A dozen or more metal implements are arranged in neat rows on the table next to the bed. They look like something Frankenstein might have had applied to his monster's neck. I begin to feel nervous.

The Keefer Bar, located in Vancouver’s Chinatown, has the appearance of a postwar back-alley Asian apothecary-cum-opium-den. Behind the bar are jars of medicinal herbs—astragalus, magnolia bark, a ...