Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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lisa-steacy.bsky.social @lisa-steacy.bsky.social · Aug 21

VPD was aware of the intense public interest – and also of the “fear and anxiety” news of stranger assaults was causing in 2022. VPD issued at least 52 releases mentioning stranger assaults, but provided no updated data about the frequency of these crimes. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

‘Fear and anxiety’: What our police FOI requests uncovered about Vancouver’s stranger assaults scare

Internal emails obtained through Freedom of Information requests shed light on the Vancouver Police Department's media strategy related to stranger assaults ahead of the city's 2022 election.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · Aug 6

Full house at BCAPOM today for a listening party: @crackdownpod.bsky.social ep37 “Drugstore Cowboy” about the moral panic around “diversion” (AKA Sharing) www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 37: Drugstore Cowboy — Crackdown Podcast

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 politici...

www.crackdownpod.com

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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · Jul 3

I owe this story to the people I interviewed, including Esther Tailfeathers, @ehyshka.bsky.social, David Hodgins, recovery centre workers and esp @harmreduxnurse.bsky.social & her son Brandon of @4bharmredux.bsky.social.

My story commission was donated to 4B to help B’s remarkable stabilization… 1/

Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · Jul 3

Proud to discover my @albertaviews.bsky.social cover story, “What’s Wrong With Rehab?,” is nominated for @albertamags.bsky.social Award!

Congrats to my hard-hitting company @cfrangou.bsky.social @klaszus.bsky.social @monicakidd.bsky.social & all nominees: albertamagazines.com/wp-content/u...

Feature writing, long form finalists, including two Alberta views entries by Evan Osentin and Euan Thomson, as well as work by Jeremy Klaszus, Christina Frangou, Rachel Von Hahn and Monica Kidd.

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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · Jul 3

And if you want an update on how Brandon & Angie are doing, listen to @crackdownpod.bsky.social’s recent episode, Get Sober or Get Dead — the first Crackdown episode centred in Alberta.

It’s beautiful, words can’t really do it justice: 2/
www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast

Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

www.crackdownpod.com

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jul 1

🚨NEW EPISODE 🚨

With fascism on the rise around the world, we explore the relationship between Canada’s housing and policing policies and the risk of far right authoritarianism at home.

www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 55: The Man in the High Castle — Crackdown Podcast

With fascism on the rise around the world, we explore the relationship between Canada’s housing and policing policies and the risk of far right authoritarianism at home. 

www.crackdownpod.com

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · Jun 30

Just narcanned a guy on Hawks & Hastings. Took 4 ampules & 10 min. Thought he wasn’t coming back. Scared the shit out of me.
Cop yelled at me: “Get back!! I won’t tell you again!!”
I said, “I was the first responder here. I saved his life. Just want him to see a friendly face.” 🖕Task Force Barrage

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · Jun 26

Methadone is a well studied, safe, subsidized, pharmaceutical opioid. A pretty good substitute for heroin. But street dope is stronger now, so we need stronger substitutes.

Filter | harm reduction journalism @filtermag.bsky.social · Jun 26

“Methadone saved my life," @garthmullins.bsky.social told Filter. "I no longer had to spend all my time and money outrunning dopesickness. I could get on with doing the other things I wanted.”

Garth Mullins of "Crackdown" on Loss, Methadone and Drug-User Organizing

Podcast host Mullins spoke with Filter about his new memoir, "Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting the War on Drugs."

filtermag.org

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Filter | harm reduction journalism @filtermag.bsky.social · Jun 26

“Methadone saved my life," @garthmullins.bsky.social told Filter. "I no longer had to spend all my time and money outrunning dopesickness. I could get on with doing the other things I wanted.”

Garth Mullins of "Crackdown" on Loss, Methadone and Drug-User Organizing

Podcast host Mullins spoke with Filter about his new memoir, "Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting the War on Drugs."

filtermag.org

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Andrea Woo @andreawoo.bsky.social · Jun 4

Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel acknowledges lack of evidence on forced addictions treatment as B.C., Alberta expand it
www.msn.com/en-ca/news/c...

MSN

www.msn.com

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Petra Schulz @msthpetra.bsky.social · Jun 5

I love this episode of @crackdownpod.bsky.social.
We can heal broken relationships, and people do recover, with love, harm reduction, radical acceptance, and care.
@4bharmredux.bsky.social
www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast

Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

www.crackdownpod.com

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jun 5

Thank you Petra. 💜

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jun 5

Thanks Tyson!

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tyson singh kelsall ਟਾਈਸਨ ਸਿੰਘ @tsk.bsky.social · Jun 5

per usual—as the political class creates spectacle from the toxic drug crisis, @crackdownpod.bsky.social shows us the intimate realities. important new episode: www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...
ft. @momsstoptheharm.bsky.social @4bharmredux.bsky.social

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast

Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

www.crackdownpod.com

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jun 4

Thank you, Euan! Your work was a big force behind this episode. We are so grateful for your dedication to the drug user liberation movement. And for giving us the incredible title to this episode! You rule. 💜

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Euan Thomson @drugdatadecoded.ca · Jun 4

Drop everything - the first @crackdownpod.bsky.social episode centred in Alberta just dropped
www.crackdownpod.com

Crackdown Podcast

www.crackdownpod.com

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jun 4

Huge thanks to Angie (@harmreduxnurse.bsky.social) & Brandon from @4bharmredux.bsky.social. Crackdown isn't possible without the courage and vulnerability of our subjects who often share the hardest moments of their lives, so we can illustrate the injustice of the drug war. So much gratitude. 💜

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Jun 4

Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. On episode 54, we meet Angie & her son Brandon. When Brandon got wired as a teen, Angie had a difficult choice to make: should she force him to sober up? If she did, what would happen to their relationship? www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast

Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

www.crackdownpod.com

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Petra Schulz @msthpetra.bsky.social · Jun 3

Honoured and privileged to join the @crackdownpod.bsky.social editorial board today as they put final touches on the #AB episode.
You will want to listen when it drops later today.

six members of the Crackdown editorial board and I, to women, and for men, stand or sit in a semicircle holding Garth Mullins book crackdown, inside the VANDU boardroom.

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Filter | harm reduction journalism @filtermag.bsky.social · May 16

“Nobody thinks it’s a good idea,” Dave Webb, of the Surrey Union of Drug Users, tells @godfrey.bsky.social. “I thought in treatment we were supposed to reconnect with our loved ones and friends. If we’re putting somebody in segregation, how is that going to work?”

BC Involuntary Treatment Taking Place in a Solitary Confinement Unit

It raises pressing questions about the wellbeing of people being subjected to a form of treatment to which experts already object.

filtermag.org

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · Jun 3

I am very glad to hear the federal minister of health say that forced treatment does not work. Now all the provincial health ministers gotta listen. @crackdownpod.bsky.social will have an ep on this out in a few days.
cfjctoday.com/2025/06/03/h...

Health minister says forced addictions treatment lacks evidence, feds won’t intervene

OTTAWA - Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel says there's no evidence that forcing people into addictions ...

cfjctoday.com

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · May 3

I'm thrilled so many profs use @crackdownpod.bsky.social episodes in their curriculum. Might I suggest including my book by the same name? Learning outcomes include: harm reduction, decrim, methadone, safe supply, HIV, PTSD, sex work, advocacy, research, etc www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/700597...

Crackdown by Garth Mullins | Penguin Random House Canada

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*Part memoir, part manifesto, Crackdown is a story of the drug war, told from the frontlines.

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · May 6

Plenty of dramatic things happen at @crackdownpod.bsky.social Editorial Board / meetings. Too often we talk about death. But today Samona & Laura delivered puppies.

Two women wearing blue gloves are delivering puppies from a dog in the

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Garth Mullins @garthmullins.bsky.social · May 6

I am honoured that Grace Chen wants to read my book. Grace runs the Ovaltine Cafe. She's been cooking good, affordable breakfasts for me & Jeff & the whole @crackdownpod.bsky.social team for years. She has much love for the DTES and it loves her right back. ❤️☕️🍳🥓

A man sits across from a woman at a booth in a cafe. They both hold a book in the middle. The book is called Crackdown.

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Petra Schulz @msthpetra.bsky.social · May 2

I’m reading Crackdown, by @garthmullins.bsky.social
Episode 4 of @crackdownpod.bsky.social also starts with Nick’s funeral.
The episode was the first time I had the opportunity to work with Garth and the crew. I’ve learned much from him and crackdown since.

www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/i7y...

Episode 4: Blame — Crackdown Podcast

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

www.crackdownpod.com

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Crackdown podcast @crackdownpod.bsky.social · Apr 25

Trey Helten was nothing less than a hero. He saved hundreds of lives by reversing ODs, driving people to treatment & just being kind. Trey was a friend to Crackdown and appeared on the show twice. We'll never forget you, Trey. Rest in power. rb.gy/ztwctt

Episode 53: Goodbye Ashtrey — Crackdown Podcast

We lost another soldier from the front lines. Trey Helten, longtime manager of the Overdose Prevention Society and all around harm reduction hero on the Downtown Eastside, has died at 42. Trey saved h...

rb.gy

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