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 … Continue reading Kids on the Block Part 3 – Danny →

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 … Continue reading Episode 43: Kids on the Block Part 2 – Jade →

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 … Continue reading Episode 42: Kids on the Block Part 1 – Bones →

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 … Continue reading Episode 41: New Front, Old War →

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 … Continue reading Episode 37: Drugstore Cowboy →

  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 … Continue reading Episode 36: Some Exceptions Apply →

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 … Continue reading Episode 35: On the Clock →

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 →

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.” Can she kick dope with the help … 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. Garth and Desmond also discuss the relationship between the movement to decriminalize drugs and the movement to defund and abolish the police.