Matthew Bonn

My Benzo Withdrawals Induced Delirium, I’ve Come to Understand

I’ve always enjoyed using benzodiazepines. These depressants—the best known are pharmaceutical brands like Xanax, Valium and Ativan—produce a distinct type…

February 21, 2024

Fentanyl Patches Are Saving My Life. We Need to Make Them Accessible.

True safe supply means a legal and regulated supply of the same drugs people access through the unregulated market. In Canada,…

June 1, 2023

Why Does BC’s Decriminalization Exclude Benzodiazepines?

The overdose crisis in British Columbia has killed more than 10,000 people since 2016, when it was first declared a…

January 26, 2023

Benzo Withdrawal Terrifies Me. “Treatment” Keeps Requiring It.

As a teenager I was always anxious, to the point I never felt comfortable in my own skin. But that…

October 17, 2022

My Overdose on “Benzo Dope” Was Part of a Current Wave

It’s hard to write a story about events of which you have almost no recollection. But as the days pass,…

June 22, 2022

How Buying My Drugs Online Has Been Working for Me

Over the last year or so, I have been purchasing most of my supply of drugs—including fentanyl, cocaine, Xanax, MDMA…

March 2, 2022

How Halifax’s Safe Supply Hotels Brought Hope in the Early Pandemic

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020, there was a confirmed case at a pop-up shelter in Halifax, Nova…

February 9, 2022

Fentanyl Batches I Have Known in Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada often seems to get left out of discussions of our country’s ongoing drug-poisoning crisis. Yet recorded overdose deaths…

October 12, 2021

World Hepatitis Day 2021 Platforms a Crisis That “Can’t Wait”

Since 2018, the World Hepatitis Alliance has promoted World Hepatitis Day—July 28—with the hashtag #FindingTheMissingMillions. A global advocacy and awareness…

July 28, 2021

What International Drug Users Remembrance Day Means to Me

Today, International Drug Users Remembrance Day, is one day among all the others when the people we have lost continue…

July 21, 2021