The issuance of these licenses to two companies is part of the new government policy, which seeks to deal with a serious overdose crisis in opiates by the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of so -called hard drugs.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Canada continues its revolution. The Canadian Biotechnology company, Sunshine Earth Labs, announced on Thursday March 2, having obtained a license from the country’s Federal Health Agency to produce and sell cocaine.
This license agreement comes after a radical change in state positions which seeks to deal with a serious overdose crisis with opiates who left thousands of deaths, by decriminalization of the possession of small quantities of cocaine cocaine , heroin and other so-called hard drugs.
Ottawa thus granted a derogation from the Canadian Criminal Code in January, to the British Columbia (West) province for a three-year pilot project. The objective is to combat the stigma associated with the use of narcotics which prevents some from asking for help. Activists in favor of this measure also require a safer supply of drugs to be available for people in dependence. These face an increased risk of overdose linked to drugs bought illegally in the street.
In a press release, Sunshine Earth Labs declares that it has received permission from Health Canada to “legally own, produce, sell, and distribute cocaine and cocaine leaf”, as well as morphine, ecstasy , and heroin.
The example of Oregon
A similar license agreement had been offered in February to another company, Adastra Labs, which hitherto only manufactured products related to cannabis extracts. Adastra’s license also allows it to produce psilocybin and psilocin, hallucinogens more commonly associated with fungi whose consumption produces effects similar to LSD.
“We will assess how the marketing of this substance enters our business model in Adastra, in order to put us in a position to support the request for a safe supply in cocaine,” said his boss, Michael Forbes.
British Columbia follows the US State of Oregon (northwest) which decriminalized so-called hard drugs in November 2020. The province is the epicenter of a crisis that has seen more than 10,000 people Die in overdose since a public health emergency was declared in 2016 – representing around six daily deaths, out of a population of some five million.