David McEvoy was a heroin addict for 30 years before he got sober in the early 2010s. He stayed away from Ottawa’s drug scene after that and was largely ignorant of its dynamics until three years ago, when he began working as an addiction outreach worker specializing in overdose prevention and education.

McEvoy says that upon re-engaging with local drug users, he quickly noticed that an overwhelming majority of safer supply clients were diverting their taxpayer-funded drugs to the black market. These clients would receive what he described as “insane” amounts of hydromorphone, an opioid as potent as heroin, which they would then immediately trade or sell to acquire illicit street fentanyl, he said.