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.
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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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Episode 45: Recriminalization
Friday, May 10, 2024 • Duration 49:34
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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Episode 36: Some Exceptions Apply
Thursday, February 2, 2023 • Duration 37:32
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.
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.
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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Psychoactive Swap
Thursday, September 22, 2022 • Duration 01:15:27
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
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Episode 34: The Iron Law
Tuesday, July 19, 2022 • Duration 33:27
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.
Further Reading
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
Rest in Peace
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.
Credits
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Episode 33: You Will Not Destroy Me
Thursday, June 16, 2022 • Duration 45:07
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!
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Episode 32: Goodbye Greg
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 • Duration 18:54
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.
Credits
Crackdown is produced on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh territories.
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.
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Episode 31: Love, Death and Benzodope
Friday, April 22, 2022 • Duration 52:48
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?
Call to Action and Political Demands
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.
News stories/journal articles:
Reports:
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Episode 30: DULF
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 • Duration 47:16
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?
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
OPS workers — especially peers — should have unionized jobs with benefits.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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