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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
With only three weeks to go before British Columbia’s decriminalization of hard drugs, a Vancouver man says he is already planning to open Canada’s first store selling crack, meth and heroin.

Known as The Drugs Store, it would be a retail location selling hard drugs in quantities of 2.5 grams per customer. Staff would wear bulletproof vests and face masks – not for COVID safety, but to shroud their identities.

“The Drugs Store will provide customers with reliable access to safe tested drugs, harm reduction supplies such as unused sterile needles, pipes, etc., and educational information,” reads a business plan provided to a reporter for VICE News.

Not included in the report was where the business’s inventory would come from. While Vancouver recently became home to clinics that will prescribe medical-grade opioids to drug users, there was no mention of a similar arrangement for The Drugs Store.

On Jan. 31, B.C. will decriminalize personal-use quantities of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA. Starting at the end of the month, possessing less than 2.5 grams of those drugs will no longer be illegal.

The criminal status of drugs is a federal responsibility, of course, but B.C. successfully obtained a two-year “time-limited exemption” to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

According to the province, the emergency measure is intended to “reduce the barriers and stigma” related to drug addiction in a bid to curb the province’s sky-high rates of overdose fatalities.

But while personal-use possession will become decriminalized, it will remain just as illegal to sell or traffic any of those drugs.

“Under this exemption, illegal drugs … will not be legalized and will not be sold in stores,” states a provincial background document on the policy.

(Nevertheless, Vancouver has a long history of looking the other way when retail locations start selling illegal drugs over the counter.)
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
It is kind of following the model that gave us legalized pot .
There’s a difference between Pot & Heroin (or Crack Cocaine or Fentanyl or Meth) though. Pot is pretty tame, & this other shit is bordering on evil.

Who needs a daily ration of 2.5 grams of Fentanyl as a daily purchase when a portion the size of a grain of rice will kill the average person? That’s a resale port

I understand that 2.5 grams of Meth/day is ALOT of Meth!! That Addict would be sooo sped up that they’d be super-aggressive and dangerous….beyond beyond….

Pot = Meh. This other shit will kill people easily and accidentally…frequently.

Somebody is OD’ing (Greening Out) on Pot? “We need Three Large Whoppers, with Cheese, & a Large Fries…Stat!!!”

Someone is OD’ing on this other shit, without immediate medical attention, they’re dead.
 

pgs

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Nov 29, 2008
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There’s a difference between Pot & Heroin (or Crack Cocaine or Fentanyl or Meth) though. Pot is pretty tame, & this other shit is bordering on evil.

Who needs a daily ration of 2.5 grams of Fentanyl as a daily purchase when a portion the size of a grain of rice will kill the average person? That’s a resale port

I understand that 2.5 grams of Meth/day is ALOT of Meth!! That Addict would be sooo sped up that they’d be super-aggressive and dangerous….beyond beyond….

Pot = Meh. This other shit will kill people easily and accidentally…frequently.

Somebody is OD’ing (Greening Out) on Pot? “We need Three Large Whoppers, with Cheese, & a Large Fries…Stat!!!”

Someone is OD’ing on this other shit, without immediate medical attention, they’re dead.
I don’t disagree , but we were the first to legalize safe injection sites . Down the slippery path we go .
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
I don’t disagree , but we were the first to legalize safe injection sites . Down the slippery path we go .
“The Drugs Store” is just going to be a retail outlet, with the staff wearing masks to hide their identities and bulletproof vests to get through their shifts ‘cuz they’re going to be creating the Z-Nation.

Nimby or not, I wouldn’t want a “Drugs Store” (or it’s clientele) anywhere near me or mine.
 

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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“The Drugs Store” is just going to be a retail outlet, with the staff wearing masks to hide their identities and bulletproof vests to get through their shifts ‘cuz they’re going to be creating the Z-Nation.

Nimby or not, I wouldn’t want a “Drugs Store” (or it’s clientele) anywhere near me or mine.
But a Beer Store or a booze shop's fine?
 

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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It’s a scale. We have a bar 2 blocks from our house and not a big thing. We have a pot shop about 10 blocks from our house and again, not a big thing.

I believe what they’re proposing in Vancouver is a different animal all together.
Thank you for "It's a scale." As they also say, "A matter of degree, not of kind." Let us divide the world of non-prescription mood altering chemicals into convenient categories:

1. Beer/wine/other drinks below 20% alcohol.
2. Spirits and other drinks 20% or more alcohol.
3. Marijuana/hashish and other derivatives of the marijuana plant.
4. "Hard" drugs, drugs created by or artificially intensified by human action, e.g., amphetamines, barbiturates, psychedelics, opioids.

I do believe the only legitimate role of government is to regulate such substances based on what humans have a reasonable likelihood of doing under their influence, and the health effects they have on users. So 1 and 3 should have minimum restrictions, 2 should be subject to a licensing and inspection regime, and 4 should be tightly restricted, licensed, and require the purchaser to walk by racks of "How To Get Help" literature on the way to the counter. 2 and 4 should be sited in commercial areas only.

I realize you can be an addict on beer & wine, and you can get stupid fucked-up on marijuana products to the point where you're a danger to yourself and others. But the large majority of 1 and 3 customers don't have a problem that falls within the government's legitimate scope (except ensuring the purity and safety of the products, like they allegedly do with food and therapeutic drugs). 2 and 4 can be more tightly controlled because of the likelihood that they'll lead to bad trouble for the users and for people who encounter the users while under the influence.
 

The_Foxer

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I do believe the only legitimate role of government is to regulate such substances based on what humans have a reasonable likelihood of doing under their influence, and the health effects they have on users.
I know you probably meant to include this based on the rest of your post but that also has to include the ability to consume the drug over time responsibly. And unlike booze or dope, those harder drugs are extremely addictive. That makes it very very hard to consume them responsibly over time, people lose the ability to make rational decisions about their use.

Sure - as you note people can get hooked on booze or dope. But generally speaking booze and dope are not inherently addictive, and the vast majority of people won't develop that dependency with use. Hell - people become addicted to gambling - obviously no biological component there. It's not the same thing as meth for example where almost everyone will become addicted.

You can get addicted to cigarettes and we tolerate those some would argue - sure but that doesn't alter your brain or behavior to the point where you're ability to make rational decisions and control your behavior is incapacitated.

The vast majority of people can use dope and booze responsibly, even if some choose not to and a small percent develop a dependency. I don' t think you can make that claim about the 'harder" drugs.
 
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Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Regina, Saskatchewan
….The vast majority of people can use dope and booze responsibly, even if some choose not to and a small percent develop a dependency. I don' t think you can make that claim about the 'harder" drugs.
The ability to be a productive member of society, while consuming pot or alcohol is quite high. People can be casual users of alcohol or marijuana.

The ability to be a productive member of society while on heroin or crack cocaine or meth or fentanyl is….questionable at best. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a casual user of fentanyl or meth or crack cocaine. I don’t know enough about heroin to comment.

(Anyone here know anybody in their personal life that only uses Meth on the weekends, and it doesn’t interfere with their gainful employment or family life?)

Introduce those hard drugs into an area, and the crime rate will spike….As will homelessness. Stupid crimes, and not just assaults and robberies, but petty ridiculous thefts of anything that has a dollar figure attached to it from bicycles to barbeques. People on hard drugs are not known for making the best decisions for themselves or others.
 
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The_Foxer

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I don’t think there’s any such thing as a casual user of fentanyl or meth or crack cocaine.
there might be somewhere, but obviously that is the rare exception. I"m sure that some pro drug person out there would say " but my uncle's cousin's second roomate knew a guy like that for sure!" but again, it's an addicting substance which seriously limits the user's ability to make responsible choices AND it's use destroys the user's reason. That one two combo makes it simply unable to be used responsibly.
 

Dixie Cup

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Sep 16, 2006
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Edmonton
With only three weeks to go before British Columbia’s decriminalization of hard drugs, a Vancouver man says he is already planning to open Canada’s first store selling crack, meth and heroin.

Known as The Drugs Store, it would be a retail location selling hard drugs in quantities of 2.5 grams per customer. Staff would wear bulletproof vests and face masks – not for COVID safety, but to shroud their identities.

“The Drugs Store will provide customers with reliable access to safe tested drugs, harm reduction supplies such as unused sterile needles, pipes, etc., and educational information,” reads a business plan provided to a reporter for VICE News.

Not included in the report was where the business’s inventory would come from. While Vancouver recently became home to clinics that will prescribe medical-grade opioids to drug users, there was no mention of a similar arrangement for The Drugs Store.

On Jan. 31, B.C. will decriminalize personal-use quantities of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA. Starting at the end of the month, possessing less than 2.5 grams of those drugs will no longer be illegal.

The criminal status of drugs is a federal responsibility, of course, but B.C. successfully obtained a two-year “time-limited exemption” to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

According to the province, the emergency measure is intended to “reduce the barriers and stigma” related to drug addiction in a bid to curb the province’s sky-high rates of overdose fatalities.

But while personal-use possession will become decriminalized, it will remain just as illegal to sell or traffic any of those drugs.

“Under this exemption, illegal drugs … will not be legalized and will not be sold in stores,” states a provincial background document on the policy.

(Nevertheless, Vancouver has a long history of looking the other way when retail locations start selling illegal drugs over the counter.)
We are going to hell in a handbasket!!
 

Tecumsehsbones

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Mar 18, 2013
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I say have at 'er......Don't know who will clean up all the corpses though.
Same people who do it now.

You think there'll be an explosion of hard drug use? Hasn't been the case in countries that have decriminalized or legalized 'em.

Maybe Canadians're just stupider, on average.
 

The_Foxer

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Aug 9, 2022
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You think there'll be an explosion of hard drug use? Hasn't been the case in countries that have decriminalized or legalized 'em.
There has been so far. When it was 'decriminalized' for the safe injection sites we saw addiction rates climbing not reducing, and that has shot up. in fact since we did that overdose deaths have skyrocketed.

it really can't.