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.
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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.)
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.
Vancouver man wants to open Canada’s first crack and heroin store — National Post
On Jan. 31, B.C. will decriminalize personal-use quantities of heroin, fentanyl, meth, cocaine and MDMA. Possessing less than 2.5 grams of those drugs will no longer be illegal
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.)
