A Canadian biosciences company called Sunshine Earth Labs has been licenced to produce and sell cocaine.
The licencing agreement follows a radical policy shift that decriminalized small amounts of cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs to address an opiate overdose crisis that has killed thousands in the country. The licencing is done to improve safety conditions for addicts in the country.
The company has been licenced for a three-year pilot period and aims to remove the stigma associated with drug abuse and the fear of seeking user assistance. Advocacy groups have also pushed for safer drug supplies to be made available to addicts at risk of dying from harmful drug poisoning caused by illicit street drugs.
Sunshine Earth Labs announced in a statement that Health Canada has granted permission to "legally possess, produce, sell, and distribute coca leaf and cocaine," as well as morphine, MDMA (ecstasy), and heroin.
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This announcement comes barely a month after another lab, Adastra Labs, received its licence for crafting cannabis extracts.
"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," chief executive Michael Forbes said.
Since declaring drug used a public health emergency in 2016, the Canadian province has been at the epicentre of a drug abuse crisis that has resulted in over 10,000 overdose deaths. This equates to approximately six deaths each day from toxic drug poisoning in a population of five million, surpassing Covid-19 deaths at the start of the pandemic.
It becomes the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize drug use after voters in Oregon voted to decriminalize the small use of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.
The bill was a major victory for advocates pushing for structural reforms in U.S. drug policy, increased funding and access to addiction recovery services through tax revenue generated by the state's marijuana industry, and savings from reduced arrests and incarceration.
