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frandroidCrackdown - Episode 41: New Front, Old War
Crackdown is a podcast by Garth Mullins, who is a drug user and an advocate for the drug-using community in Vancouver. I have some interest drug use activism because of two people: Zoe Dodd in Toronto (also a punk rock queen I have a mild crush on) and Mullins. Both of them have been super effective advocates for safe injection sites, and have been part of groups who started such sites when it was either illegal or forever waiting for a license. I'm not a street drug user nor do I really know people who use these drugs, so it's not an issue I have a personal connection to, but the drug supply has been poisoned by fentanyl (and eve more toxic variants like carfentanyl) and people are dying at record rates because of it.
So the main reason I listen to the podcast is to listen to Mullins as a propagandist. He is an incredibly skilled individual, a gifted story-teller in particular. Mullins and Dodd have gone toe to toe with health ministers, prime ministers and come out looking this champions. The core message of drug user advocates is that the drug supply is poisoned and that they should not have to die because of it. It seems like a simplistic premise but it's an extremely powerful one when wielded by Mullins et al. The whole Crackdown show is a propaganda vehicle for the drug user cause, centered around VANDU, the Vancouver Drug users Union, which has existed for a few decades.
Last year, seeing how governments were dragging their feet in their response to the toxic drug hecatomb, Vancouver activists formed a sister organization named DULF, the Drug User Liberation Front. It's based on the model of compassion societies but for harder drugs like heroin and cocaine. They buy drugs on the Dark Web from sellers known not to cut their drugs, test the drugs anyway through a mass spectrometer to see that the drugs are not poisoned, and then have staged drug giveaways on the street. (The drugs come in printed boxes that look like long cigarette packs!) This episode features a number of speeches by activists at their first giveaway event a while ago. The speeches are well-written and excellently delivered. After having had to listen to weeks of poor speakers talking a Palestine protests, it's refreshing to hear people treat public speaking as a craft and give it some thought. I think any activist who is serious about propaganda and mobilization in Canada should listen to Crackdown and learn from a pro.
Crackdown is a podcast by Garth Mullins, who is a drug user and an advocate for the drug-using community in Vancouver. I have some interest drug use activism because of two people: Zoe Dodd in Toronto (also a punk rock queen I have a mild crush on) and Mullins. Both of them have been super effective advocates for safe injection sites, and have been part of groups who started such sites when it was either illegal or forever waiting for a license. I'm not a street drug user nor do I really know people who use these drugs, so it's not an issue I have a personal connection to, but the drug supply has been poisoned by fentanyl (and eve more toxic variants like carfentanyl) and people are dying at record rates because of it.
So the main reason I listen to the podcast is to listen to Mullins as a propagandist. He is an incredibly skilled individual, a gifted story-teller in particular. Mullins and Dodd have gone toe to toe with health ministers, prime ministers and come out looking this champions. The core message of drug user advocates is that the drug supply is poisoned and that they should not have to die because of it. It seems like a simplistic premise but it's an extremely powerful one when wielded by Mullins et al. The whole Crackdown show is a propaganda vehicle for the drug user cause, centered around VANDU, the Vancouver Drug users Union, which has existed for a few decades.
Last year, seeing how governments were dragging their feet in their response to the toxic drug hecatomb, Vancouver activists formed a sister organization named DULF, the Drug User Liberation Front. It's based on the model of compassion societies but for harder drugs like heroin and cocaine. They buy drugs on the Dark Web from sellers known not to cut their drugs, test the drugs anyway through a mass spectrometer to see that the drugs are not poisoned, and then have staged drug giveaways on the street. (The drugs come in printed boxes that look like long cigarette packs!) This episode features a number of speeches by activists at their first giveaway event a while ago. The speeches are well-written and excellently delivered. After having had to listen to weeks of poor speakers talking a Palestine protests, it's refreshing to hear people treat public speaking as a craft and give it some thought. I think any activist who is serious about propaganda and mobilization in Canada should listen to Crackdown and learn from a pro.