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.

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.

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.

A complete transcript of this episode will be uploaded here when ready.

• 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.

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.

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/.

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.

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.

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 young drug user, how I got involved in organizing against the drug war and how maybe Canada gets too much credit for harm reduction.

You can check out Psychoactive with Ethan Nadelmann here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/psychoactive/id1574548562

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 vision. Unsurprisingly, much of our advice was disregarded.

But the cops fought for low thresholds — and won. That means that a big proportion of drug users in BC will remain criminalized.

Cops and politicians have also made noise about ramping up enforcement on dealers. On today’s show, I talk to Leo Beletsky about why this is a bad idea that could make the overdose crisis even worse.

• Beletsky, Leo, and Corey S Davis. “Today’s fentanyl crisis: Prohibition’s Iron Law, revisited.” The International journal on drug policy vol. 46: 156-159, 2017. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.05.050

• Harris, Magdalena et al. “”It’s Russian roulette”: adulteration, adverse effects and drug use transitions during the 2010/2011 United Kingdom heroin shortage.” The International journal on drug policy vol. 26,1: 51-8, 2015. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.09.009

• Ivsins, Andrew et al. “Tackling the overdose crisis: The role of safe supply.” The International journal on drug policy vol. 80: 102769, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102769

• Peterson, Meghan et al. “”One guy goes to jail, two people are ready to take his spot”: Perspectives on drug-induced homicide laws among incarcerated individuals.” The International journal on drug policy vol. 70: 47-53, 2019. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.05.001

I’d like to acknowledge the loss of two amazing community leaders this month.

Kat Norris was a comrade and fighter from Lyackson First Nation. I got to know Kat when community groups banded together to fight the extra policing and gentrification that came with Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics. Kat’s been sticking up for people in East Vancouver since the late 1970s and was famous for her fry bread giveaways.

We’d also like to say goodbye to Chrissy Brett. Chrissy was from the Nuxalk Nation (New-hulk). She organized and acted as a spokesperson and defender for many tent encampments in Victoria and Vancouver, including at Oppenheimer Park.

—Garth

Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

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, Jade Boyd, and me, Garth Mullins.

Sound design by Alexander Kim. Original score was written and performed by James Ash, Sam Fenn, and Garth Mullins.

Special thanks to Professor Magdalena Harris for her time and research on the UK heroin shortage.

If you like what we do, please consider donating at patreon.com/crackdownpod.

Crackdown is funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Stay safe and keep six.

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 recently learned that his great grandmother, Rosa Mullins, spent more than 26 years locked in Riverview. Garth and his father Gary head to Riverview to find Rosa. Garth digs deep into her medical records and doctors notes and Crackdown even manages to get inside of the old hospital itself.  

The hospital is closed, but it’s not abandoned. The province plans to reopen Riverview as a site for mental health and addictions treatment. Police, politicians and pundits have never stopped dreaming of our banishment. And in recent decades, involuntary detention under the Mental Health Act has soared. We demand an end to involuntary treatment and access to justice for involuntarily detained patients. 

CW: Starting at around 22 minutes in, there are two brief historical reenactments of electroconvulsive therapy AKA electroshock. The episode also discusses suicide and psychiatric incarceration.  

Call to Action and Political Demands

• Drug users’ human rights must be at the center of any solution to the overdose crisis. Incarceration and mandatory treatment obliterate those rights. Plus, they don’t work. Solutions must involve us as partners or leaders – not prisoners. Health systems cannot be jails. Drug users and people with mental illnesses can no longer be banished from society.
• Drug users must be decriminalized, not re-criminalized or institutionalized.  
• Young drug users must not be subject to involuntary detention as was proposed in BC’s Bill 22. Forced or coerced treatment doesn’t work. 
• BC’s Mental Health Act must be overhauled. We need stronger oversight, more preventative supports and better ongoing consultation with people who use drugs and people with mental illness. 

List of Episode 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 33 is especially useful for exploring the following themes:

• Institutionalization as a philosophy of care for people with mental illness.
• Involuntary and coercive psychiatric treatment in BC. 
• The intersection of mental health and substance use.
• Gendered experiences of psychiatric detention. 

Works Cited

Burr, Ashley. “History of Riverview Hospital: The birth of Coquitlam’s controversial psychiatric facility.” CityNews Vancouver, November 30, 2020. https://bit.ly/3HdcTBc. 

CTV British Columbia. “Mayors calling for re-opening of Riverview Hospital.” CTV News. August 26, 2013. https://bit.ly/3xm0IgC. 

CTV Vancouver. “Reopen Riverview as addiction treatment centre, Coquitlam mayor urges.” CTV News, January 24, 2017. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/reopen-riverview-as-addiction-treatment-centre-coquitlam-mayor-urges-1.3255837. 

Davies, Megan J. “The Patients’ World: British Columbia’s Mental Health Facilities, 1910-1935.” MA, Thesis, University of Waterloo, 1989.

Johal, Jas & Meiszner, Peter. “Idea of re-opening Riverview Hospital gains traction.” Global News, August 26, 2013. https://globalnews.ca/news/803311/idea-of-re-opening-riverview-hospital-gains-traction/. 

Kelm, Mary-Ellen. “The only place likely to do her any good”: The Admission of Women to British Columbia’s Provincial Hospital for the Insane,” BC studies Vol 9 (1992). 

Kelm, Mary-Ellen. “Women, Families and the Provincial Hospital for the Insane, British Columbia, 1905-1915,” Journal of Family History Vol 19 no. 2 (Fall 1994): p. 72. https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.11.2.335.

Kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation. “History of Riverview.” Accessed December 10, 2021. https://www.kwikwetlem.com/sumiqwuelu-riverview.htm#history. 

Kolar, Marina. “Involuntary and Coercive Psychiatric Treatment: A Critical Discourse Analysis of British Columbia’s Mental Health Act.” PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 2018.

Merrill, Andrew. “Riverview Heritage Inventory.” MA Thesis, University of British Columbia, School of Community and Regional Planning, 2009.

“Riverview.” The Last Asylum Exhibit. Accessed December 9, 2021: https://aftertheasylum.ca/. 

Rosenbloom, Michael. “Chlorpromazine and the Psychopharmacologic Revolution.” JAMA. 2002;287(14):1860–1861. doi:10.1001/jama.287.14.1860-JMS0410-6-1. 

Sadowsky, Jonathan. “Beyond the metaphor of the pendulum: electroconvulsive therapy, psychoanalysis, and the styles of American psychiatry.” J Hist Med Allied Sci. 2006 Jan;61(1): 8-10. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrj001. Epub 2005 Oct 20. PMID: 16239498.

Wyton, Moira. “Forced Mental Health Treatment Spikes in BC.” The Tyee, November 23, 2021. https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/11/23/BC-Forced-Mental-Health-Treatment-Spikes/. 

Additional Suggested Reading

Battersby, Lupin and Marina Morrow. “Challenges in Implementing Recovery-Based Mental Health Care Practices in Psychiatric Tertiary Care.” Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health 31, no. 2: 103: https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2012-0016. 

Boschma, Geertje. “Deinstitutionalization Reconsidered: Geographic and Demographic Changes in Mental Health Care in British Columbia and Alberta, 1950–1980.” Histoire Sociale/Social History 44, no. 88 (2011): 223–256.

Boyd, Jade and Thomas Kerr. “Policing ‘Vancouver’s mental health crisis’: a critical discourse analysis.” Critical public health 26, no. 4, (2016): 418-433. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2015.1007923. 

Boyd, Jade, Susan Boyd and Thomas Kerr. “Visual and narrative representations of mental health and addiction by law enforcement.” International Journal of Drug Policy 26, no. 7: 636–644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.04.007. 

Davies, Megan J. “Democracy is a Very Radical Idea.” In Mad matters: a critical reader in Canadian mad studies, edited by Brenda A. LeFrançois, Robert Menzies, and Geoffrey Reaume, 49-63. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 2013.

Davies, Megan J. “Into the House of Old: A History of Residential Care in British Columbia.” Montreal: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2003.

MacKinnon, Agnes. I carried a key: three years in a mental hospital: a nurse’s story. North Vancouver, B.C.: A. Mackinnon; Kelaona, B.C.: Distributed by Sandhill Book Marketing, 1996.

Reaume, Geoffrey. Remembrance of patients past: patient life at the Toronto Hospital for the Insane, 1870-1940. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Roman, Leslie G., Sheena Brown, Steven Noble, Rafael Wainer and Alannah Earl Young. “No time for nostalgia!: asylum making, medicalized colonialism in British Columbia (1859–97) and artistic praxis for social transformation.” International journal of qualitative studies in education, 22 , no.1 (2009): 17-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390802581919.  

Ronquillo, Charlene. “Deinstitutionalization of Mental Health Care in British Columbia: A Critical Examination of the Role of Riverview Hospital from 1950 to 2000.” The Proceedings of the 18th Annual History of Medicine Days, March 6th and 7th, 2009. University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Calgary, AB: 11-26. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/48968.

Scott, Ken. “SOCIETY, PLACE, WORK: The BC public hospital for the insane, 1872-1902.” BC Studies 171, (Autumn 2011): 93-110.

Credits

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

This episode was created in kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territory. Special thanks to KFN staff member Jill Stauber.

If you like what we do, please consider donating to the show on Patreon.

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, Liz McDonald and Garth Mullins.

Original score by James Ash. 

Our academic director is Ryan McNeil. Academic advising and direction for this episode was provided by Professor Jade Boyd. 

Thanks to historical researcher Isin Can for her research and archival work.

The immersive, binaural 360 sound historical reenactments you heard were created and produced by Glen Neath, David Rosenberg, Victoria Eyton and Anna Sulley. Voice acting by Kasper Michaels, Alyssa J. Donahue, Adam Khedheri, Alexander Osborne and Sonya Cullingford as Rosa. Piano by Nicholas Brown.

Project management by Sam Fenn and Brenda Longfellow. 

Sound design by Alexander Kim.

Thanks to Megan Davies and Geertje Boschma for their guidance and research. Additional thanks to Chris Dooley, Patty Gazzolla, Arthur Giovinazzo, Nicole Luongo, Gabrielle Peters, Kat Wahamaa and Megan Linton. 

This episode in no way reflects the opinions of BC Housing who allowed us access to one of the Riverview heritage buildings. 

Crackdown is funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Additional funding for this episode was provided by the UK/Canada Immersive Exchange. 

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 we come together to mourn our dead, there’s grief, but also anger. And resolve. Our memorials are political actions. For the revolutionary, death is not the end.

Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

If you like what we do, please consider donating at patreon.com/crackdowpod.

Special thanks to Brent Olson and Susan Boyd for taking time out to share their memories of Greg with us.

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. And, rest in Peace Greg Fresz, Dave Murray, and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex de Boer, Liz McDonald, Jade Boyd, Lisa Hale and Garth Mullins.

Our academic director is Ryan McNeil.

Sound design by Alexander Kim.

Original score was written and performed by James Ash.

Crackdown is funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Thanks for listening. Stay safe and keep six.

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 is responding. Harm Reduction workers like Trey Helten at the Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society are coming up with ways to keep people OD-ing on benzodope safe and alive – all without adequate resources or space. You can donate to Vancouver OPS here. 

Benzo contamination of the drug supply continues to get worse. Almost half of the illicit opioids sampled in B.C. now have benzos in them. More than 100,000 of us depend on this street drug supply – including Martin Steward and Laura Shaver.

After withstanding so many other crises, now Martin and Laura need to survive benzodope – a scary new challenge confronting their decade-strong relationship and their work as drug user activists.

But what do we do now that so many of us are wired to benzos? How much longer can we wait for safe supply?

• Prohibition has made the drug supply unregulated, unpredictable and potentially lethal. Drug users need a safe supply – that is, access to a safer pharmaceutical version of their drug of choice; coke, meth, heroin, fentanyl, whatever. A safe supply could end the overdose crisis overnight.

• Police must stand down and stop enforcing prohibition. Enforcement makes illicit drugs stronger and more contaminated. Drug war policing is what brought us benzo-dope.

• Doctors must start prescribing benzodiazepines and opioids in combination to substitute for the illicit and potentially-lethal street benzo-dope.

• OPSs should be expanded & funded to accommodate the longer duration of benzo-dope overdoses.

• Safe supply, substitution treatment and withdrawal management services must be made available to people who are wired to benzo-dope.

• OPS workers — especially peers — should have unionized jobs with benefits.

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 31 is especially useful for exploring the following themes:

• The outsized role of peers at overdose prevention sites in responding to the poison drug crisis.

• Ruptures and changes within the illicit drug supply.

• Romantic relationships and structural vulnerability.

• Public health outcomes of the benzodope crisis on people who use drugs.

• Crawford, Robyn. “Vancouver Overdose Prevention Society blames new drug for 16 overdoses in 2 days.” Global News. July 7, 2019.

• Daflos, Penny. “B.C. paramedics understaffed by up to 40 per cent daily due to burnout, injuries, vacancies.” CTV News, November 10, 2021.

• Harris, Magdalena, Kirsten Forseth, Tim Rhodes. “‘It’s Russian roulette’: Adulteration, adverse effects and drug use transitions during the 2010/2011 United Kingdom heroin shortage.” International Journal of Drug Policy, Volume 26, Issue 1, (2015): 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.09.009.

• Hennig, Clare. “Spike in overdoses reportedly due to opioid-sedative mix that acts like’ date rape drug.’” CBC News. July 8, 2019.

• Howard, Paul et al. “Benzodiazepines.” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Volume 47, Issue 5 (2014): 955-964.

• Jones, Jermaine D et al. “Polydrug abuse: a review of opioid and benzodiazepine combination use.” Drug and alcohol dependence vol. 125,1-2 (2012): 8-18. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.07.004

• Laing, Matthew K et al., “An outbreak of novel psychoactive substance benzodiazepines in the unregulated drug supply: Preliminary results from a community drug checking program using point-of-care and confirmatory methods.” International Journal of Drug Policy. no 93 3:103169 (Feb 2021): 1-4, 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103169.

• Melnychuk, Mark. “New Varieties of Drugs Fuel Surge in OD Deaths; Fentanyl Containing Benzodiazepine Less Responsive to Narcan Antidote.” Leader Post, Oct 27, 2021.

• Ti, Lianping and Samuel Tobias, “‘Benzo-dope’ may be replacing fentanyl: Dangerous substance turning up in unregulated opioids.” The Conversation. August 11, 2021. 

• Vescera, Zak. “B.C. harm-reduction sites, doctors struggling with new type of overdose: Benzodiazepines don’t respond to emergency treatments such as naloxone.“ Vancouver Sun, July 9, 2019.

• Kielty, Collin. “February 2022 Monthly Report.” Vancouver Island Drug Checking Project. March 22, 2022, https://substance.uvic.ca/blog/february-2022-monthly-report/.

• BC Centre for Substance Use Drug Checking Report February 2022 which found 37.9% of opioids tested positive for benzos in Feb 2022. The report states that the true number may be higher because of limits on drug testing technology.

• Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths in BC January 1, 2012 – January 31, 2022 states the number of illicit drug toxicity deaths in January 2022 equates to about 6.7 deaths per day.

• Illicit Drug Toxicity Type of Drug Data: Data to February 28, 2022 BC Coroners service report links benzos to 43% of last year’s deaths.

• Betsos, Alex, Jenna Valleriani, Jade Boyd, Geoff Bardwell, Thomas Kerr and Ryan McNeil. “‘I couldn’t live with killing one of my friends or anybody’: A rapid ethnographic study of drug sellers’ use of drug checking.” International Journal of Drug Policy Volume 87, (2021): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102845.

• Bardwell, Geoff, Jade Boyd, Jaime Arredondo, Ryan McNeil and Thomas Kerr.

• “Trusting the source: The potential role of drug dealers in reducing drug-related harms via drug checking.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Volume 198, (2019): 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.01.035.

• Ivsins, Andrew, Jade Boyd, Leo Beletsky, Ryan McNeil. “Tackling the overdose crisis: The role of safe supply.” International Journal of Drug Policy, Volume 80, 102769, (2020): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102769.

• McNeil, Ryan, PhD., Taylor Fleming M.P.H., Samara Mayer M.P.H., Allison Barker B.M.A., Manal Mansoor B.A., Alex Betsos M.A., Tamar Austin M.A., Sylvia Parusel PhD., Andrew Ivsins PhD., and Jade Boyd PhD. “Implementation of Safe Supply Alternatives during Intersecting COVID-19 and Overdose Health Emergencies in British Columbia, Canada, 2021.” American Journal of Public Health 112, 04, (2022): S151-S158: http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306692.

• Zawilska, Jolanta and Jakub Wojcieszak. “An expanding world of New Psychoactive Substances – Designer benzodiazepines.” NeuroToxicology. 73 (2). (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2019.02.015.

Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

If you like what we do, please consider donating to the show on Patreon.

Special thanks to Sara Blyth and Trey Helton for allowing us to record at OPS. If you’d like to provide them with a donation you can do so on their website here.

Thanks as well to Hugh Lampkin for helping us remember the details from Martin’s benzo overdose.

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fresz, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex de Boer, Jade Boyd, Lisa Hale and Garth Mullins.

Our academic director is Ryan McNeil.

Thanks also to Martin Steward and Laura Shaver for reviewing drafts so we could get this right.

Sound design by Alexander Kim.

Original score was written and performed by James Ash.

Academic advising and direction for this episode was provided by Professor Jade Boyd.

Additional research by Alex Betsos.

Thanks to Brenda Longfellow and Darkfield Radio for additional project management and production support.

Crackdown is funded in part by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Additional funding for this episode was provided by the Canadian Media Fund.

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 the drugs they already use. 

Then, Crackdown’s science advisor, Professor Ryan McNeil talks about his recently published work on BC’s “risk mitigation guidelines.” Why has this program failed to curb overdose deaths and what needs to be done to improve it? 

Works Cited

Ed Day, Julie Ison, and John Strang, “Inpatient Versus Other Settings for Detoxification for Opioid Dependence,” Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2 (2005). 

Jake R. Morgan et al., “Comparison of Rates of Overdose and Hospitalization After Initiation of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder in the Inpatient vs Outpatient Setting,” JAMA Network Open 3:12 (2020).

Jason Luty, “What Works in Drug Addiction?” Adv Psychiatr Treat 9 (2003): 280–288.

Jeong E. Min et al., “Estimates of Opioid Use Disorder Prevalence from a Regression-Based Multi-Sample Stratified Capture-Recapture Analysis,” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 217 (2020).

John Strang et al., “Loss of Tolerance and Overdose Mortality after Inpatient Opiate Detoxification: Follow Up Study,” BMJ 326:7396 (2003): 959–960.

Ryan McNeil et al., “Implementation of Safe Supply Alternatives During Intersecting COVID-19 and Overdose Health Emergencies in British Columbia, Canada, 2021,” American Journal of Public Health, March 9, 2022, 1-8. 

The Canadian Press, “B.C. Cabinet Ministers in Line to Keep 10% Portion of Pay Usually Withheld in Deficit Years,” CBC, Feb 24 2022. 

Credits 

Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

If you like what we do, please consider donating to the show on Patreon.

Special thanks to Professors Bohdan Nosyk and Bernie Paulie for their help. 

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fresz, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Rainbow, Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex De Boer, Danya Fast, Ryan McNeil, Lisa Hale and Garth Mullins.

Sound design by Alexander Kim.

Original score was written and performed by James Ash, Sam Fenn, and Garth Mullins.

Crackdown is funded in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. 

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 must face the music after another year of record-breaking overdose deaths. Since there’s no change, there must be consequences. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson and Minister of Health Adrian Dix must resign.

  Press Releases

BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance (BCAPOM), the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU): BCAPOM and DULF Release 2021 Overdose Stats and Distribute a Safe Supply of Drugs (February 8, 2022)

BC Coroners Service: More than 2,200 British Columbians lost to illicit drugs in 2021 (February 9, 2022)

BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions: Minister’s, PHO statement on lives lost to poisoned drugs in 2021 (February 9, 2022)

BCAPOM and DULF: Drug user activists commemorate 2021 overdose deaths by distributing a safer supply of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine (February 9, 2022)

BCAPOM and DULF: Press Conference on 2021 Coroner’s Report [Video] (February 9, 2022)

  Policy Recommendations

1. All levels of government must immediately fund programs for safe and accessible supplies of all drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and crystal meth, by directly listening to user groups and people who use drugs, and covering these drugs under Provincial Health Insurance by adding them to the formularies, or allow us to create routes of access ourselves.
2. All levels of government must immediately develop an accessible legal framework that decriminalizes, licenses, funds, and provides facility spaces for heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine compassion clubs.
3. All government commissions on drug policy, safe supply, and decriminalization must include meaningful representation from drug user groups. Nothing about us without us.

  Credits

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Special thanks to Alex Betsos for help with research.

We make this podcast with funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. And from our Patreon supporters.

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex de Boer, Ryan McNeil, Lisa Hale, and Garth Mullins.

Sound design by Alexander Kim.

Original score was written and performed by Garth Mullins, James Ash, Sam Fenn, and Kai Paulson.

Patreon link: You can find a complete transcript for today’s show, as well as photographs and links to further readings, at patreon.com/crackdownpod. While there, consider giving us a few bucks. It helps a lot.

Stay safe. Keep six.

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 build a life through the chaos? 

To find out, we asked Rainbow, a young woman in her 20s, to record big and small moments from her life for 40 days. 

This is Rainbow’s story. 

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 28 is especially useful for exploring the following themes: 

• Navigating systems of care as a young person in Canada. 
• Supportive housing. 
• Romantic relationships and structural vulnerability. 
• Stimulant use and productivity. 
• Safe supply prescribing. 

Works Cited

CBC News. “2021 now deadliest year for illicit-drug overdoses in B.C.” CBC News. December 9, 2021. 

CBC News. “B.C. Bracing for Increase in COVID Hospitalizations Amid 5th Wave.” December 29, 2021. 

Fast, Danya. “Going Nowhere: Ambivalence about Drug Treatment during an Overdose Public Health Emergency in Vancouver.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 35, no. 2 (2018): 209-225. 

Fast, Danya. “‘We Don’t Belong There’: New Geographies of Homelessness, Addiction, and Social Control in Vancouver’s Inner City.” City and Society 30, no. 2 (2018): 237-262.

Fast, Danya, Thomas Kerr, Evan Wood, and Will Small. “The Multiple Truths about Crystal Meth among Young People Entrenched in an Urban Drug Scene: A Longitudinal Ethnographic Investigation.” Social Science and Medicine 110 (2014): 41-48. 

McNeil, Ryan, Taylor Fleming, et al. “Navigating Post-Eviction Drug Use Amidst a Changing Drug Supply: A Spatially-Oriented Qualitative Study of Overlapping Housing and Overdose Crises in Vancouver, Canada. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence (2021). 

Nosyk, Bohdan et al. “Evaluation of Risk Mitigation Measures for People with Substance Use Disorders to Address the Dual Public Health Crises of COVID-19 and Overdose in British Columbia: a Mixed-Method Study Protocol.” BMJ Open (2021): 1-15. 

Stacey, Jocelyn. “The Year the Climate Emergency Came to British Columbia.” December 13, 2021.

Suggested Additional Readings

For more discussion theorizing about romantic relationships and drug use, see: 

• Bourgois, Phillippe and Jeff Schonberg. Righteous Dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
• Proudfoot, Jesse. “Drugs, Addiction, and the Social Bond.” Geography Compass 11, no. 7 (2017): 1-11. 

Credits

Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories. 

If you like what we do, please consider donating to the show on Patreon. 

Special thanks to Lee and Reith Charlesworth. 

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fresz, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Rainbow, Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex De Boer, Danya Fast, Ryan McNeil, Lisa Hale and Garth Mullins. 

Sound design by Alexander Kim. 

Original score was written and performed by James Ash, Sam Fenn, and Garth Mullins. 

We produced this episode in Partnership with Professor Danya Fast. It was funded in part by Frayme and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 

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.

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 at all costs, and that moment in life when a decision has to be made and a line has to be crossed.

You can find out more about Yard Tales and listen to more episodes at https://www.yardtales.live/.

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.” Can she kick dope with the help of a “cop baked in?”

Note: Beans the cat is healthy and happy. Don’t worry about Beans. 

Interviewees

Reija Jean

Dr. Danya Fast

Policy Recommendations 

Nothing about us without us – drug users should be given power over the design and implementation of the pharmaceutical policies that dominate their lives. We are the experts and we deserve a real seat at the table. 

Drug users should have a real choice – not limited by the moral or political concerns of their physicians: Suboxone, Methadone, Dilaudid, prescription heroin, safe supply fentanyl, whatever. 

End the war on euphoria.

Suggested Reading

Danya Fast, “Going Nowhere: Ambivalence about Drug Treatment during an Overdose Public Health Emergency in Vancouver,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 35:2 (2021): 211. 

David Moore. “Erasing pleasure from public discourse on illicit drugs: On the creation and reproduction of an absence,” International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (2008): 353–358.

Helena Hansen, Caroline Parker and Jules Netherland. “Race as a Ghost Variable in (White) Opioid Research,” Science Technology and Human Values 45:5 (2020): 848-876.

Nancy Campbell and Anne Lovell. “The history of the development of buprenorphine as an addiction therapeutic,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1248 (2012): 124-139.

Valerie Giang, Thulien M, McNeil R, Sedgemore K, Anderson H, Fast D. “Opioid agonist therapy trajectories among street entrenched youth in the context of a public health crisis.” SSM Popul Health. 11 (2020):100609.

Works Cited

Alan Cowan, Braude MC, Harris LS, May EL, Smith JP, Villarreal JE. “Evaluation in nonhuman primates: Evaluation of the physical dependence capacities of oripavine-thebaine partial agonists in patas monkeys,” in Narcotic Antagonists (1974): 427–438, Raven Press, New York.

British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and B.C. Ministry of Health. “A Guideline for the Clinical Management of Opioid Use Disorder,” (2017).

B.C. Coroners Service. “Illicit Drug Toxicity Report: Fentanyl-Detected Suspected Illicit Drug Toxicity Deaths, 2012-2021” (2021).

Danya Fast, “Going Nowhere: Ambivalence about Drug Treatment during an Overdose Public Health Emergency in Vancouver,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 35:2 (2021): 211. 

David Moore. “Erasing pleasure from public discourse on illicit drugs: On the creation and reproduction of an absence,” International Journal of Drug Policy 19 (2008): 353–358.

Helena Hansen, Caroline Parker and Jules Netherland. “Race as a Ghost Variable in (White) Opioid Research,” Science Technology and Human Values 45:5 (2020): 848-876.

John Lewis. “Nathan B Eddy Award Lecture: In Pursuit of the Holy Grail,” Proceedings of the 60th Annual Scientific Meeting of The College of Problems of Drug Dependence, Inc. (1998): 7-13.

Marteau D, McDonald R, Patel K. “The relative risk of fatal poisoning by methadone or buprenorphine within the wider population of England and Wales.” BMJ Open 5:5 (2015):e007629.

Megan Kurz, Jeong Eun Min, Laura Dale, Bohdan Nosyk. “Assessing the determinants of completing OAT induction and long term retention: A population-based study in British Columbia, Canada” Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction Issues of Substance Conference (2021): F6.3.

Nancy Campbell and Anne Lovell. “The history of the development of buprenorphine as an addiction therapeutic,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1248 (2012): 124-139.

Valerie Giang, Thulien M, McNeil R, Sedgemore K, Anderson H, Fast D. “Opioid agonist therapy trajectories among street entrenched youth in the context of a public health crisis.” SSM Popul Health. 11 (2020):100609.

Credits

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

We make this podcast with funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. And from our Patreon supporters.

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Alex de Boer, Danya Fast, Ryan McNeil, and Garth Mullins. 

Original score was written and performed by Garth Mullins, James Ash, Sam Fenn, and Kai Paulson. 

Donate to Crackdown on Patreon at  patreon.com/crackdownpod. It helps a lot.

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 it looks like when anthropology is done with us, in partnership.

Garth talks to Crackdown Editorial Board members Jeff Louden and Laura Shaver, and Crackdown Science Advisor Ryan McNeil, about Methadose. Then, Garth leads a discussion with Danya Fast, Research Scientist at the BC Centre on Substance Use and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UBC; Helena Hansen, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine; and Andrea López, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland.

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 Professor, Nancy Campbell, about the so-called “Brain Disease Model of Addiction” (BDMA). How did this idea rise in prominence and what does it misunderstand about the reasons why many people use drugs?

Campbell, Nancy. 2007. Discovering Addiction: The Science and Politics of Substance Abuse Research. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

———. 2008. The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts. New York: Abrams.

Fast, Danya. 2021. “Going Nowhere: Ambivalence about Drug Treatment during an Overdose Public Health Emergency in Vancouver.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Fast, Danya, and David Cunningham. 2018. “‘We Don’t Belong There’: New Geographies of Homelessness, Addiction, and Social Control in Vancouver’s Inner City.” City & Society 30 (2): 237–62.

Harlow, Harry. 1959. “Mother Love.” Carousel Film & Video, CBS Television Network.

Olsen, J.P., and Luke Walden. 2008. “The Narcotic Farm.” ITVS.

Preminger, Otto. 1955. “The Man with the Golden Arm.” United Artists.

Rasmussen, Nicolas. 2010. “Maurice Seevers, the Stimulants and the Political Economy of Addiction in American Biomedicine.” BioSocieties 5 (1): 105–23..

Tatum, A. L., and M. H. Seevers. 1931. “Theories of Drug Addiction.” Physiological Reviews 11 (2): 107–21. 

On this week’s show, we remember our friend and comrade Hawkfeather Peterson’s son Edward Biggs, who died suddenly this month. Hawkfeather says, “he was only 22 years old. He hadn’t even begun to live life.” Rest in peace Edward.

Janis Warren was a harm reduction worker and the lead singer of the band Lashback. She died of a fatal overdose in May. Rest in peace Janis.

Gerrald Peachey–who most of us knew as Spike–was a drug user and a force within the movement. In 2018, he ran for city council with the campaign slogan “Put a Spike Through City Hall.” Rest in Peace Spike.

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Thanks this week to Nancy Campbell and Steve Pierce for their help locating and digitizing the archival footage you heard on this month’s show. Thanks, as well, to Steve for recording our conversation with Professor Campbell.

Our editorial board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Al Fowler, Laura Shaver, Reija Jean. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Lisa Hale, Alex Kim, Danya Fast, Ryan McNeil, and Garth Mullins.

Original score was written and performed by James Ash, Sam Fenn, Kai Paulson and Garth Mullins.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

We don’t have a full documentary this month – for a pretty good reason.

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.

Someone is to blame. This is not just some force of nature.

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.

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.

Episode 1 of Crackdown launches January 30.