It’s 11:30 in the morning on a sunny Friday in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood and TJ Felix has already injected enough fentanyl and methamphetamine to kill most people, but years of drug use have raised the 36-year-old’s tolerance to unthinkable heights.

The potentially deadly cocktail — known as “speedball” on the streets — is the only thing keeping Felix from experiencing the dangerous and painful symptoms of drug withdrawal.

“I would kill myself if I had to go through intense withdrawal again,” said Felix. “It’s something you avoid at any cost, and the worst, deepest level of addiction is when you're just using to avoid that."

“It’s no life at all really when it revolves just around you not being sick,” Felix said.

Felix, a two-spirit artist and musician from the Splatsin

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