First modification: Last modification:
Canadian bioscience company Sunshine Earth Labs announced Thursday that it has obtained a license to produce and sell cocaine, reflecting the federal health agency’s commitment to improving safety conditions for addicts in the country.
This decision comes after the government made a 180-degree turn in its policy and decriminalized the possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs, in an attempt to deal with a wave of overdoses that has killed thousands. of people in the country.
Ottawa granted British Columbia a Criminal Code waiver in January for the three-year pilot project, aimed at removing the stigma attached to drug use that prevents people from seeking help.
Advocates for the cause have pushed for safer drug outlets for addicts who are at risk of overdosing.
Sunshine Earth Labs stated in a statement that it had received permission from Health Canada to “legally possess, produce, sell and distribute coca leaf and cocaine” as well as morphine, MDMA (ecstasy) and heroin.
The announcement comes shortly after Adastra Labs, which until now had focused on making cannabis extracts, received a similar license in February.
Adastra’s license also allows it to produce and sell psilocybin and psilocin, hallucinogens better known as magic mushrooms that produce effects similar to LSD.
“We will evaluate how the commercialization of this substance fits with our business model in Adastra, in an effort to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine,” said the company’s chief executive, Michael Forbes.
British Columbia is the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize hard drugs, after the US state of Oregon did so in November 2020.
The Canadian province is the epicenter of a crisis that has seen more than 10,000 overdose deaths since 2016.
This represents that every day about six people die from drug use in a population of five million. Nationwide, the death toll has exceeded 30,000.
