Events › Incite: Garth Mullins on Surviving the War on Drugs

Garth Mullins was born into a world too bright for him to fully see, and too unforgiving to fully accept him. Bullied by both kids and adults, who mocked his albinism and trivialized his blindness, Garth turned to activism and punk rock, and discovered a scene that embraced him for who he was. And yet he still couldn't quell a haunting pain that had overwhelmed him since he was a child—until he tried heroin.

Garth's experience as a heroin user—including dopesickness, incarceration and overdose—is an all-too-common story for those struggling with drug addiction. Crackdown is an intimate portrait of his relationship with opioids, and a searing indictment of a broken system. With street drugs getting more toxic by the day, drug users and their families, friends, and communities are left to pay the price. And for Garth, it was this revelation that propelled him to the forefront of drug user activism.

Garth joins us at Incite in conversation with The Globe and Mail health reporter Andrea Woo. These two award-winning journalists will discuss a radical reimagining of our approach to drug use, and lead us to envisage a system that helps rather than punishes.

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Books will be for sale at the event courtesy of Book Warehouse/Black Bond Books, with a signing afterwards.

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This event is accessible two ways: by attending in-person at the Vancouver Public Library, or by tuning in to the online livestream.

Please register here and indicate whether you will be attending in-person or online.

Incite is a free reading series presented in partnership with the Vancouver Writers Fest, offering conversations with celebrated authors and emerging talents every two weeks from January to June.