In an apparent effort to improve the safety circumstances for the nation’s drug addicts, the country’s federal health agency has granted permission to Canadian businesses to make and sell cocaine. Also, this follows a bold policy change to handle the thousands-dead drug addiction crisis. Sunshine Earth Laboratories, a Canadian biosciences firm, announced on Thursday, March 2, that they have received a licence to manufacture and sell cocaine. A month earlier, British Columbia-based Adastra Labs had received a similar licencing arrangement.
“We will evaluate how the commercialization of this substance fits in with our Canadian business model at Adastra”
“We will evaluate how the commercialization of this substance fits in with our business model at Adastra in an effort to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine”, said the chief executive Michael Forbes of the British Columbia-based company. The labs, which until now focused on cannabis extracts, are also allowed to produce and sell hallucinogens, psilocybin and psilocin which are more commonly known as magic mushrooms.
The Sunshine Laboratories said that they acquired a licence from the federal health authorities to “legally possess, produce, market and distribute coca leaf and cocaine” in November, last year. In addition to ecstasy, morphine, and diacetylmorphine, this was also used (heroin). Sunshine Earth Laboratories CEO Donovan Edwards released a statement in which he said, “We are immensely proud of the accomplishments we have accomplished in the previous year.
He added, “we have been proactively pursuing amendments to our Dealer’s License to include MDMA, coca leaf, cocaine, opium, morphine, and diacetylmorphine to position ourselves as a legitimate safer supply partner. We will continue to work on securing global trade relationships to import ethically sourced medical products for safer supply.”
Out of the more than 30,000 overdose-related deaths recorded across Canada, British Columbia accounted for over 10,000 since 2016
Interestingly, the action is in line with a criminal code exception that the government granted to the aforementioned Canadian province for a three-year trial project to de-stigmatize drug use, which officials say prevents individuals from seeking help, according to AFP. Also, it made British Columbia, after the United States Oregan in 2020, the only jurisdiction in North America to decriminalise heavy narcotics.
Out of the more than 30,000 overdose-related deaths recorded across Canada, British Columbia accounted for over 10,000 since 2016 when it declared a public health emergency and was dubbed as the epicentre of the crisis. The number also represented nearly six people dying each day from toxic drug poisoning out of the five million residents of the province.