Crackdown: Recent Episodes
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The drug war, covered by drug users as war correspondents. Crackdown is a monthly podcast about drugs, drug policy and the drug war led by drug user activists and supported by research. Each episode will tell the story of a community fighting for their lives. It’s also about solutions, justice for those we have lost, and saving lives.
With fascism on the rise around the world, we explore the relationship between Canada’s housing and policing policies and the risk of far right authoritarianism at home.
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Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children’s rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children Abusing Drugs Act. And in the coming months, Alberta will begin involuntarily detaining adults as well.
On episode 54, Crackdown producer Alex de Boer travels to Edmonton to meet Angie Staines and her son Brandon Shaw. When Brandon got wired as a young teen, Angie had a difficult choice to make: should she force Brandon to sober up? And what would happen to their relationship if she did?
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We lost another soldier from the front lines. Trey Helten, longtime manager of the Overdose Prevention Society and all around harm reduction hero on the Downtown Eastside has died at 42. Trey saved hundreds of lives. He was a friend to Crackdown and often helped connect us with community members. He was featured on the show twice. Today we’re listening back to both segments.
Trey, we’re heartbroken. Rest in power.
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Garth’s new book, Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting the War On Drugs, has just been published by Penguin Random House and is now available for purchase online.
In Episode 52 of Crackdown, Garth reads a chapter of his book called “We Will Delete All This,” about his first time using heroin as a teenager in San Francisco.
*Trigger warning for sexual abuse of a child and sex work.
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On March 26th, we learned that our dear friend and comrade Shelda Kastor passed away. Shelda was a hero who dedicated decades of her life to fighting for the poor, drug users, Indigenous people, and women in Vancouver. Since Crackdown’s first meeting, Shelda helped us tell the story of how colonialism and the drug war work together to harm Indigenous people in Canada.
On episode 51 we reflect on this profound loss to our show, our movement, and our community.
We will never forget you Shelda.
Credits
Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations.
Our editorial board is Dean Wilson, Jeff Louden, Laura Shaver, Samona Marsh, Elli Taylor, Delilah Gregg, and Martin Steward. Rest in peace Shelda Kastor Dave Murray, Greg Fresz and Chereece Keewatin.
This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, and Alex de Boer.
Mix by Alex Kim.
All music by Blue Dot Sessions.
If you like what we do here at Crackdown, please support us at patreon.com/crackdownpod.
Thanks for listening. Stay safe and keep six.
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It’s the end of an era in Canada. On March 10th – after nine years in power – Mark Carney replaced Justin Trudeau as Canada’s Prime Minister. We mark the occasion by looking back at Trudeau’s legacy on the drug war: over 50,000 preventable overdose deaths. And we struggle to describe how this epidemic of death and grief has changed us and our movement.
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In this bonus episode, we’re introducing On Drugs from CBC.
On Drugs from CBC looks through the lenses of history, pop culture and personal experience to understand how drugs have shaped our world. Because even if it’s just caffeine or ibuprofen, there’s a good chance you’re on drugs right now.
In Vancouver’s East Hastings, the Safe Supply program challenges the conventional narrative that sobriety is the ultimate goal. Host, Geoff Turner visits the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users office to sit down with Garth. This episode explores harm reduction, examining how drug addiction intersects with issues of poverty, shame, and community. Are programs like these changing lives? Why did they end? Did decriminalization really fail?
More episodes of On Drugs are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/Hipojc
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Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of the best places on earth – a world class city surrounded by ocean and mountains. If you can afford it, the good life is yours.
But over the last fifteen years, Vancouver has become more dangerous for drug users than ever before. Especially young drug users.
In episode 49, we hear from professor Danya Fast and Sarah West, one of Danya’s research collaborators. Both reflect on what it’s like to witness and to document preventable deaths during this crisis.
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On the eve of a provincial election in British Columbia, Garth and Sam drill down on the parties’ platforms. Plus — VANDU member Scotty Archondous tells a story relevant to BC’s coming involuntary treatment program.
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In episode 47, we bring you a brief update on the show and the harm reduction movement. Plus you’ll hear new tunes from Garth’s band.
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In Canada, alcohol is legal and we have a safe supply of booze. So why do some people drink mouthwash or rice wine? And why does the state over-police poor people for public drinking?
In episode 46, we learn how Canada’s alcohol policies drive illicit drinking. And we hear from a group of drinkers who are fighting back with alcohol-based harm reduction.
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Politicians and much of the media have been lying and whipping up a moral panic. And now, decriminalization in British Columbia is all but dead. In this episode, Garth talks with Crackdown senior producer Sam Fenn and VANDU organizer Hannah Dempsey to bring you the straight goods on why drugs have been re-criminalized and what the grim implications of this move are.
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Right wing politicians say safe supply will hurt kids – that young people will get hooked on drugs they’d otherwise never try.
But kids already use drugs. If we want to protect and stabilize the lives of young people who use drugs, we need a regulated, non-toxic drug supply.
On episode 44, we hear from Danny – a young queer refugee who shares their story of surviving persecution and toxic drugs.
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Rightwing politicians and media pundits want us to fear safe supply and harm reduction. They say these interventions are putting children and families in danger, when we know the opposite is true.
But there is one thing these conservatives are right about: Canadian kids have never been less safe. Not because of harm reduction, but because toxic illicit drugs might fuck up their lives. Or, because toxic illicit drugs might fuck up their parents’ lives.
On episode 43, we tell the story of Jade — a 21 year old harm reduction worker from Saskatchewan whose parents use drugs.
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Across the country, politicians and the media are fearmongering about children’s safety. They’re using a faux concern about families to attack harm reduction and the drug user movement. And their rhetoric is rolling back life-saving, public health responses to the overdose crisis. But now young people are pushing back. They’re saying they don’t want to see harm reduction attacked in their name.
Kids on the Block Part 1 tells the story of Bones, a teenager from a small town in Western Canada as he struggles to survive the overdose crisis and keep his friends safe.
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Toxic drug deaths continue to break records in BC. We need an immediate expansion on all harm reduction initiatives. More than anything, we need a real safe supply.
Instead, the BC NDP is moving backwards. They’ve fallen in line with a nation-wide moral panic and are actively rolling back the province’s hydromorphone prescribing and drug decriminalization programs. Last month, cops arrested DULF co-founders, Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx. Their crime? Doing what the government refused to do — provide a safe supply of drugs to people at risk of toxic drug death.
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In the trades there’s a zero-tolerance policy on substance use. But the construction industry relies on drugs. Cocaine and stimulants help maintain a demanding rate of production and opioids treat the pain caused by injury and gruelling physical labour. On the 40th episode of Crackdown, we tell the story of one construction industry veteran, Trevor … Continue reading Episode 40: Boys Don’t Cry →
A right wing backlash against harm reduction and safe supply is brewing in Canada. Garth Mullins and Sam Fenn tell the story of how we got here — and what needs to be done to fight back.
Being a mother who uses drugs can put you under constant scrutiny from the government. Especially if you’re Indigenous. You’re judged and watched. You live in fear of that knock on the door, when they come to take your kids away. Many moms are rightly scared to access safer supply, harm reduction, detox and withdrawal … Continue reading Episode 38: The Knock →
Diversion: a cold, technocratic word for when we give, trade or sell our prescribed meds to someone else. A ghost story, whispered among doctors and now, a moral panic, hollered by right wing politicians.
But really, everyone’s shared their meds. I’ve done it and I bet you have too – as an act of mutual aid, solidarity or maybe survival. But doctors have created all kinds of measures to try to stop it. And politicians have spread lies as part of a pretext to stamp out safe supply before it ever really gets started.
In this episode we follow a guy named Pockets, as he finds relief in heroin and eventually gets prescribed Dilaudid and Methadone. Surrounded by death, in the time of fentanyl and benzodope, Pockets starts to share his safe, regulated meds to help save lives. And he’s punished for it.
We also hear from professors Thomas Kerr and Geoff Bardwell who talk about their research on diversion, which provides an alternative, evidence-based, perspective on the highly controversial practice.
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BC just decriminalized drugs. Well sort of. For the next three years, it’s legal to carry 2.5 grams or less of certain illicit drugs. But some exceptions apply.
We’ve been fighting for decrim for decades. The goal has always been to stop arrests and get cops out of our lives. We got a watered down version of what we wanted. But the fact that the government did anything at all is because of our long struggle. And that struggle is far from over.
Today we dig into the details of British Columbia’s diet decrim, the policy, the punditry, and the backlash. We also talk about what this reform means for the drug user liberation movement and where we go next.
Transcript:A complete transcript of this episode will be uploaded here when ready.
Call to Action and Political Demands: * Nothing about us without us. Drug users need to be at the policy-making table as equal partners, not at the kids’ table as an afterthought. * Half the dope out there is benzodope. And benzos are not on the list of illicit drugs now decriminalized in BC. That list must expand. * 2.5 grams is not nearly enough. The legal threshold must increase to reflect what drug users carry and use. * No police creep into healthcare. Police should not be handing out health information cards. The only role police should play in decrim is to stand down. We want cops out of our lives. * Cops must not use this as an excuse to ramp up the drug war against dealers. This only ramps up the Iron Law of Prohibition, making drugs more and more dangerous (ie; opium > heroin > fentanyl). * Sharing is illegal under BC’s decrim. Drug users often share or sell their drugs to friends. There is no clear line between a “user” and “dealer.” * Ramp up large-scale, pharmaceutical safe supply prescribing and allow community based groups to operate safe supply programs. * The success of BC’s decrim needs to be measured by the number of arrests, not referrals to treatment. Collect data on drug arrests and seizures of all types across BC, broken down by race.
Learning Outcomes:Crackdown episodes are frequently used as educational tools by teachers and community organizers. Please let us know if your class or group listens to our work.
Episode 36 is especially useful for exploring the following themes:
- What BC’s three year exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act does and does not mean for drug users.
- The drug-user advocacy that led to the decriminalization of small amounts of some drugs in BC.
- Media coverage and political rhetoric on the decriminalization of small amounts of some drugs in BC.
Suggested Reading:Bonn, Matthew. 2023. “Why Does BC’s Decriminalization Exclude Benzodiazepines?,” Filter. January 26, 2023. https://filtermag.org/benzodiazepine-decriminalize-british-columbia/amp/.
Boyd, Susan. 2017. Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada. 1st ed. Fernwood Publishing.
Courtwright, David T., 1952-. 2001. Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
Johal, Rumneek. 2023. “No, BC Liberals: Kids in British Columbia Can’t Buy Drugs From ‘Vending Machines,’” PressProgress. January 27, 2023. https://pressprogress.ca/no-bc-liberals-kids-in-british-columbia-cant-buy-drugs-from-vending-machines/.
Credits:Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations.
Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. And, rest in peace, Dave Murray, Greg Fresz and Chereece Keewatin.
This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex de Boer, Lisa Hale, and me, Garth Mullins.
Thanks to everyone at VANDU’s Tuesday Education Meeting, including speakers Eris Nyx , Vince Tao, Dave Hamm and Caitlin Shane.
Special thanks to Dave Hamm for helping us with the cover photo.
Our academic director is Ryan McNeil.
Sound design by Alexander Kim.
Score by James Ash.
This episode was produced with support from the Pivot Legal Society and the Unbounded Canada Foundation.
If you like what we do, support us at patreon.com/crackdownpod.
Thanks for listening. Stay safe and keep six.
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Sex workers who use drugs are doubly criminalized. They have to look out for bad dope and bad dates. And change comes slow.
Fights for incremental change don’t get at the big structures that cause so much harm. Are they worth it?
We wonder about this when it comes to drug decriminalization. Next year it’ll be legal to carry small amounts of opioids, meth, coke and MDMA in British Columbia. We fought hard for this. Of course, the government’s concession is a watered down version of our original demand. But limiting police discretion to lock us up is a step in the right direction. At least we hope so.
The prohibition of sex work began centuries before drug prohibition. Sex workers have long had dangerous working conditions imposed on them by puritanic laws. The criminalization of drug use and sex work has made both unnecessarily risky.
But reforms have been won over the years. In 2014, selling sex was decriminalized in Canada. And since 2020, BC has offered a version of safer supply to a few thousand drug users.
In the wilderness of laws that continue to criminalize most aspects of sex work and most aspects of drug use – do these reforms matter? On today’s episode I explore this idea with sex worker advocates, Jlynn and Jade, as well as academics, Andrea Krüsi and Jenn McDermid.
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I know you haven’t heard from us in a while. We’ve been busy. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. So while we’re working on new episodes, we’ve done a swap with another podcast. Crackdown and Psychoactive podcast are swapping episodes. They played our episode on the Drug User Liberation Front. And we are … Continue reading Psychoactive Swap →
Drug decriminalization is coming to British Columbia. And that’s a big step forward. Our movement has been fighting for decriminalization for decades. To us, decriminalization means getting cops, courts and jails out of our lives. It means police stop harassing, arresting and seizing dope off of us. For the past year, VANDU sent Garth and … Continue reading Episode 34: The Iron Law →
A spectre is haunting BC’s overdose crisis — the ghost of Riverview Hospital. Riverview was one of the province’s main psychiatric hospitals for a century. The giant complex – sitting on 1,000 acres of kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territory just outside of Vancouver – was largely closed in 2012. Today it’s a popular horror film shoot location. Garth … Continue reading Episode 33: You Will Not Destroy Me →
Last month, Crackdown Editorial Board member Greg Fresz passed away. As usual, we held a memorial for our comrade at VANDU. Sadly, we do this a lot. There’s nothing really that makes this constant death feel better, but at least we can feel “not better” together. That camaraderie? It’s the only thing that helps. When … Continue reading Episode 32: Goodbye Greg →
Can Martin and Laura’s fairy tale love story survive benzodope – the next lethal era of the drug war? British Columbia has seen a surge of unusual overdoses – including Martin and Laura’s. People are passing out for hours, losing their memories, and getting robbed and assaulted. And deaths have spiked. Again. But our community … Continue reading Episode 31: Love, Death and Benzodope →
In spite of a massive spike in overdose death, BC’s government still refuses to offer a genuinely safe supply of drugs. Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum tell the story of how the Drug User Liberation Front has stepped up to do what the policy makers refuse to do themselves: offer people a safe version of … Continue reading Episode 30: DULF →
2,224 people died of toxic drug overdose in BC in 2021, says the Chief Coroner. How many months of fatal OD statistics have we seen since 2016? Fifty? Sixty? How many health and addictions ministers have passed through our lives as those numbers got bigger, only to move on after a few years? Enough. Politicians … Continue reading Episode 29: Resign →
2021 was a year of very ominous weather reports. There were unprecedented heat emergencies, wildfires, and Biblical floods. Meanwhile COVID-19, income inequality, and the overdose crisis continued to become more and more grim. What would it feel like to endure all of this as a young person? What would it be like to try to … Continue reading Episode 28: After the Flood →
This month we’re bringing you an episode of the podcast Yard Tales, where Garth was recently a guest. Crackdown’s musical wizard James Ash is also featured on this one. Yard Tales is a show about forbidden spaces hosted by Luz Fleming. Some stories feature border crossings, life altering events, the need to express one’s self … Continue reading Yard Tales Swap →
Editorial Statement on the Criticism of Suboxone Since 2017, the BC government has been massively expanding access to a prescription medication called Suboxone that provides far less euphoria than methadone or heroin. On episode 27 of Crackdown, we tell the story of Crackdown Editorial Board Reija Jean as she tries to become a “Suboxone person.” … Continue reading Episode 27: Cop Baked In →
Here’s a little bonus content. In November of 2019, Crackdown held a panel at the American Anthropological Association Conference in Vancouver. As drug users, we’ve gotten familiar with what it feels like when anthropology is done to us, when we are its subjects – its Guinea pigs. But in this panel we talk about what … Continue reading Live at AAA 2019 →
On Episode 26 of Crackdown, we look at crystal meth and the need to adapt to an unrelenting world.
While overdoses in BC are climbing to unprecedented rates, some doctors still refuse to provide drug users with access to pharmaceutical versions of illicit drugs. Instead, many doctors view addiction as a chronic disease to be treated by limiting euphoria, prescribing “safer” analogues, or surveilling their patients. On episode 25, Garth interviews Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute … Continue reading Episode 25: The Lab →
On Episode 24, Garth talks with the best-selling writer and activist Desmond Cole about how police use Canada’s drug war as a pretext for violence against Black communities.
After 113 years, things might be changing in Vancouver as the city looks to decriminalize the simple possession of drugs. In episode 23, Crackdown takes a look at the birth of the drug war in Canada.
On episode 22, Dr. Kimberly Sue, Medical Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, answers our questions about COVID19 and the politics of vaccination.
This is Canadaland’s episode #347 from November – The Brayden Bushby Trial And Pity Porn
Activist Kali Sedgemore and anthropologist Danya Fast tell a story about the government’s desire for control—the way its attempts to detain and manage drug users often backfire.
The next episode is delayed a few weeks. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to.
In 2015, Crackdown editorial board member, Jeff Louden, was on morphine pills for chronic pain. When Jeff’s doctor cut down his medication, he turned to the street to outrun dopesickness. Five years later, Garth investigates what happened to Jeff.
Garth interviews Tim Slaney. Tim is a harm reduction worker at the supervised consumption site in Lethbridge, Alberta – one of the busiest in the world. And the government is shutting it down.
The first thing that the plague brought to Vancouver was exile. In March, People vanished. The city looked like a ghost town. But on the Downtown Eastside, the sidewalks were still packed…
As BC faces its worst ever month for fatal overdoses, Laura Shaver takes Mallinckrodt, the College of Pharmacists, and the Ministry of Health to Court.
Dave Murray was a veteran drug user activist. He was a mentor to the next generation of organizers like me. He’s pretty much the reason why there is a prescription heroin program in Vancouver today. And he was our friend.
The government has finally agreed to provide us with a safe, medical alternative to black market drugs. On Episode 15, we dig deep into the new policy and tell the story of advocacy that made this possible.
Since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in British Columbia, around 150 people have died from a contaminated drug supply. Four people have died from COVID-19. Now we face both crises at once.
We follow Tanis Rose’s journey through four recovery homes to tell the story of a broken system and one family’s struggle to stay together.
You can’t understand Canada’s overdose crisis without knowing the truth about this country – and that’s the story of colonization: a centuries-long effort to steal land and erase Indigenous peoples.
We haven’t had a big win in a while. And 2019 feels a bit like a depressing blur. But it was also a year where we fought back. In the last Crackdown episode of the year, we tell four stories about surviving the drug war.
In 2018, Scotland had a higher rate of drug-related deaths than Canada or the U.S. — even though fentanyl hasn’t taken over the U.K.’s drug supply. In Episode 10, CRACKDOWN crosses the Atlantic to try and figure out what’s going on.
Crackdown investigates the relationship between the BC government and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. Many people on methadone complain that Methadose® “doesn’t have legs.” Why hasn’t the government provided them with a more effective option?
Men are dying at a higher rate than women during the opioid crisis, which means women sometimes get left out of the conversation. On Episode 8 of Crackdown, we go to SisterSpace, North America’s first women-only safe consumption site.
The Vancouver Police say they’re for harm reduction, but everyone we talk to in the Downtown Eastside says otherwise. On Episode 7 of Crackdown, Garth asks the cops to stand down.
What happens when your options are being kicked out on the street or living in a room filled with mould, trash and rats? Episode 6 of Crackdown looks at how the housing and overdose crises are intertwined, and what happens when tenants fight back.
This month Crackdown is exploring the pernicious connections between North America’s overdose crisis and the housing crisis.
Garth goes to Portugal to figure out whether the country has found a solution to North America’s overdose crisis.
Across North America governments are opposing supervised injection sites. In Crackdown’s third episode, we tell you how to open one anyway.
British Columbia switched nearly 15,000 methadone patients to a new formulation called Methadose in 2014. Garth Mullins, Laura Shaver, and their colleagues at BCAPOM investigate what happened next.
Drug users are the experts. We’ve survived. We know policy better than policy-makers. We know law better than lawmakers. We know pharmaceuticals better than pharmacists. We know nobody’s coming to save us. So we gotta save ourselves.