This episode contains adult language

Garth Mullins is the host and executive producer of Crackdown Podcast. He also has opioid use disorder and a long struggle with heroin. He joins us for a unvarnished look at the opioid epidemic from street level and working as an activist. He also provides the most brutal description of dope sickness you'll ever hear as well as the importance of the physician/patient relationship for those struggling with recovery. Vital lessons for all, an important episode.

Key Learnings

1.  Garth shares how "the howling alienation that had become the wallpaper of your life is gone" when he did heroin for the first time

2. How societal organization generates the precursors for problems people seek to solve with drugs

3, Carrying the fear of death, incarceration, & dope sickness

4. Crackdown Podcast as an activist model, a response to the frequent death of friends, and a pushback to media portrayal of opioid use disorder

5. Drawing parallels between the AIDS epidemic and the opioid epidemic to learn survival and activism skills and deal with the associated "lightning bolt of fear"

6. Crackdown Podcast as an investigative tool, a storytelling device, and an activism acclerator in vulnerable communities

7. Using humor as connective tissue for anyone dealing with a deep, dark struggle in life

8. The physical and mental torture of dope sickness and the importance of managing it properly with OAT (opioid agonist treatment)

9. How lowering the barriers to OAT and giving agency and self-determination back to those with substance use disorder can help drive recovery

10. Why relationships with physicians must be tended like a garden to ensure your OAT doses aren't changed and the skewed power dynamic this brings

11. The danger of doctors using their prescription pads punitively & the opportunity to help people "reduce the hell of my life"

Links

Website: www.crackdownpod.com

Twitter: @crackdownpod, @garthmullins

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