Jun 12, 2008 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Caution tape keeps transit riders away from a bus shelter after it was vandalised the night before. The Downtown Eastside has always been the center of Vancouver's hard drug trade. In fact, Canada's first drug prohibition law originated here, intr

Jun 12, 2008 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Caution tape keeps transit riders away from a bus shelter after it was vandalised the night before. The Downtown Eastside has always been the center of Vancouver's hard drug trade. In fact, Canada's first drug prohibition law originated here, intr

ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Image ID: CD5G37

Jun 12, 2008 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - Caution tape keeps transit riders away from a bus shelter after it was vandalised the night before. The Downtown Eastside has always been the center of Vancouver's hard drug trade. In fact, Canada's first drug prohibition law originated here, introduced a century ago after Mackenzie King investigated compensation claims stemming from the 1907 anti-Asian riots in Chinatown and Japantown. Some of the claims happened to come from opium manufacturers and King became especially alarmed when he learned the opium scourge was spreading to white women and girls. (Credit Image: © Austin Andrews/ZUMA Press)