People First Radio – April 09, 2026People First Radio – April 09, 2026
People First Radio
People First Radio brings together drug user advocate Garth Mullins, researcher Holly Shannon, and coastal B.C. musicians to discuss toxic drug policy, problematic social media use, and substance-centred music workplaces. Their conversations share lived experience, research, and industry realities around mental health, addiction, and the pressures of modern life.
0:00•10 Apr 2026
War Stories, Screen Habits and Stage Highs: People First Radio on Drugs, Social Media and Music
Episode Overview
- Garth Mullins frames the toxic drug crisis as a human-made “drug war” driven by policy, not personal weakness, and argues for safe supply, housing, and harm reduction.
- He links the worsening climate of stigma to the mainstreaming of far-right politics, which target harm reduction and decriminalisation with misinformation and fear.
- Holly Shannon explains that problematic social media use is assessed through addiction-like features such as tolerance, withdrawal, and conflict, even though it lacks a formal diagnosis.
- Shannon highlights how platform design, youth brain development, and pre-existing mental health difficulties can combine to push social media from habit into harmful compulsion.
- Musicians and industry researcher Katherine Harrison describe an alcohol-centred work culture where both heavy use and sobriety can be stigmatised, making healthier choices harder on and off stage.
“We’re really all connected, that there probably aren’t too many people in Canada who aren’t touched some way by this.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This edition of People First Radio brings together voices from harm reduction, neuroscience, and the music scene to ask exactly that.
You’ll hear Crackdown host and author Garth Mullins describe his “war correspondence” approach to the toxic drug crisis, calling his work “drug users covering the drug war like war correspondents.” Drawing on decades of opioid use, methadone treatment, and activism with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, he links current overdose deaths to political choices rather than individual failings.
Garth talks about safe supply, decriminalisation, and the rise of far‑right backlash, stressing that “we all have a role in stopping the mass deaths here.” The focus then shifts to screens instead of substances. Neuroscience researcher Holly Shannon unpacks “problematic social media use” and why there’s still no agreed clinical definition.
She explains how tools like the Bergen Social Media Addiction Questionnaire look for addiction features such as tolerance, withdrawal, and conflict, pointing to Robert West’s description of addiction as “the loss of control over a reward-seeking behaviour.” Holly also discusses youth vulnerability, platform design tricks like endless scrolling, and the messy question of who holds responsibility: individuals, companies, or governments. Rounding things out, a trio of coastal B.C. musicians talk frankly about substance use at work.
Consultant and researcher Katherine Harrison highlights the “double stigma” of using too much or too little in an alcohol‑centred industry. Artists Sam Tudor, Niamh, and Devours (Jeff Kankade) describe being paid in drink tickets, touring routines built around booze, and performance highs that can feel as addictive as any drug. This episode suits anyone curious about how drug policy, digital habits, and creative work collide with mental health and addiction.
It’s serious, sometimes sobering, but grounded in real people’s stories and a clear message: what part might you play in making things kinder and safer for everyone?
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