The Dr. Junkie Show is a podcast hosted by addicted person, convicted criminal, prison educator and college educator Ben Boyce. Topics include drugs and those who use them, media, and communication, along with an overall focus on systems of power.
Ghost Dope: you can't touch it, you can't smoke it, and you can't weigh it. But it sent Chris Trigg to prison for 30 years. In this episode I share the story of Chris Trigg, who remains in prison, serving time for a conviction for drugs which never existed. My Prison, Communication & Social Justice Spring, 2021 class joins me to share Chris's story. Support the show
In this episode, I talk about the trial of Derek Chauvin, and the defense's ironic argument that the system is at fault. Derek was following his training, and he actually could have used more force than he did, according one defense witness. All of this feels eerily familiar. For decades, "Reality" TV shows like COPS have shown us spectacles of law enforcement wherein a resisting suspect is hogtied ("hobbled"). We have listened as officers responded to suspects screaming, "I can't breathe!" with...
Brandon Stickney was a successful journalist when he handed one of his friends a pill. But that pill was a Suboxone (buprenorphine), so when his friend told on him, Brandon wound up in prison for 19 months. Brandon's latest book, The Five People You'll Meet in Prison, is part memoir, part activism, and all indictment of a system which locks people up for using drugs, then does everything it can to make sure they become life-long criminals. Support the show...
Free will is the underlying principle of our criminal "justice" system. Without the ability to blame people for their "crimes," we would be forced to focus on prevention instead of revenge, restoration instead of retribution. But free will is not a thing. The illusion of free will isn't even a thing. In this episode, I will take a stab at explaining why so many people still claim to believe that free will aligns with their experience of the world, even though it clearly does not. Support the sho...
In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo gathered a group of undergraduate students and convinced them that they were not allowed to leave the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department. Half of the group played the role of guards, while the other half became prisoners for what was supposed to be a 14-day experiment. What followed was six days of legitimized abuse, and fifty years of legitimized research, all based on a misrepresentation of motives. In this episode I talk about what happened in that st...
Once WWII ended, the "Western World" got to work figuring out what had happened. But (as usual), we had no interest taking any blame or self reflecting on our own systems of power. Researchers who understood how much we hate to point the finger at ourselves designed study after study meant to reveal the thing or things which caused otherwise good people to do horrible things. In this episode I will talk about two of those studies: The Robbers Cave Experiment (1954) and the Milgram Shock Experime...
Have you ever felt like the news and TV programs are reinforcing racist stereotypes? Have you ever seen a drug dealer or a thief on television and known they were a bad guy before they did anything illegal? Dr. Travis Dixon's work reveals the statistical cause of that feeling. The news, television and movies are indeed misrepresenting the facts about crime and criminal justice, showing us far more images of criminality which align with our preconceived notions of what a criminal looks like, and ...
Author Rebecca Traister joins me to talk about her book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger. We talk about feminism, cancel-culture (and accountability), the Capitol raid, representation, patriarchy, stereotypes, and how women have been vital to social movement in the US throughout history (even though their stories are often overshadowed by men). We also discuss methods of disempowerment, specifically, how women have been strategically silenced and disempowered in Western Cu...
Between 1999 and 2021 the US saw a massive increase in opioid (heroin, fentanyl, morphine, etc.) overdose deaths. The result: we are now in the midst of a so-called “opioid epidemic.” But what does that mean? How should the government respond? And how can we change it? It turns out the CDC's overdose death counts are exaggerated, and the inaccuracies have fueled a massive and never ending war on drugs. In this episode I discuss the mistakes we often make when thinking (and talking) about the opi...
Join me for a brief history of cocaine, an overview of the biopharmacology, and roadmap for how to undo the damage done by the war on drugs. Crack cocaine is just cocaine. The only difference is it can be smoked, which means it kicks in harder and wears off faster. And because of that, it can also be sold in small doses. These differences, which aren't differences, have been used to defend a racist war on drugs. More than 80% of Reagan-era crack sentences were given to black men, even though bla...
Fair warning: this episode is philosophical and theological, and I swerve a bit out of my lane to argue that we should think of cultish-behavior, like engagement with conspiracy theories and evidence-free logic, as an addiction. Thinking about QAnon, or Far-Right Trumpism (or Far-Left conspiracy theories) as addictions allows us to better understand both addiction and the folks who are engaging in these movements. It feels good to know something that others do not, and to figure out a riddle tha...
Dr. Mia Fischer joins me to talk about systems of power, and the way that they refuse to change, even when they appear to do so. Our military has recently incorporated, then unincorporated, then reincorporated openly-trans folks. Our prisons often house incarcerated people in the wrong facilities based on their assigned birth gender. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Any good hegemonic system will begin with this foundation. Unless we work towards systemic change, the small ba...
Most of what we know about addiction is wrong. It isn't chemical hooks or a weak mind. Our survival depends on our ability to do the things that eventually lead to addiction when they get out of control. We become sensitized to things we find exciting or dangerous – things that we need to notice right away to avoid injury – and we become tolerant to things we find comforting and safe – things that we want to do again. It isn't just drugs. It's relationships, jobs, religious organizations, chores...
When I was court-ordered to attend a 12-step program back in 2003, I knew within a meeting or two that it wasn't for me. The entire program is based on religion, on finding and trusting your so-called "higher power." The only requirement–a desire to stop using drugs or alcohol–wasn't something I was willing to lie about. And most importantly, it was based on the disease model. And I didn't have a disease. Despite insisting addiction is a disease, the treatment offered by 12-step programs involve...
The War on Drugs is designed to grow forever. But now that the warriors have arrested us into a crisis, and killed us into an overdose catastrophe, they are running out of targets to fund their war. So they cooked up a solution: sue the pharmacies into cutting off opioid users so that we head to the streets, then arrest the new dealers that pop up to supply the new market, and confiscate their property to pay for police department budgets. And now they only have two choices: end this brutal, poi...
As 2020 comes to a close and COVID rages on, we are all stressed out, and many of us are taking more drugs than we were before this pandemic began. That is normal. It is not sinful. It is not a sign of weakness. It would be weird if we weren't. But if we don't talk about it, we will be in trouble when this lockdown ends in a few months. The shame that we all feel is the reason we aren't talking about it, and the consequences are largely the result of our silence. Support the show...
HBOs hit series Euphoria is on track for a Blockbuster second season. But amongst the hyperviolent scenes and transphobic terrorism, there is a story about addiction that is both wrong and dangerous. Join me for a critical review of Season 1 and Special Episode 1. Support the show
Media teaches us facts about our world. And most of the time we don't even notice. We learn that elevators have roof hatches and that most of Earth's oxygen comes from the rain forests, along with a bunch of other TV lies, and we don't even realize we have learned these things (incorrectly). Dr. Bill Yousman joins me to discuss media, prison, and the war on drugs. We also talk about rap music, masculinity, and methods for avoiding the miseducation that comes with irresponsible media consumption....
What is meditation? Why does an image search bring up thousands of cross-legged sun-gazers? Dr. Jeni Hunniecutt joins me to discuss meditation, mindfulness, and overall quality of life. We discuss types of meditation, how to begin, why to start, and why it can be so valuable to experience Being instead of always Doing . Support the show
What is Whiteness? Why does it feel like such a scary word? And what does it have to do with the War on Drugs? Dawn-Marie McIntosh joins me for a conversation about power. The United States was built upon the institution of White Supremacy, but the slavery and murder of black folks was eventually replaced by a system of segregation much more insidious than white supremacy. Whiteness is the Jim Crow South in contemporary language. Its the same rules and laws, now internalized so that we no longer...
Every year volunteers at the University of Colorado-Denver assemble a collection of poetry, artwork, short story and prose, all submitted by inmates across the country. This episode is dedicated to the 7 million US citizens currently doing time in prison or on probation/parole. Captured Words Free Thoughts is a free publication which will be released (online and in paper format) in early 2021. If you or someone you know is locked up, send them our info., and send us their work. Captured Words Fr...
What is addiction? What is dependency? What is the difference? And what does dopamine have to do with all of this? It turns out that most of what we think we know about addiction is wrong. In this episode I unpack my thoughts (and the current science) on addiction, tolerance, dopamine, sensitization (habituation), and the Learning Disorder model of addiction, which is rapidly replacing the old disease model. Support the show...
Around 1% of US citizens control nearly half of the nation's wealth. They can only keep things that imbalanced by dividing the rest of us against ourselves. Otherwise we might join together and update the system that allows them to maintain (and increase) their imbalanced control over resources. This week Paul Kivel joins me to talk about some big words with simple meanings: hegemony, white supremacy, domination, Christian Privilege, White Privilege, and "Buffer Zone Jobs" Support the show...
In April of 2017 Jessie Dunleavy lost her son, Paul, to the war on drugs. Now she is fighting to end it for good. Jessie and I discuss mistakes she feels like she made supporting Paul, as well as harm reduction strategies, the struggle of raising a neuro-atypical child, heroin prescriptions, and a host of other issues related to harm reduction and activism. Support the show
Kevin Ott was arrested with 3.5 ounces of methamphetamine in 1996. That's the weight of a bar of soap. His sentence was life without the possibility of parole. Kevin was pardoned by the governor in 2019, 7 years after a documentary called The House I Live in highlighted his story from prison. Last week I sat down to ask him about his transition to the free world, his time inside, and what could have been different. Support the show...
Xanax, Valium, Librium, Rohypnol, Ativan, Klonopin, Phenobarbital--if you want to know how benzos and barbiturates work in the brain, check out this episode. I also talk about the history of anxiolytics (anti-anxiety drugs), the connection to race and class in the war on drugs, and the consequences of irresponsible use. Harm Reduction saves lives. Share the knowledge. Support the show
Language is oppressive. Labels are powerful. Feminism is for Everybody (bell hooks). And the New Jim Crow is no less abusive than the old. In this episode I explain the name, Dr. Junkie, along with a bit of Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Michelle Alexander, Ta-Nehisi Coates style feminist thought. Support the show
When Morgan Godvin sold her friend a gram of heroin, she had no idea he would suffer a fatal overdose. When the police texted from his phone the next day to ask for more dope, she had no idea they were coming for her. Join me for a powerful interview with Morgan Godvin. Support the show
This week I talk to Judge John R. Holmes, who sentenced me 20 years ago. We talk about why drugs should be legal, Black Lives Matter, the movement to "defund the police," and about the view from the bench. Support the show
I talk to Justice Rivera of Reframe Health and Justice about the war against sex work(ers), bodily autonomy, poverty, and drugs. We discuss what it means to decolonize your imagination, to consider defunding the police, and feminist perspective generally, which emphasizes first-and-foremost our united struggle, and the strength that comes with unity. The war on drugs and the war against sex work are the same war. Support the show...
