Hard Knox Talks: Your Addiction Podcast

Send us Fan Mail “I was who he said I was. If he said jump, I asked how high. I didn’t believe I measured up – a belief I’ve carried my whole life.” Married right after high school and 2 kids shortly thereafter, Emily never had the opportunity to discover who she was as an individual. Co-dependency ruled her world. Several years into a dysfunctional marriage, alcohol entered the picture. “I didn’t...

Send us Fan Mail “I lost everything, kids, family, health. All I had left was the drugs in my hand.” Chantal's rock bottom was Pinegrove Correctional Center. Her family was grateful she landed there, they knew they couldn't help her. It was her only hope. "I couldn't stop, someone needed to stop me. Prison saved my life." Tune in this week and listen to Chantal #takeoffthe...

Send us Fan Mail Kelsey is 16 years in recovery, a pharmacist, a mother of 4, and activist on many fronts with an insider's look at the cold-hard numbers we often wonder about. "Folks who access publicly funded medical treatment for substance use disorder are actually at an increased risk of dying, thanks to policy." Join us this week while we discuss the ins and out's of our c...

Send us Fan Mail "I was spiritually bankrupt and I wanted to die." Shane started using heavy in Grade 7. Years later he found Crack in Calgary, AB. It all went fuzzy after that, "I remember people telling me they were gonna drive their car into my house. I had to leave Calgary or I was going to die." Tune in this week and listen to Shane #takeofftheblinders around the realities...

Send us Fan Mail Lea and Todd Hoiland’s world was shattered on July 8, 2021 – the day they lost their vibrant 20-year-old daughter, Alyssa, to a fentanyl-laced Xanax. “If my daughter had taken just a Xanax, she’d still be alive but [fentanyl] is in absolutely everything now.” Despite the heartache, the Hoiland’s are on a mission to change stigma, bring awareness, and join the fight to ensure this...

Send us Fan Mail “I was trying to escape horrors I faced as an intergenerational residential school survivor with drugs and alcohol. It didn’t work.” Sundance spent his early years in school being called Justin because it was easier to spell. He was drinking by 11 years old, His father pass from a Heroin overdose when he was 19. And so he went, escaping the only way he knew how, until one day, &qu...

Send us Fan Mail “I was shooting heroin at gas pumps hoping the cops would pick me up. They never did.” Jakob was dealing drugs at 13 years old. Using Heroin by 18, Homeless by 26. When his thoughts finally came to suicide, he had a moment of clarity "I was going to kill myself, so I thought I have to go either all in, or all out." And slowly, Jakob found his way into the light. “All the...

Send us Fan Mail Most of the 464 overdose deaths in Saskatchewan in 2021 alone (a record setting year) were deemed accidental and most were linked to Fentanyl. “You try to imagine living your life without one of your children … you just can’t”. Marie Agioritis, Overdose Awareness Day, 2021. The tragic and sudden loss in 2015 of Marie’s 19-year-old son Kelly to a fentanyl poisoning, propelled her i...

Send us Fan Mail "I buried myself in a pile of clothes, they found me. I'll never forget the ski mask and the eyes looking at me. I knew those eyes." Chantel was in deep. Addiction, trafficking, armed robbery, There was very little Chantel left undone in the life. "My partner tried to shoot me, I was holding my child and I felt the bullet go by my head." Chantel saw no sol...

Send us Fan Mail "Welcome to the shit show." Kea tried meth at 14 years old, A stripper by 17. From gang cultural gang violence to fraud to running a chop shop, Kea didn't seem to have a bottom, Until she did. “I was broken in ways I never would have imagined. I never had my mom, and I didn’t want my kids to feel that.” Tune in this week and listen to Kea #takeofftheblinders around...

Send us Fan Mail “The worst thing I ever heard was my mom screaming when she saw me shackled in an orange jumpsuit. I was 13 years old.” Christopher came up in the crucible. Domestic violence, addiction, foster care, jail time, Chris only knew how to cope with violence, oblivion, or both. And so he went. School, work, gang life. And on his darkest days, “I Lost my daughter, couldn’t afford to stor...

Send us Fan Mail "Falling from a bridge drunk left me badly injured, and that led to far worse destruction." Stacey ran all the way to England to try and escape her substance use disorder, but an injury led her down an even darker path. Homeless, abused, addicted she had nowhere left to run. "My father finally flew over and found me, I don't remember how, but he convinced me to...

Send us Fan Mail From undercover drug enforcement to the guns and gangs unit of the Saskatoon City Police Service, there isn't much Constable Matt Ingrouille hasn't seen. As a husband and a father of 4 Matt knows the fears that people face when thinking of the terrible things that happen when someone falls into the throes of addiction. He's seen more than you want to know about. Bel...

Send us Fan Mail “I tried to stab my brother, then I went for the cop's gun. I was just done with it all.” Todd is a podcaster and person in recovery from Indian Head, SK. He spent years lost in addiction, he had endless plans to end it all. Down the path of suicidal ideation, it got darker and darker, but it wasn't until it nearly went pitch black that Todd found what he needed, "I...

Send us Fan Mail “I woke up on a slab, they brought me back. I did some red shit I never saw before, one puff and I went down.” Joe is a person in recovery in Regina, SK. “That person is still here, but he’s been put to sleep. I just don’t want to hurt anyone anymore.” He went down a dark path from a very young age. "I was getting drunk at 6 years old, I used to get the foam off my Dad's...

Send us Fan Mail "Because of my past, I was left to suffer, it's really wrong and really unfair." Melanie is a former prostitute and person in recovery in Regina, SK. She became dependent on opioids after a truck crash in 2011 that led her down a dark path. During appointments with her doctor for a vaginal infection, she says she was unknowingly drug tested and then questioned about...

Send us Fan Mail “I ended up in Lloydminster, alone in an apartment, Winchester in my mouth. Couldn’t find the bullets." Kirk is an Addictions Counsellor from Regina, SK. “I got taken under the wing of old school AA, but I’ve come to learn that it wasn’t the program that saved me, it was the fellowship.” Tune in this week and listen to Kirk #takeofftheblinders around addiction and old-school...

Send us Fan Mail "Safe consumption sites are not a crutch, and I'm getting sick of explaining that." Tracy cannot make her message more clear. Her own family has been rocked by addiction, we'll let her tell you all about that. "We shouldn't be looking down at anybody, everyone deserves the opportunity to be happy and productive." Tune in this week and listen to T...

Send us Fan Mail "I never decided to get better, I just gave up on dying." Gord Garner smoked crack for 30 years. Today he is the Vice President of the Community Addictions Peer Support Association (CAPSA). “I don’t have a heroic personal story, I have a story of thousands of people helping me.” His goal is to improve the lives of Canadians in regards to their relationships with substanc...

Send us Fan Mail “To address addiction in our society, we need to teach parents to cope with everyday stress.” Danielle is a qualified Parent Mediator and Conflict Coach. “There is a lot of research that shows that if a child has an incarcerated parent, they’re much more likely to become addicted.” Join us this week and listen to Danielle #takeofftheblinders around addiction at home. “I grew up wi...

Send us Fan Mail "He said: 'this is what I want to do' and I remember, he stood up and that's when the gun went off." Joanie watched Clint put a bullet in his own head. Clint Malarchuck is a retired NHL goalie. In 1989 he was in an accident on the ice that nearly took his life, a skate cut his throat. Eventually, unchecked PTSD from that incident drove Clint past the point...

Send us Fan Mail Judy Pelly is a well-respected Knowledge Keeper and advocate in Saskatoon, SK. Everett Hindley is the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction for the Sask Party. Join us this week as we #takeofftheblinders around substance use in Saskatchewan. We'll talk about how we've stumbled in the past, the challenges we currently face, and what we need to see in the future of addic...

Send us Fan Mail "I came home to broken glass everywhere, and the drug dealers kids were in the middle of this chaos." Kayla walked a dark path to get to where she is today. "I wasn't a gang member, I was a Broadway skid kid. I did what I had to do with men to get my drugs." Tune in this week and listen to Kayla #takeofftheblinders around substance use in Saskatoon, SK. We...

Send us Fan Mail "He thought he was doing Oxy, he was home alone, he didn't stand a chance." Petra Shulz lost her son to an overdose in 2014. Fentanyl ended his life at 25 years old and changed her life forever. A match was struck that day, and the fire that came is changing the way we see substance use in this country. "Every overdose reversed is a family that doesn't hav...

Send us Fan Mail "I knew I was going to fail my second piss test too, I couldn't keep lying, I knew it was over. I went into Colleen's office and confessed." Paul works for Northern Strands in Saskatoon, SK. "Even though I had confessed, was still failing drug tests. I was 2 weeks into treatment before I realized I needed to take this seriously." But then it worked. T...