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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Botkin, in order to explore the culture of exploitation, secrecy, and hypermasculinity that is driving overdoses among men in the trades.

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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.

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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 management – so they avoid those life saving services because they don’t want to draw the eye of the state.

In this episode Hawkfeather Peterson and Elli Taylor, two leaders in the drug user liberation movement, share their stories of surviving the scrutiny and violence of BC’s family policing system. We also hear from professor Jade Boyd who talks about her research on why overdose interventions aren’t reaching mothers.

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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 aid, solidarity or maybe survival. But doctors have created all kinds of measures to try to stop it. And politicians have spread lies as part of a pretext to stamp out safe supply before it ever really gets started.

In this episode we follow a guy named Pockets, as he finds relief in heroin and eventually gets prescribed Dilaudid and Methadone. Surrounded by death, in the time of fentanyl and benzodope, Pockets starts to share his safe, regulated meds to help save lives. And he’s punished for it.

We also hear from professors Thomas Kerr and Geoff Bardwell who talk about their research on diversion, which provides an alternative, evidence-based, perspective on the highly controversial practice.

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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.

Suggested Reading:

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/.

Credits:

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.

 

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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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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 →