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 re

Episode 43: Kids on the Block Part 2 – Jade

Feb 16th, 2024 57m 1s

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

Episode 42: Kids on the Block Part 1 – Bones

Nov 28th, 2023 43m 40s

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 hea

Episode 41: New Front, Old War

Nov 21st, 2023 42m 19s

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-w

Episode 40: Boys Don’t Cry

Aug 4th, 2023 43m 15s

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 physica

Episode 39: Backlash

Jul 6th, 2023 37m 31s

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.

Episode 38: The Knock

Jun 1st, 2023 47m 17s

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

Episode 37: Drugstore Cowboy

Mar 22nd, 2023 43m 10s

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 med

Episode 36: Some Exceptions Apply

Feb 2nd, 2023 37m 32s

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 arre

Episode 35: On the Clock

Dec 10th, 2022 39m 58s

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 abou

Psychoactive Swap

Sep 22nd, 2022 1h 15m

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. Th

Episode 34: The Iron Law

Jul 19th, 2022 33m 27s

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 poli

Episode 33: You Will Not Destroy Me

Jun 16th, 2022 45m 7s

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 Vanco

Episode 32: Goodbye Greg

May 18th, 2022 18m 54s

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 “no

Episode 31: Love, Death and Benzodope

Apr 22nd, 2022 52m 48s

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

Episode 30: DULF

Mar 15th, 2022 47m 16s

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

Episode 29: Resign

Feb 15th, 2022 42m 19s

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 number

Episode 28: After the Flood

Jan 13th, 2022 43m 56s

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 fe

Yard Tales Swap

Oct 27th, 2021 1h

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 sto

Episode 27: Cop Baked In

Sep 29th, 2021 50m 43s

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

Live at AAA 2019

Aug 12th, 2021 59m 26s

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 w

Episode 26: Artificial Energy

Jul 16th, 2021 47m 33s

On Episode 26 of Crackdown, we look at crystal meth and the need to adapt to an unrelenting world.

The Lab

Jun 3rd, 2021 43m 56s

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 limit

Episode 24: If It Wasn’t Drugs It Would Be Something Else

Apr 29th, 2021 39m 54s

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.

Episode 23: Cop Free Future

Apr 2nd, 2021 45m 3s

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.