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This month Crackdown is exploring the pernicious connections between North America's overdose crisis and the housing crisis. Next week's show will be a full documentary. This week, Crackdown editorial board member Al Fowler tells the story of Vancouver's infamous The Palace Hotel and the tyrannical landlord who ran the place.

• Cole, Yolande. "Vancouver non-profit group to take over two Downtown Eastside buildings."  The Georgia Straight. August 18, 2011.
• Massah, Sarah. "Bullied tenants forced to buy methadone from slumlord: claim." CTV News Vancouver. August 19, 2011.
• Harbottle, Tyler. "Palace of Hell." The Tyee. August 24, 2011.
• PIVOT Legal. Press Release: "Eleven more tenants come forward in Wolsey Hotel Case." November 22, 2011.
• Fleming et al. (2019) Housing in Crisis: A qualitative study of the socio-legal contexts of residential evictions in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. International Journal of Drug Policy.
• Collins et al. (2018) Surviving the housing crisis: Social violence and the production of evictions among women who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada. Health & Place.
• Kennedy et al. (2017) Residential eviction and exposure to violence among people who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada. International Journal of Drug Policy. 

Garth Mullins is Crackdown‘s host and executive producer.

Al Fowler is this month’s lead editorial consultant.

Crackdown’s Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Dave Murray, Al Fowler, and Chereece Keewatin (RIP).

Crackdown is produced by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Lisa Hale and Gordon Katic. Our scientific adviser is Ryan McNeil from the BC Centre on Substance Use.

The music for this episode was written by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, and Jacob Dryden.

Thanks to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for ongoing funding to Crackdown.

You can follow us on twitter @crackdownpod.

You can send us an email at [email protected].

https://www.patreon.com/posts/27226897

A full transcript of this episode will be available for free in a couple days.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the simple possession of drugs. Ever since it has become a  beacon for progressives, activists, and drug users around the world. On episode 5 of Crackdown, Garth goes to Portugal to figure out whether the country has found a solution to North America's overdose crisis.  

Credits

Garth Mullins is Crackdown‘s host and executive producer.

Sam Fenn and Lisa Hale were this month’s lead producer.

Crackdown’s Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Dave Murray, and Al Fowler. Rest In Peace Chereece Keewatin.

Crackdown is produced by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Lisa Hale and Gordon Katic. 

Our scientific adviser is Ryan McNeil from the BC Centre on Substance Use.

Special thanks to journalist and translator Enrique Pinto-Coelho for his help telling this story. You can follow Enrique on twitter here and you can hire him here. 

Thanks as well to the Portuguese Canadian journalist Susana Ferreira. Check out here longform piece about Portugal's drug reforms in The Guardian here. 

The music for this episode was written by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, and Jacob Dryden.

Thanks as well to Rui Coimbra, Diana Castro, Renato Pinto, Sara Tuppen Veloso, Joana Canedo, Sofia Pereira, and Sonia Ferreira for helping our team while we were in Portugal. 

Funding for Crackdown comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 

You can follow us on twitter @crackdownpod.

You can send us an email at [email protected].

New episodes air on the last Wednesday of the month.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/26341890

https://crackdownpod.com/

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. 

Garth Mullins is Crackdown‘s host and executive producer.

Alexander Kim was this month’s lead producer.

Crackdown’s Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Dave Murray, Al Fowler, and Chereece Keewatin (RIP).

Crackdown is produced by Alexander Kim, Lisa Hale, Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic. This month our lead producer was Alexander Kim. 

Our science advisor is Ryan McNeil, lead of the Qualitative & Community-Based Research Program of the BC Centre on Substance Use. Ryan is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

Thank you to Emily Rendell-Watson and Marta Ligocki at CJSW 90.9 FM in Calgary. 

Original score written and performed by Sam Fenn, Jacob Dryden, Kai Paulson and Garth Mullins. Our theme song was written by Sam and I with accompaniment from Dave Gens and Ben Appenheimer.  

We make this podcast with funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We are also supported by our listeners through Patreon.

You can follow us on twitter @crackdownpod.

You can send us an email at [email protected].

New episodes air on the last Wednesday of the month.

Vancouver has become famous for Insite--North America's first supervised injection facility. iIt's one of the more exciting (and effective) drug policy interventions in the world. However, most people don't know the story activism and civil disobedience that preceded it. 

https://crackdownpod.com/podcast/episode-2-change-intolerance/

EPISODE 2: CHANGE INTOLERANCE

British Columbia switched nearly 15,000 methadone patients to a new formulation called Methadose in 2014. In Crackdown's second episode, Garth Mullins, Laura Shaver, and their colleagues at the British Columbia Association of People on Methadone investigate what happened next.

Crackdown is hosted, written, and produced by Garth Mullins.

It is also produced by Sam Fenn, Alexander Kim, Lisa Hale and Gordon Katic. Our scientific adviser is Ryan McNeil from the BC Centre on Substance Use. 

Episode 2's lead editorial consultant was Laura Shaver and lead producer was Sam Fenn.

Music in today's show was written by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, Jacob Dryden and "Ray."

/// Episode 1 of Crackdown launches January 30. ///

The ongoing overdose crisis is an unprecedented public health emergency. Thousands are dying while activists and researchers call for urgent change. Government isn’t doing enough to address the crisis, and the media is letting them get away with it. So, we're making our own media.

CRACKDOWN is a new, 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.

The host and executive producer of CRACKDOWN is Garth Mullins, an award-winning documentarian and longtime community organizer. Garth has been an opioid user for years, injecting heroin daily all the way through the last overdose crisis, and is now on methadone. The podcast is led by an editorial board made up of some of Vancouver's most experienced drug user activists. CRACKDOWN is undertaken in partnership with the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and produced by Cited Media Productions on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.