.700 would say hey Andrew here's a cup go pee so I'd have to go pee and they do random drug tests

00:29:10.200 So if I had anything else in my system, marijuana, anything, cocaine, like alcohol, like anything in my system, they'd cut me off my prescription.

00:29:24.000 But today they're letting people like get a prescription and do the street drugs.

00:29:29.760 So the difference is street drugs is from a drug dealer.

00:29:32.840 You don't know how it's being made or produced.

00:29:34.880 Very dangerous.

00:29:37.600 Prescription, harm reduction, way better.

00:29:40.200 But what we're hearing is that some folks are going, getting their safe supply and then going out to the street and selling them to a dealer who then goes and sells them for a jacked up price.

00:29:53.620 And it's becoming a cottage industry.

00:29:56.140 Yeah, so there has been a lot of children, teenagers that have died in British Columbia as a result of just what you're saying, Shadow.

00:30:07.360 um the grade 11 12 teenager the the tough guy you know the tough drug dealer guy from high school

00:30:14.620 everyone knows who you know you go get the marijuana from these guys would come down to

00:30:19.380 main and hastings and buy the what they call his dillies they'd buy them for you know 50 cents a

00:30:24.600 pill then they'd go back to maple ridge like i met one father who lost his daughter was this 0.99

00:30:30.660 the whole it's like here I go again I'm sorry bro he lost his daughter like his fucking 14 year 0.99

00:30:38.060 old daughter to an overdose right because this kid goes down buys the dope comes back to the 0.99

00:30:45.000 high school and then sells them for like you know 10 bucks a pill when he's buying them for 50 cents

00:30:50.920 and the cops didn't know anything about it yeah right so he went to the police officer he said

00:30:58.780 you know you guys need to do investigation they didn't do nothing so this this this man he he

00:31:04.140 went down undercover and bought a bunch of drugs put it on camera and gave it he gave the evidence

00:31:10.460 still nothing happened as a result and this is rampant yeah and it still happens so last last

00:31:19.900 uh so the the big thing is what they have changed in the past few months and i want to make sure

00:31:24.620 your audience gets the most the best real information because i don't want to get anyone

00:31:30.040 in trouble for i don't want to lie um so what they have done is you have to take your your your opiate

00:31:37.620 pills in front of a pharmacist now so you'll go in two or three times a day and you'll get your

00:31:44.280 hydromorphine or your oxycodone or whatever two or three times a day now some people that may

00:31:49.860 have been on it for a decade or two will still get their supply because they haven't abused it

00:31:54.240 but what's happened still is friday mornings they're probably watching me just so you know

00:32:00.280 the coppers so on friday mornings long weekend you go to get your your your prescription your

00:32:08.000 safe supply and they'll give you friday saturday sunday monday so they'll give you four days worth

00:32:13.800 so friday morning's the big day when you can go down there and buy all your illegal

00:32:19.180 pharmaceuticals are you buying it or are you just getting it for free well they get out but yeah

00:32:25.760 they get it for free they're on social assistance everything's for your girl well you want to live

00:32:30.620 in vancouver for free just become a drug addict house housing clothes three hots and a cot food

00:32:38.440 three times a day i mean it's it's it's i there's a warehouse downtown vancouver close to open

00:32:45.060 heimer park that's like a 4 000 square foot kitchen next door they have like a 2 000 square

00:32:51.760 foot refrigeration and freezer they basically cook 24 7 in for single meals and then there's

00:32:59.220 a company that delivers all the meals three times a day to these hotels everyone's loaded they don't

00:33:05.000 want to eat and they give out food i'm gonna i'm gonna play this video one of your videos from your

00:33:12.220 X. And again, you guys can follow Drew here at Drew Coover. That's Coover with a U like

00:33:19.620 Vancouver, Drew Coover 56. This one here made me emotional here. Now, it's only a short

00:33:28.140 clip. Maybe you can tell us everything that happened around it. Let's have a look, guys.

00:33:32.560 Most of the 40 times. God bless you. I'm going to cry again. She's like completely out of

00:33:40.680 and she looks like her pants everything is just soaking wet to the bone personal is that person

00:33:46.680 okay she yeah she's fine she doesn't look like she's doing that great ma'am what gives me the

00:33:58.280 impression that she's not doing fine well it's the alley in vancouver um there's a dump it does

00:34:05.240 not blow you away that like our government gives you all the supplies you need to do illegal drugs

00:34:10.360 to keep you in this situation where you're binning?

00:34:13.360 Well, in some ways, yes, in some ways, no.

00:34:18.080 Wouldn't you just want to get clean and sober and get a job?

00:34:20.840 Of course.

00:34:21.600 What's the solution for that?

00:34:22.820 That's what I was asking.

00:34:23.680 Well, I don't know that.

00:34:26.600 So if you can explain to me the reason you don't want me

00:34:29.840 to call the paramedics or ambulance, it's because you said they'll just...

00:34:33.280 They won't do anything for her but cause her more nuisance. 0.51

00:34:37.020 and she'll also she has the right to refuse them when they get here

00:34:40.520 what's the story surrounding that one drew

00:34:44.680 that was i don't go down the alleys very often because i just don't know what i'm going to

00:34:53.540 see i mean she looked like she was about 15 years old then she's 28 years old 28 she's 28 i don't

00:35:01.000 know how old her friend was but she wouldn't let me near her she wouldn't let me touch her

00:35:04.740 um and that's the fact right like these two girls uh they take care of each other uh they're

00:35:11.580 actually behind the largest homeless shelter in Vancouver on Hastings Street which is just

00:35:18.820 horribly horrific um the story about her I don't know the backstory but but basically she's like

00:35:25.940 leave me alone because the fact is again right it's just a common message I hear

00:35:32.520 our government allows these uh non-profit organizations there's there's hundreds

00:35:40.060 that get money to buy clothes food housing pipes like everything so you get someone now physically 0.60

00:35:51.740 addicted for a year or two years and now they're mentally handicapped now they're mentally 0.75

00:35:57.080 challenged to the point where they can't make like you said at the beginning of the show sir 0.78

00:36:00.820 they're they're they're done like they're they're done they're not done for life they're they're

00:36:05.160 done for right now though well that depends on them right but anyway please continue so they so

00:36:10.460 they get to a they get to a place where they just they don't want the help so this girl didn't want

00:36:16.060 me to call the ambulance and i was like i left there i was crying almost because i i i didn't

00:36:21.440 call the ambulance one the first time i didn't for the girls but they basically give out all of

00:36:26.700 this stuff to use the dope and she's like yeah this is fine and then she's talking to me about

00:36:33.440 this project it's called the binners project like they'll pay people to go collect bottles 0.98

00:36:40.160 they'll pay people to go collect bottles that's what she does she's a binner she goes to collect

00:36:46.320 bottles they give her like five bucks an hour or ten bucks i think it's all right it is minimum 0.92

00:36:51.120 wage i do know because i've gone down the deep hole on binners project they give her minimum

00:36:55.540 wage and she gets to she goes to a certain area of Vancouver she collects all the bottles she

00:37:01.620 brings them to the recycle plant she gets all the money from that then she checks out and she gets

00:37:06.860 cash and she goes and buys more drugs or whatever no not whatever she just goes and buys drugs now

00:37:19.240 she does go to the convenience store with all the 7-elevens are closed down now downtown Vancouver 1.00

00:37:24.620 and they've opened up uh indian migrants from east from india and punjabs there's tons of them

00:37:31.580 that have opened these little convenience stores and all the workers in there are temporary foreign

00:37:35.660 workers yeah and uh they sell like like little little little they buy big tubs of ice cream okay

00:37:42.940 buy big tubs of ice cream they put three scoops of ice cream in a small little plastic container

00:37:48.380 and they sell it for five bucks they sell those they sell pipes they sell cigarettes

00:37:55.420 well no the cigarettes every corner downtown vancouver every corner like in the downtown

00:38:00.940 part of vancouver there is an aboriginal person usually with a knapsack selling cigarettes 0.99

00:38:07.980 so they've made it easy to become an addict in vancouver and then stay an addict as long as 0.99

00:38:15.260 you want to stay an addict and i've never known many addicts to step up one day and say you know

00:38:21.540 what i've had enough i mean yes it happens it happened with you but i mean for a reason for a

00:38:27.080 reason right for a reason right like something yeah i want everyone that's listening to hear this

00:38:33.480 very loudly something major has to happen and for in order for someone to flip their switch

00:38:42.200 and say I've had enough and then once that happens they have an opportunity and some

00:38:50.080 provinces not in British Columbia to actually go to a detox or a place that's safe where someone's

00:38:56.200 going to support them and going through the process of detoxification that means go through

00:39:05.100 the situation like you're going to poopoo your pants you're going to pukey pukey your face off

00:39:09.500 you're going to sweat for five or ten days but you're going to have someone to help you get to

00:39:14.560 the other side they don't do that anymore shadow in british columbia you go to detox to get

00:39:20.700 detoxification but wasn't that the whole point in this to begin with this safe supply this harm

00:39:26.960 reduction nonsense it's just trying to ease them off of the drugs they're addicted to right but now

00:39:32.500 there is no end game here they just want to keep them addicted yeah so listen wow so i went about

00:39:40.540 three weeks ago i did a video on this it's on my channel like it's about three or four weeks old

00:39:45.260 i said i'm going to take my pack sack and i'm going to go around vancouver and i'm going to

00:39:51.000 see how easy it is for me to get pipes needles syringes tourniquets vitamin c packets i'm going

00:39:58.860 see how much i can get in four hours are you ready for this shadow sure

00:40:07.420 this garbage bag it's a big garbage bag i'm gonna open it up yeah put my hand in it's like

00:40:15.180 i'm santa claus ready put my hand in it i'm just gonna grab a few things okay so i've grabbed a

00:40:23.340 a few things here okay so what i've grabbed is this is all the things that our government gives

00:40:29.280 out for free uh oh i sorry i just dropped some needles so i dropped needles be careful with

00:40:36.720 those things man yeah they're all they're all they're all wrapped up there's some needles

00:40:40.040 this one's the funny one i always love this one this is this is the funniest one right

00:40:45.720 damn if i when i was out using on the streets bro i would have loved my government

00:40:50.240 they have they give you they give you crack pipes bro and snorty snorties this is for snorting or 0.99

00:40:59.740 smoking crack and that was up until a couple of months ago you could get those things out of

00:41:03.760 vending i i can go there yeah i can go there tomorrow uh there's no more vending machines

00:41:08.220 they stop the vending machine process where let me ask you before they stopped it how were you

00:41:15.140 able to go like did you have to have a certain certificate or a card from the government or

00:41:20.020 just go up to it yeah look at this bro you'll appreciate this shadow when you were a kid

00:41:27.180 smoking marijuana because everyone in the 80s smoked marijuana and your parents would say

00:41:31.460 where's the washer where's the where's the the uh where's the thing from the sink because it's

00:41:38.320 missing look look look look these are the things you put in your sink so they're the water is clean 0.99

00:41:44.440 yeah you know there's tons of them filters yeah that'll feel like this is the shit they just give 0.98

00:41:51.000 out for free they give out boxes boxes what is that this is so after you used your needle 0.94

00:41:58.920 you can now put it in here you can keep your needles so that when you go to a place you can

00:42:05.560 drop your needles off drug addicts don't do this drug addicts use it and they just throw it on the

00:42:10.660 ground what was it like for you man i mean you said you were 19 months homeless oh bro you want

00:42:18.000 to go down that rabbit hole i'll go down your story because you you seem so very passionate

00:42:22.860 about exposing all of this and i appreciate that man that's why i wanted to bring you on tonight

00:42:29.000 you know originally i saw your video um from a few weeks ago it was a what was it telus sponsored

00:42:37.180 pink van driving around in vancouver yeah they they have fans that are pharmacies they have a

00:42:44.440 nurse practitioner working in them and two other people and they basically go out and give drugs

00:42:49.280 out and all the supplies you need and they have land back stickers and it's just so now land back

00:42:54.960 yeah i saw that and so now you don't even have to make the trip down to the drug store they just

00:42:59.400 come to you oh they have nurses walk down the street to you every morning at seven o'clock all

00:43:04.640 these sros nurses drop off your prescription to you at seven in the morning there you don't have

00:43:12.660 to go so you don't have to go to the pharmacy shadow like some people they're not up at seven

00:43:17.540 o'clock in the morning i guess maybe that's why they're there at seven o'clock in the morning but

00:43:20.780 no they they walk through and they bang on the door because that's the safest time for nurses

00:43:25.280 to go so they bang on the door the drug addict knows they just open up the door they get their

00:43:30.280 stuff the nurses walk away your experience man like what was that like i i you know in a in a

00:43:40.440 in a in a button you know i grew up in a small town in bc um i had some uh i had some personal

00:43:48.320 struggles as a result of um some abuse some some some assay some sexual abuse as a child

00:43:55.020 and um i was terrified of girls i was terrified of pretty girls even though i had some really

00:44:01.940 pretty girlfriends um and i on the weekend you're in grade eight now you're like wanting to talk to

00:44:08.240 that girl and you get liquid courage you get some beers right and because i'm six foot four because

00:44:14.400 i'm a big dude because i'm a good looking dude uh i get involved with the wrong group um i leave

00:44:21.360 high school i start doing uh dealing uh you know dealing narcotics um i had jobs during the day i

00:44:28.600 always leveled up and had really good i've had career after career i've been so blessed to be

00:44:34.020 who i am to get those jobs but on the weekends you know working in the marble arch and working at um

00:44:41.040 my buddy michael here put a uh is that the video michael the telus van that's good thank you there's

00:44:47.380 a link in the comments guys go ahead i'm sorry yeah no no problem so so i i you know i i went

00:44:53.500 through my teenage life kind of battling addiction but i always had great jobs i was i'm so blessed

00:45:00.940 to have had a great father that pushed me to shake people's hands and look them in the eye and be

00:45:06.280 honest so i was about 21 and a couple of bad things happened you know people say you're three

00:45:13.220 three months away from being homeless um someone introduced me to uh cocaine and uh that stuff

00:45:22.840 you know if you're not responsible you can start on friday night and not finish until sunday

00:45:30.440 morning and then a couple of bad things happen and that sunday morning turns into monday afternoon

00:45:36.240 and you keep losing your job and next thing you know you don't have a job and next thing you know

00:45:40.220 you don't have a place to live. So that's really what happened. And back in the mid 90s, in the

00:45:46.380 94, when I did get homeless, there were like one, two, three, there was four shelters that you could

00:45:52.240 go to. So I would go to a shelter to have a sleep. And during the day, there was a place called the

00:45:58.060 Gathering Place Community Center in Vancouver, where you can go and shower, like you have shower

00:46:02.560 rooms. And, you know, there was food there, I can volunteer during the day for two hours. And again,

00:46:09.380 being the being the guy i am uh next thing i knew after six months of being homeless i was on the

00:46:15.700 board directors for the gathering place like i leveled up again but i kept getting involved with

00:46:22.840 worse and worse people and then the crack happened um i i would tell people like if you ever cook 0.98

00:46:31.500 this shit in front of me i'll end you like i'll just end you because i knew because i had smoked 0.98

00:46:37.580 crack a couple of times I knew that if I had the knowledge to do that I'd be gone anyways there was 0.99

00:46:45.220 there was a pretty girl and um she lived in a high rise and I went to deliver some stuff for

00:46:51.120 her and she said come on in and she cooked it in front of me and then I found out how to cook it

00:46:57.120 and it was it wasn't it wasn't but months after that that I had just deteriorated to um you know

00:47:04.580 i got the picture it was 168 pounds when i went to detox october 12th thanksgiving 1996

00:47:11.740 it was august 7th 1996 that i i had got stabbed in a in a in a drug deal that went bad i i actually

00:47:20.580 i have no problem saying this i have no i never lie just tell it the way it is i was at an after

00:47:26.920 hours on corner cambion hastings and i was gonna sell some cocaine to some dude um and i knew he

00:47:35.540 had money so i went to rob him because i didn't bring any cocaine and he pulled his knife out and

00:47:41.720 he went whacked whacked me and i ran a couple of blocks and and died i actually died actually like

00:47:48.320 i was dead when i got to the hospital and the doctor brought me back to life like do you have

00:47:54.620 a story about where you went while you were dead or is that a whole other show i was gone you know

00:47:59.420 i just i was i remember the fight i remember getting stabbed i remember running and then i

00:48:05.760 don't remember anything like i don't remember anything what i do remember after that was

00:48:10.600 it's like remember the old days you have your your wires on the tv and you're black and white

00:48:16.780 and it's just a scribble there's like it's channel 13 and there's nothing on tv it's just black and

00:48:21.980 yeah yeah 57 channels nothing on so that's all i saw so i could see black i knew i was alive i could

00:48:30.580 see black and then the fuzzy came in and then i could hear someone saying andrew andrew and then

00:48:36.300 he'd say my name andrew brome are you you were gone are you with us come back come on come back

00:48:41.600 come on buddy and slowly i saw a shadow and slowly there is the i don't know his name the

00:48:48.480 Asian Ian Cleeter I believe his name was emergency room doctor at St. Paul's Hospital that had seen

00:48:54.000 me like a dozen like 18 times in the past 12 months he brought me back to life but I stayed

00:49:01.860 in the hospital for a week and I left the hospital I'll never forget the day I left the hospital I

00:49:07.020 was standing on Perrard Street and I was like I had a shirt on that was extra small so I looked

00:49:12.640 really funny because i'm a big dude um was it coming out of your armpits yeah it went up the

00:49:19.520 sleeves right it's like macho i was a macho man like wymca guy one of those cutaway shirts

00:49:25.600 from the 80s yeah bro football baby so i so i so i um i had a decision to make my parents were in

00:49:33.140 turkey my parents were in the mediterranean sea so i could i could i could bum some money from

00:49:39.260 people and get some money and take the ferry to Victoria where my parents lived and I could stay

00:49:43.960 there and get some help I could just stay there until they came home in two weeks and I knew

00:49:48.640 I knew then I knew I needed help I could go down to my brother's house he lived in the downtown

00:49:53.840 west side there the west end or I could go to the three choices or I can go to the hotel Vancouver

00:50:01.880 and have a beer and think about what I really needed to do.

00:50:06.960 I went to the bar.

00:50:08.460 It was 11 in the morning.

00:50:10.220 I ordered a beer, and I had a beer.

00:50:14.200 And that beer turned into another drunken stupor.

00:50:18.840 And it just continued for a couple of months until I woke up one morning.

00:50:23.020 I'll never forget it.

00:50:23.940 October 7, 1996, the night before,

00:50:28.080 I bought a Mickey from the liquor store down in Georgia of old Canadian.

00:50:34.620 I drank it, again, blacked out before dinner time,

00:50:37.840 but I woke up the next morning in an apartment building,

00:50:40.900 and I walked across the road to a dentist's office,

00:50:45.760 and I asked to use the washroom from the Filipino lady behind the counter,

00:50:51.180 and she said, are you a patient here?

00:50:54.380 And I said, no.

00:50:55.880 and she said oh well you can't use the bathroom there was a glass coffee table there and i kicked

00:51:03.260 the coffee table and hit the wall and it smashed because i was mad because i needed to use the 0.98

00:51:08.300 washroom i could have just used the washroom i didn't need to smash the fucking table and scare 0.98

00:51:11.680 this chick but that's what i did because that's where my mind was by my mind was broken by then 1.00

00:51:17.660 badly and it smashed and i looked at this little filipino shadow i looked at her and i saw fear

00:51:25.760 of fear in her eyes and I the fear hit me like a train smashed into a moose in the middle of the 0.99

00:51:37.500 winter and I walked out the store I walked out the dentist office I got two blocks and I looked up

00:51:43.460 into the sky there was three clouds and I said as long as I live I'll never ever never ever have a

00:51:47.940 drink in my life and since then I've never had a drink and a month and a half later I actually went

00:51:52.620 back to the dentist office i paid for that i i paid for a new table i apologized to the lady

00:52:00.640 and she said i thought you were going to kill me and that's when i knew that's a war i'm in a war

00:52:07.980 i'm now out of the war i'm getting healed i'm in a recovery house i'm around people that are

00:52:13.000 actively trying to do what i'm doing live and and she's an angel like she's an angel she

00:52:21.700 she she allowed me to have a conversation with her she could have called the cops but she allowed

00:52:28.680 me to have a conversation with and she's like you were going to kill me and I'm like no I never would

00:52:33.040 she goes yeah I knew but I just you were you're you're afraid and it was that connection of fear

00:52:38.920 that realized so when I go downtown like you asked me earlier when I go downtown and I see

00:52:45.220 those people that are on the street they're done I look into their eyes and they look into my eyes

00:52:51.000 and we have a connection unlike any other a nurse can't do that uh one of these lefty people that

00:52:58.780 are you know the art student at ubc that work down there and they're saving lives they don't

00:53:04.300 have that connection but people like me and other people that have lived experience that work down

00:53:09.460 there those are the people that they trust let me ask you you mentioned the lefty people who go down

00:53:15.240 there and think they're helping i mean not only are they not helping but i believe they're probably

00:53:19.900 more harmful than anything have you yeah like can you explain a little bit about that

00:53:27.360 just simple right like uh i'm a football player uh i do personal security for nfl players

00:53:35.680 they trust me because i've been there right so they wouldn't trust me if i was a badminton

00:53:45.040 player and I was protecting them in security there's just no there's no relationship now 0.96

00:53:53.460 you can get that because when you see me you're like holy shit that dude's a tough 0.95

00:53:56.980 good looking big old dude so when you have these they're lefties they're wearing Gore-Tex clothes 0.88

00:54:06.300 they got an earring in their nose and they got like 15 different colors of hair and they're

00:54:11.320 wearing three hundred dollars worth of clothes and six hundred dollar shoes and they're like

00:54:15.640 really mountain equipment pack sack and everyone knows they got drugs in it and they're helping

00:54:21.540 out there's just no connection so those drug addicts around the street are actually more

00:54:27.120 threatening to those lefties because they're tougher because they'll scare that lefty out

00:54:32.720 of their job so they're not they're not i mean they're are they helping i mean i don't want to

00:54:37.800 i don't want to say they're not helping because they're trying to help but like i said

00:54:41.940 when we talked earlier on the phone our government is selling care they're not selling a fix so

00:54:51.320 they're hiring people to care for these people but it's their way of caring that's actually not

00:54:57.940 working but is there any remedy in the end of this i mean they're supposed to be like we talked

00:55:02.600 about earlier there's you know dry out facility right and then rehab facility there's none of that

00:55:09.800 here in British Columbia there's none of that anywhere as a matter of fact they say Alberta's

00:55:14.420 doing the best job but I phoned five treatment centers in Alberta yesterday to ask it do you 0.75

00:55:21.420 have is this an abstinent based program well yeah yeah absolutely and I'm like okay so if I'm a 0.99

00:55:29.280 crackhead because i have a problem with crack and i'm phoning right now from can't from british

00:55:33.920 colombia and i want to go there because i heard your program is abstinent based but my doctor

00:55:38.320 wants to put me on dexedrine can i take dexedrine when i'm there oh sure well that's between you

00:55:43.760 and your doctor and we have a doctor here so the doctor will prescribe that to you if that's what

00:55:48.440 you have a decision with your doctor i'm like so i'm gonna go to treatment and i'm gonna take

00:55:53.100 speed pharmacist like again right go back to that conversation we had early

00:55:57.360 it's pharmaceutical drugs bro it's the best

00:56:00.480 i know bro where's the end i mean we've got like down the street from me

00:56:08.800 right now uh there is a place called the bruce oak recovery center and i remember when they were

00:56:16.320 first building it you know darcy oak and his dad scott good good place i mean they raised a lot of

00:56:22.420 money to build this thing. They refitted an old arena that was falling apart. And now people are

00:56:29.300 apparently going in there and getting better. When they first started building it, the idea

00:56:33.280 of building it at this place, everybody in the community was worried. They were worried because

00:56:38.320 they thought, oh my God, we can't have a drug recovery center here. There's going to be all

00:56:42.020 kinds of drug addicts everywhere. That's not exactly what that is. That is when people go in

00:56:48.080 they've decided pretty much right that they want to get better as opposed to a safe injection site

00:56:54.120 which is just going and perpetuating the problem so do places like the the the bruce oak center

00:57:01.140 actually help people and cure them or at least get them like what what's the repeat rate

00:57:07.960 you know if you do manage to find a cure get yourself off the stuff go through the detox go

00:57:14.480 through the rehab go through the counseling and all of that stuff like what's the rate in going

00:57:20.620 back to that previous life here's the kicker so back in the 90s and it's really up to about six

00:57:27.720 years ago when you went to a treatment facility um there'd be an intake you'd usually go to a

00:57:33.880 detox you'd come from a recovery house or your house and then you'd go into these treatment

00:57:37.500 places they're only 28 days so like let's let's start with 28 days psychologically i've been to

00:57:44.300 school i've got a lot i've got way too much schooling it takes 90 days to form a habit

00:57:49.540 psychologically like if you brush your teeth all the time with your right hand

00:57:54.480 if you continually for the next 90 days do it with your left around the 90th day you'll just

00:58:00.100 go into the bathroom and pick up your toothbrush with your left hand it's just how you form habits

00:58:05.080 so what the 28 day program is about that goes back to betty ford because they wanted to have

00:58:10.820 a business model right with the hazelton clinic they wanted this business model so it was good

00:58:15.740 for a month so take people away from the work for a month because the insurance companies would pay

00:58:20.740 for people to go to treatment for a month right so that's where it comes from so when you go to

00:58:26.880 a treatment center absolutely the people that work there are so caring and loving and thoughtful and

00:58:33.180 they want the best normally the majority of the people that work in those places have lived

00:58:38.500 experience normally they're all they don't take pharmaceutical drugs so they're sober they're

00:58:44.640 clean they've they've done it properly so those places are good the place you're talking about

00:58:49.420 fabulous place the last door that's in vancouver and there's some in alberta fantastic what's

00:58:55.740 happening in manitoba right now it's disgusting what's happening in ontario just as bad as bc

00:59:01.600 so what's the recovery rate may you ask

00:59:04.900 buddy like if if have have you been to mexico yes yes you've gone on a have you gone on a 10-day

00:59:14.680 excursion all paid like you pay that you drop the 10 grand and everything's free and everything's

00:59:19.920 good an excursion meaning what up into the all-inclusive oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you go

00:59:27.200 to an all-inclusive and everything's paid for you don't have to worry about nothing you just

00:59:31.320 you just turn off from life and you turn your brain and you re-switch yeah that's what these

00:59:36.420 places are like so you're you're away from your husband or wife that's telling you i'm gonna leave

00:59:41.840 you if you don't stop your kids are killing like you're you're you're losing everything so you go

00:59:47.460 to a place like this and it's it's very successful to stay in there most people go there they stay

00:59:53.840 they're full-time very rarely do they get kicked out or asked to leave normally that happens

01:00:00.100 because they might have might be having sex with one of the clients in the bathroom or you know 0.71

01:00:07.300 your buddy's bringing in a little bit of schnee and you're you know doing it on the weekend you

01:00:11.880 know there's reasons why you get kicked out of these places but the majority i would say over

01:00:16.160 90 success rate to get through but that's not the point so all of these treatment centers

01:00:22.440 they offer meetings like 12-step meetings and they still do and that's the most most amazing

01:00:29.520 place because that's the place where you meet other people with long-term lived experience

01:00:36.080 and addiction these doctors these health care professionals these peer workers they know jack

01:00:42.400 about lots of things but you you also mentioned a very interesting thing too is that when you're in

01:00:47.920 one of these places you're away from all of the problems that may have caused the issue in the

01:00:52.400 first place right your wife's not there bro i'm gonna take the kids i'm like five days after you're

01:00:57.620 like oh wow i don't hear the wife yelling at me yeah and then 28 days later when they get kicked

01:01:02.880 out because of the insurances you say that's why it became 28 days as opposed to 90 they go back

01:01:08.480 into this the very same situation that put them in to their addiction in the first place yeah

01:01:14.780 yeah i don't believe in treatment centers i don't i mean if you want a holiday like let's

01:01:21.260 just go on a holiday some people i believe in treatment centers if you're homeless if you're

01:01:25.240 out and about and you're done that's the best opportunity i think it should be like a lot of

01:01:30.560 these places will offer 90 days minimum up to a year stay which is fantastic alberta has a

01:01:37.100 fantastic model it's great it's fantastic people that have jobs and stuff like they need to go to

01:01:44.180 They need to go to a 12-step program.

01:01:46.340 In the 12 steps, so there's a thing called the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book.

01:01:51.220 It's like the Bible of recovery addiction.

01:01:54.660 It actually has the statistics at NAA for people to get sober long-term for the rest of your life.

01:02:01.900 Do you want to know what those statistics are?

01:02:04.100 Yep.

01:02:05.380 It says right over to the big book.

01:02:07.480 It says 50% get sober at once and remain that way.

01:02:13.280 25% sober up after some relapses and among the remainder those who stay on with AA show

01:02:21.840 improvement those are the people that have mental health issues so they may have some problems but

01:02:27.060 50% of people that actually go to a 12-step program and try like they actually give it a shot

01:02:33.960 they're it's like bro you know I need a barber I need a haircut if I go hang out at the barbershop

01:02:42.000 for two weeks straight i'm getting a barber cut it's just what happens i'm hanging out with

01:02:47.500 barbershop i learned this behavior when i got sober i was like i want to be a professional

01:02:51.780 football player well what did i do when i got sober i started playing flag football and i was

01:02:58.240 good enough i'm you know i'm not a bad i'm a good athlete so i'm hanging out with now the nfl and

01:03:05.480 the cfl guys those are my friends so now i'm going to the gym with them now i'm going to training

01:03:11.240 with them so i'm just getting better and better at my skill whether that be a haircut or a football

01:03:16.880 or sobriety so if you go to a treatment center now they say that i think it's like 30 percent

01:03:26.440 of the people it used to be like in 2015 30 percent of the people that leave a treatment

01:03:31.500 center relapse within 24 hours well because like you said right like 100 right like everything's

01:03:39.740 there's no problems in treatment it's when you leave the treatment and you've got to go back to

01:03:44.420 living and if you don't have the supports of the people that are actively living a sober life

01:03:51.920 how are you can i get it when you say the supports too i find that interesting because

01:03:58.020 there are so many people who don't know how to do that properly right i mean so dude goes to

01:04:04.340 treatment center for 28 days he comes out and his wife is walking on eggshells she doesn't know how

01:04:10.260 to talk to him he has no idea what he he went through and she's scared to ask right and and so

01:04:16.900 that's where a disconnect comes in yeah the worst part is you go to treatment and you come out a

01:04:22.100 different person and and your wife like you know i'll never forget when i was working at the hotel

01:04:27.940 California uh Nickelback was playing that night this was super cool night so this guy and this

01:04:34.760 girl they're fighting like there is a husband and wife and they're fighting I kicked them out

01:04:39.720 I kicked him out she followed him they went halfway down the block and I got my headphones on and I

01:04:45.820 look outside I look down the street and he's just got her up against the wall and he's just giving

01:04:51.180 it to her so I'm on the radio I'm yelling at the I'm yelling at my security come help so I go down

01:04:57.340 there i grab him and i just i level the guy she's like i level the guy she's a she's so thankful

01:05:03.360 that she's not getting punched out anymore my buddies come they're taking care of her

01:05:09.140 well after about five minutes of me leveling the dude they leave together in a cab

01:05:15.680 because the the victim needs a victimizer you know they they need a they they it's a symbiotic

01:05:25.200 relationship you know Stockholm syndrome man that's totally what it is right it's just it's

01:05:29.420 a symbiotic like you need this one needs the other so when you go to treatment and you get out a lot

01:05:35.280 of people unfortunately if if the person that stays home that doesn't have the serious physical

01:05:40.640 addiction to the addiction they have a mental health addiction then it's the the the this the

01:05:46.300 what they're addicted to in the relationship and if they don't fix it but that relationship just

01:05:51.780 doesn't last but it's almost like cutting off your arm right for these addicts for for the ones with

01:05:57.820 the mental i mean it's like man i've been with this for so long it's almost like it's your best

01:06:02.380 friend whatever your addiction is and so when you give that up it feels like you're abandoning

01:06:07.120 your best buddy or even a family member it's really that's traumatic in itself too right

01:06:13.820 because now you now now you've gone to treatment so you're a guy because we're guys so i'll just

01:06:19.400 i'll just pretend i'm a guy my guy said i don't know how to pretend i'm a girl but so there's a

01:06:25.900 lot of people in bc that do so i go to treatment my wife and two kids are at home i come home and

01:06:33.980 i'm there for two days and you know i'm sitting down with her at the kitchen table i'm like okay

01:06:37.860 kids go watch tv i gotta talk to your mom and then you say to mom you know hey listen i gotta

01:06:42.280 make some amends for some shit i'm doing and and and she just looks at me like who is this guy i 0.87

01:06:48.660 want the guy that was like screaming at me i don't want this guy he's nice because she was addicted 0.94

01:06:54.360 to that guy yeah it's all codependent nonsense man it's not addiction has this gotten worse

01:07:02.380 since covid is it exploded since covid um i have a conspiracy theories

01:07:12.220 um shadow bro like come on we're we're you you might have a couple you might only have

01:07:19.840 excuse me i gotta get some water yeah man and by the way just just so you're aware the entire

01:07:26.400 audience of people who watch this show are completely in tune with what's happening in

01:07:31.820 the world right now so you don't got to be shy about conspiracy theory well no what i was gonna

01:07:36.620 say is they're usually right yep take six months that's all so i in 2019 a couple months before

01:07:49.000 covet happened i i i got into a car accident driving one of my clients to this is part of

01:07:53.820 my story again okay folks so gonna go down a little bit of a hole here so just bear with me

01:07:58.580 for two minutes i guarantee you if you're on the shadow david show you're gonna love this one

01:08:03.060 so 2019 i get into a car accident i'm driving the five liter going to the hospital with a client

01:08:09.520 one of my foster children because his parents are in the psych unit i got t-boned by an elderly

01:08:15.460 couple driving a gentleman he he's got dementia t-bones me smash i come out of the hospital and 0.92

01:08:23.280 i'm on a shit ton of drugs like a shit ton of uh oxycodone and i i couldn't i couldn't manage 0.73

01:08:33.020 myself i couldn't i was physically dependent my son is in private school um one of my kids i 0.89

01:08:39.080 coached he just got signed with lsu right so we're going to watch his game in a couple months

01:08:43.480 yeah it's fantastic buddy my other kid i coached just got a signed contract with berkeley

01:08:49.000 this is what I do I I I call I've I've coached kids ever since I got sober that's that's that's

01:08:55.180 one thing that's my chi so I'm I'm now completely obliterated I know what addiction is I know I'm

01:09:03.600 in it really hard now I've got to get back to my regular dose so I get to my regular dose

01:09:08.200 then I know my head's not right so I've got to get clean so I go to detox I phone detox I want

01:09:14.380 to get sober i can't do this i need to get i can't they're going to offer me other drugs so i'm like

01:09:20.400 well i can't do this so i phoned a friend of mine that's uh yeah he's a criminal he's he's he he does

01:09:30.280 some things that are some things around the world he moves things they help me get clean the the

01:09:37.320 government can't help me get clean it's my friend that's the actual drug dealer buddy like the gang

01:09:42.640 he's a drug he's a gangster he helped the one that helped you get clean he's the one to help

01:09:48.040 me get clean brother i guess what i mean like this is like you're ever into trouble like you 0.93

01:09:52.700 have to have friends in all corners so i i get this i get this opportunity i get it i'm now i'm

01:09:59.880 out i'm now off the pills but i got pain i got like serious spinal spinal cord issues i got three

01:10:05.840 broken backs i've had a reconstructed left ankle reconstructed right knee reconstructed left bicep

01:10:11.820 and right shoulder and two back surgeries from sports and from being a gangster so i'm all clean

01:10:18.460 i'm good now but it took a it took a freaking gangster to get you that way as opposed to what

01:10:26.220 the government could do for you or any kind of private recovery center yeah so then i i watched

01:10:33.420 bonnie henry on uh june the 20th june 21st 2020 when she was crying because how many people

01:10:42.460 overdosed on the street and i mean i knew all about this because i'm an i'm an addict and i 0.99

01:10:46.900 i work in addiction and i work with mental health so i'm like well she's an idiot she's a chief 0.98

01:10:52.380 coroner and like she knows how many people die at the end of the month within five days why is 0.98

01:10:56.780 talking about april or halfway through june this is a stage and that's when the light

01:11:03.260 switch turned on for me shadow i'm like okay i've always known but now i know and i started

01:11:11.420 watching people like you i started watching this telegram my buddies were sending me stuff about

01:11:17.400 the the the the energy things from the last get the change enter change weather patterns and

01:11:24.280 I started going down this rabbit hole so last year I made a decision well it was two years ago my

01:11:32.520 my doctor actually didn't believe me my sorry my lawyer did not believe that the doctors offer me

01:11:40.480 other drugs to get off drugs so I went and did undercover this was my first undercover I bought

01:11:48.220 a camera a recording device that no one can see it's on the end it's on the tip of a water bottle

01:11:54.020 so you can't see it so I went into the doctor's office and I got information I built a video I 0.98

01:11:59.200 gave it to my lawyers and they're all laughing they're like Andrew you're a fucking genius 0.98

01:12:02.980 you you this is what you got to do for your new career because you're not you know you're not a 0.97

01:12:07.360 fostering anymore this is what happened so that's when I started going downtown and talking to all

01:12:14.820 these people and then my eyes opened and my ears opened and last year uh you know you hear all about

01:12:23.640 the stuff going on in the united kingdom right in london and what stuff well the immigration

01:12:29.740 is it mainly the immigration right yeah i don't hear about the fatty the fentanyl problems there

01:12:36.020 i know they have heroin problems and cocaine problems and alcohol problems but i don't think

01:12:41.100 there's fentanyl problems but i want to go and see this immigration problem because canada is just

01:12:46.280 like opening the board well we've always opened the borders like not quite like this no no no i

01:12:52.440 mean i've had i've had foster kids like have placed in my home that flew here from syria like

01:12:59.040 there was a kid that came from syria he landed with a note that said yeah you know he's landed

01:13:04.380 he came to my house this was in like 2008 when iphone just built i bought an app to translate

01:13:11.160 for this kid for three months it was quite an experience but i'm learning all about this mass

01:13:17.020 immigration i'm watching my city fall because now i can't find a job i'm one of the most

01:13:21.820 educated addiction specialist mental health specialists in the province i've been renowned

01:13:28.480 like the government calls me and says we've got a situation andrew can deal with it they would

01:13:33.220 move kids from all over the province into my home so that i would stabilize them i'm known i've got

01:13:39.540 a big name out there in the government so i'm like i'm going like what's what's going on i went to

01:13:46.320 the uk we went from london all the way up to the top of scotland and back down 40 days with my two

01:13:53.660 sons it was absolutely amazing and there i was on october 4th with these two youtubers they got like

01:13:59.180 22 million followers between the two of them and they saw my work but i sat there and i watched

01:14:04.680 2 000 police officers arrest 600 lefties in trafalgar square it's on my channel on the live

01:14:13.180 from october 7th 2025 and that's when i came home and started realizing that

01:14:22.460 our government in north america the us and canada like our middle class we we grew up middle class

01:14:31.420 like everyone was middle class there was only a few poor people and there was only a few wealthy

01:14:35.820 people but everyone middle class now shadow and you're listening to this please listen

01:14:40.060 this is the hardest thing i say but i don't say it often because i don't want to believe it and

01:14:46.700 something in psychology says when you say it it's real so i don't like to say this but i'm gonna say

01:14:52.420 it i'll say it this way so i don't have to believe it why is why is it that over 90 percent of the

01:15:01.480 people that i speak to whether it be in vancouver or 10 of the cities that i go throughout british

01:15:06.340 columbia calgary red deer edmonton uh winnipeg tronto all the small cities i've traveled all

01:15:13.040 across canada over the past eight months doing what i do on the downtown east side everyone

01:15:18.140 that's addicted and suffering and physical dependency they're all canadian they're all 1.00

01:15:22.900 middle class and they've lost everything and they're just dying and all of these immigrants 1.00

01:15:27.640 are here now and our kids like our kids i got 18 and 20 year old i also got three in their 30s 1.00

01:15:33.260 they're i got five kids they're all no one can work no one get a job my kids my three in their

01:15:40.200 30s their career they've got their shit together but my young ones there's nothing for them so 0.95

01:15:46.580 wrong color brother well you know there's nothing like what did what did the guy say to me down at 0.99

01:15:52.840 the friendship the native friendship center oh yeah you're the type of guy that says if it's white

01:15:57.820 it's if you if it's white it's not right or something i'm just like what just happened

01:16:02.940 you know i do work with francis widdowson francis yeah uh i i love her i she have you

01:16:12.680 been doing security for her i hope i do security for her i gotta i've been assaulted over two 0.99

01:16:16.780 dozen times there is a there is a chick this uh shalane chief blah blah blah she was on ubc

01:16:23.500 uh podcast yesterday and she basically it's all over x it's been seen almost a million times now

01:16:30.440 that um this this chief hopes that she'd like to see her people yeah take her in and do the r-a-p-e

01:16:38.320 and meet her yeah yeah i would say about that particular clip it seems like

01:16:46.520 she is wishing that on all of the white people who are denialists but it seems like she's just

01:16:54.820 saying i i want you to experience what my family experienced yeah so i'll cut her that slack yeah

01:17:00.540 but at the same time she should never have said that at all let me ask you another question uh

01:17:06.780 drew before we wrap it up here has made ever come across your doorstep

01:17:13.840 have you ever seen any of these addicts in the street say i'm just going to go get made man

01:17:21.000 and it all because i can't live like this anymore i have recorded interviews that i have only posted

01:17:26.700 one of or i've got seven of them of individuals that have said 100 that they're offered made

01:17:38.980 in the recovery system in the hospitals in British Columbia,

01:17:44.220 in Canada, in Vancouver.

01:17:46.500 They're offered MAID.

01:17:48.460 Now, if you watch one of my live shows, 1.00

01:17:51.920 I interviewed a lady by the name of Angelina Ireland. 1.00

01:17:56.900 Yeah, I've had her on too. 1.00

01:17:58.480 She's a great woman.

01:17:59.920 She went downtown with me.

01:18:01.340 She walked to downtown Eastside with me.

01:18:03.780 She brought me to what's called the Slaughter Pen,

01:18:06.320 which is a small patch of grass outside of St. Paul's Hospital downtown,

01:18:11.120 which is a Catholic-run hospital that they're unable to do euthanasia there.

01:18:17.620 So Coastal Health, which is the big health department of BC,

01:18:21.380 rented at least a patch of grass behind the hospital against the wall.

01:18:26.840 And they put up an ATCO building, they smashed a hole in it,

01:18:29.680 and now they can just bring people right from St. Paul's

01:18:32.220 into that little ATCO trailer that's leased on that ground.

01:18:36.320 to do euthanasia so i do i am a hundred percent in belief that they are being offered made

01:18:46.620 i do believe that there are i'm very certain that there are people in addiction that probably ask 0.94

01:18:56.460 for it because bro like i can't do this there's no way out right there's no fucking way out like 0.97

01:19:05.160 bro if i was if it was like bro if i was like this fucking shit right when i was in 1996 if 0.98

01:19:12.100 it was today i wouldn't fucking be here talking to you because i would have taken the needle 0.99

01:19:15.900 because living in that cesspool of addiction when you i i just spent a thousand dollars on 0.98

01:19:23.820 underwear and socks and i'm going down to a treatment center next thursday to give them

01:19:29.040 to alter the guys because man when i got sober there was nothing like having clean underwear

01:19:35.680 and socks for a week straight i was about to ask like underwear and socks but that's i mean

01:19:41.540 you're right you know if you're living in if you're living in the street you know like you're

01:19:46.640 wearing the same underwear and socks and clothes for weeks and weeks and so yeah man i can totally

01:19:52.520 get that i spent a thousand bucks i got a bunch of money donated to me so i'm i've been trying

01:19:57.180 to figure out what to do with this 940 that i have left over underwear and socks brother underwear

01:20:02.740 and socks bro i just made the con i just had the call today so i'm gonna head down there next

01:20:06.940 thursday and do are you are you ramping up your video production are you really ramping up your

01:20:12.640 channels your youtube and your ex the ex is going pretty strong the youtube is a it's a it's a

01:20:18.480 different beast um i am dropping a video friends in the next uh couple of days it's probably going

01:20:26.400 to take me a few more days it's probably not till early next week but i have uh exposed as we talked

01:20:33.460 earlier on the phone there's a building downtown that has over a hundred non-profits in it um that

01:20:41.400 offer like that get money from the government to like buy you know the cracky pipes and the needles

01:20:47.440 and the vitamin c packets and all this shit to just hand out to people so it's a huge grift so

01:20:55.100 i'm dropping a video in the next week um that uh is going to be it's going to be pretty powerful

01:21:02.780 i think it's going to be the video that sets me uh that basically puts me on a pedestal in canada

01:21:10.460 investigative journalism on this kind of stuff is much needed nick shirley has been doing it in the

01:21:15.680 united states you say you've worked with nick too right yeah nick nick came to vancouver he did a

01:21:19.940 video and i went down and we we walked the streets and ever since then we talk now we we communicate

01:21:25.800 um great guy there's about i'm gonna say you know what there's probably about 20 of us in north

01:21:31.900 america that all know each other that work together that have we have a chat on whatsapp

01:21:38.920 so if we need something like so when a big guy comes to vancouver i usually get a call

01:21:44.140 hey are you in town on the 20th of next month blah blah tyler olivier is coming with this guy's

01:21:49.920 coming i like him i like him another good one tyler's mate so we all do the same stuff i mean

01:21:55.780 i went on again bro i mean people can call me what they want i call myself drew coover because

01:22:02.680 uh there's a there's a gentleman that's got like three super bowl rings and uh we were partying

01:22:08.540 one night why wasn't i was with him and he's like we're gonna call you drew coover and i'm like

01:22:16.460 true cuver he's like like vancouver but you drew cuver and uh that's how i got through cuver right

01:22:22.740 the guy's like he's a he's a he's an nfl superstar i'm not going to use his name because you know

01:22:28.980 god bless people i have privacy things when i like you know what i this is the third conversation

01:22:34.500 lengthy conversation you and i have had and you have mentioned people from the nfl world from

01:22:39.820 the hollywood world i got to get you back on to talk about that too because that sounds like a

01:22:43.500 whole other thing all together right Tommy Lee and I are good buddies but you hardly ever drop

01:22:48.340 names and then I you just did it the only the only celebrity that I've like I've met I have met

01:22:56.640 I've met everyone like I had dinner with Robin Williams like I've met everyone and there I am

01:23:03.360 methods of mayhem Tommy Lee's coming to the Commodore Barroom it's 2000 and I'm like I'm

01:23:09.640 gonna meet tommy lee i was in an air band in grade seven i wanted to just play the drums i could have

01:23:14.280 been vince neal and got the girl like patty thompson in grade seven but i wanted to be tommy

01:23:18.780 lee so he's always been an icon and when i met him at the commodore ballroom my palms were sweaty

01:23:26.000 i was like this is really tommy lee in front of me was he a nice guy tom's an awesome dude bro like

01:23:33.160 he's just uh man he shook my hand i got some strippers for him for his show um he came back

01:23:39.360 into town a couple times because he had like some pretty pretty wild songs so he needed some

01:23:43.380 strippers um you know snoop dog calvin calvin you know calvin interesting guy eminem bro when you

01:23:52.040 get to hang out with eminem for two days at his hotel and answer phones bro like you got to come

01:23:57.880 back on we talk about this next time you come on i appreciate what you're doing and i i hope that

01:24:04.920 you keep doing it andrew because i think it's so important to try and get as much information

01:24:11.240 about this stuff out as we possibly can and you know what encourages me uh i've been doing this

01:24:18.140 six years now this this show for six years and i've been seeing more and more and more people

01:24:24.600 coming on stream coming online uh telling their stories getting into the investigative stuff

01:24:30.720 reporting there's moose on the loose and there's all those guys on youtube now come out in the last

01:24:35.240 couple of years and i'm so happy that a guy like you has come out willing to investigate and try

01:24:41.720 to get down to the bottom of this stuff but you got to remember too that now that your face is

01:24:45.360 out there and you're known it's going to be tougher like impractical jokers it's tougher

01:24:49.280 for them to make a show these days than it was 10 years ago i have i have had the police at my door

01:24:53.780 to let me know that um i probably shouldn't be going downtown anymore and if i do go down there

01:24:59.800 i should use i should wear a stabby vest like that's the facts right so the the harm the health

01:25:06.080 care workers um actually made a an instagram and facebook page about me and they call me

01:25:12.660 drool couver and so it's a private chat that i i'm not connected to but my friend is wait a minute

01:25:19.360 these are health care workers health care workers have created a chat box for me specifically for

01:25:25.980 me so when i come downtown they know i'm downtown so as soon as someone sees me they have to let the

01:25:33.440 group know that drew coover is downtown because i go into these places i have cameras that you

01:25:38.460 can't see like button cameras and stuff i go in and record and i don't go in and record against

01:25:44.420 people's will i ask them first hey can i have a conversation with you sure okay no problem and

01:25:51.560 i will never record people and make them look like you know they're doing their job they have

01:25:59.260 a job they're paying their bills god bless them they're trying to be part of the canadian economy

01:26:04.260 but i'm sorry if you're listening you're not being canadian if you're not helping people up

01:26:10.640 i think we should probably leave it there man that's probably one of the best outs i've heard

01:26:17.800 in years. You're not

01:26:19.620 being Canadian unless you're helping

01:26:21.500 people up. Straight facts. 1.00

01:26:24.660 At DrewCoover

01:26:25.740 56 on X, and what's the

01:26:27.700 YouTube? Is it just Drew Coover? Drew Coover,

01:26:29.720 yeah, Drew, I don't know, DrewCoover 56.

01:26:32.740 Same handle

01:26:33.880 on YouTube? 56, yeah, that's like

01:26:35.720 my, that's football. That's my linebacker.

01:26:37.960 Okay, brother, thanks for coming on tonight.

01:26:39.780 We'll get you back on again. I'd love to have you

01:26:41.840 as a recurring because you've got

01:26:43.620 so many stories to tell and

01:26:45.160 I want to hear them.

01:26:47.800 god bless you shadow thank you so much for having me thank you drew uh you guys thank you for

01:26:52.580 watching tonight and for all the all access at shadow davis.com and telegram group at the

01:26:57.520 shadow at night community i'll see you there in two minutes time

01:27:17.800 We'll be right back.

01:27:47.800 We'll be right back.

01:28:17.800 We'll be right back.

The Shadoe Davis Show - April 16, 2026

April 15th⧸2026- Exposing the Hard Drug Problems in Van w⧸DrewCouver56 !!

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