Crackdown

It’s been almost six years since the launch of BC’s tiny safe supply program; also known as “prescribed alternatives.” Although the evidence that safe supply saves lives hasn’t changed, the political favourability of BC’s program has. In episode 56, we talk to safe supply patients, prescribers and experts who are experiencing the dismantling of this life saving...

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. Share Post reddit Email

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...

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 heartbroke...

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.  Share Post re...

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...

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. Share Post reddit Email

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 sobriet...

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 collaborator...

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. Share Post reddit Email

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. Share Post reddit Email

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. Share Post reddit Email

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. Share Post reddit Email

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 dr...

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...

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. Ki...

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 c...

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 Botkin, in order to explore the culture of exploi...

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. Share Post reddit Email

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 management – so they avoid those life saving services because they don’t want to...

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 sto...

  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...

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 foug...

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 playing their interview with me. In our conversation, we talk about my life as a y...

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 others to sit on a government committee and fight for this...