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Canadian biosciences company Sunshine Earth Labs announced Thursday that it was granted a license to produce and sell cocaine, reflecting the federal health agency’s effort to improve safety conditions for the country’s addicts.
A pioneering advertisement worldwide. The licensing agreement comes after a sweeping policy change to address an opioid overdose crisis that has killed thousands, by decriminalizing small amounts of cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs.
Ottawa granted a criminal code exception in January to British Columbia for the three-year pilot project, with the goal of removing the stigma associated with drug use that prevents people from seeking help.
Activists have also pushed for safer drug supplies to be made available to addicts who are at risk of dying from toxic poisoning related to illicit street drugs.
Sunshine Earth Labs said in a statement that it received permission from Health Canada to “legally possess, produce, sell and distribute coca leaf and cocaine,” as well as morphine, MDMA (ecstasy) and heroin.
His announcement comes on the heels of a similar license deal offered in February to Adastra Labs, which until now has focused on making cannabis extracts.
Adastra’s license also allows it to produce and sell psilocybin and psilocin, better known as hallucinogenic mushrooms that produce effects similar to LSD.
“We will assess how the commercialization of this substance fits with our business model at Adastra in an effort to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine,” Chief Executive Michael Forbes said.
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 it declared a public health emergency in 2016. That represents about six people who die every day from toxic drug poisoning out of a population of five million. . Figures even higher than those of Covid-19, nationwide, the number of deaths has exceeded 30,000.
This article was adapted from its original in English.
