Since the declaration of the opioid crisis as a public health emergency in 2016, more than 50,000 Canadians have died from overdoses across the country. In the midst of this deadly crisis, we meet Dana Larsen — a daring drug reform activist who has dedicated his entire life to bringing an end to the War on Drugs.

Dana lives and works in Vancouver, the epicentre of the overdose crisis in Canada and one of the worst-impacted cities in North America. Drawing on decades of civil disobedience in the cannabis legalization movement, Dana now directs his efforts toward harm reduction and drug reform in new frontiers. His non-profit centre, Get Your Drugs Tested, offers free drug checking and fentanyl screening to thousands, helping users avoid overdoses and death from the toxic drug supply. To fund the service, Dana operates the Coca Leaf Café and Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary—the world’s first storefront of its kind, providing safe recreational and medicinal access to psychedelics and other banned substances, in contravention of the law. As Dana’s operation grows and gains attention, politicians, police, and regulators begin to push back. He is stripped of his business license, faces police raids and arrests, and is forced to shut down the testing centre. As he loses a close friend and ally to an overdose, and the clouds seem darker than ever before, Dana’s fight culminates in a high-stakes legal showdown that will determine the future of his movement—and the broader struggle for compassion and justice in drug policy.

Searching for Drug Peace opens a vignette into the unique world of drug reform activism, painting intimate portraits of activists, critics, users—people whose lives have been shaped by drug prohibition and the overdose crisis—and explores what it means to risk everything for what you truly believe in.