People First Radio – December 12, 2024People First Radio – December 12, 2024
People First Radio
Three interviews highlight trauma-informed law, youth experiences of drug use and poverty in Vancouver, and a mother’s journey through her son’s addiction, recovery, relapse, and death. The episode focuses on justice, boredom, hope, and the role of community in facing addiction and loss.
0:00•13 Dec 2024
Trauma, Youth Drugs, and a Mother’s Hope: Three Candid Conversations on Addiction
Episode Overview
- Trauma-informed law means recognising clients’ pain, histories, and circumstances instead of focusing only on legal issues.
- Criminal cases often involve addiction, unstable housing, mental illness, and systemic racism, especially for Indigenous people.
- Many young people who use drugs in Vancouver still dream of conventional futures with homes, jobs, families, and leisure.
- Substance use can temporarily relieve intense boredom and create a sense of momentum, which can pull youth back even after treatment and housing.
- Families affected by addiction can find support and meaning through recovery communities, and caring for oneself can positively affect the whole family.
“There is always hope for our kids as long as they're still breathing.”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? People First Radio’s 12 December 2024 episode pulls together three powerful conversations that shine a light on justice, youth drug use, and family grief, all through a lens of care and realism. Lawyer and educator Myrna McCallum sets the tone by talking about "being more trauma responsive and trauma aware" in criminal law.
She explains how legal training often ignores the pain people bring into courtrooms, and how that "set us up to do a lot of harm". She stresses the weight of so‑called “soft skills” like empathy and compassion, especially when working with people facing addiction, unstable housing, and mental illness, and highlights systemic racism and bias, particularly against Indigenous people and those experiencing homelessness and addiction.
Next, medical anthropologist Dr Dania Fast shares years of work with young people who use drugs in Vancouver. Her research, captured in her book *The Best Place*, shows youth imagining futures that are surprisingly ordinary: "homes… exciting careers… getting that paycheck every two weeks". She talks about how drugs sometimes "open up" daily life by easing crushing boredom and creating a sense of momentum, even while raising the risk of overdose.
Her reflections on power, privilege, and those "painful, almost confusing" forms of boredom offer a stark look at what life in deep poverty can feel like. The final segment turns to parent grief and hope, as author Kathy Wagner talks about her memoir *Here With You* and her son Tristan’s addiction, recovery, relapse, and death.
She recalls the isolation of parenting a child in addiction and the relief of finding a recovery community: "addiction happens to the whole family… but healing and recovery can also happen to the whole family." Kathy argues that there "is always hope", even if it ends up looking very different from what any parent imagined.
If you’re living with addiction in your family, working in the justice system, or simply trying to understand these issues better, could these three stories offer the context and comfort you’ve been missing?
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