BC Companies Prepare to Become Hard-Drug Manufacturers on a Commercial Scale

Martin Steward holds cocaine he received from the Drug User Liberation Front, in Vancouver on April 14, 2021. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

News Analysis

The recent gaffe in which two B.C. companies announced they had licences to sell cocaine brings attention to the plans such companies may be making to commercialize hard drugs on a broad scale.

Cannabis company Adastra Labs announced on Feb. 22 that it had received approval from Health Canada “to include cocaine as a substance” that it can “legally possess, produce, sell and distribute.”

The company later revised its statement, saying it is “not currently undertaking any activities with cocaine.” It clarified that its licence would only allow it to sell the drug in very limited circumstances, such as for use in government-approved scientific studies.

On March 2, Sunshine Earth Labs Ltd. made a similar announcement of having received a Health Canada licence to sell hard drugs such as cocaine, opium, and morphine—and then later made a similar retraction.

In its cocaine licence announcement, Adastra noted that it was evaluating the “commercialization” of the drug and was looking “to position ourselves to support the demand for a safe supply of cocaine.”

Adastra also referred to B.C.’s recent decriminalization of small amounts of the substance. So, despite its later retraction and clarification, it appears the company has its sights set on a broader market.

Other companies seem to be thinking along the same lines.

MDMA ‘at an Unmatched Scale’

Optimi Health Corp., a B.C.-based company with a licence to produce MDMA (Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), has speculated that B.C.’s decriminalization could signal the beginning of a broader legalization. And Optimi says it’s ready to take the business opportunity that broader legalization would present.

“The regulatory landscape in the U.S. and Canada is always evolving, specifically with the Canadian government’s recent decision to decriminalize MDMA up to 2.5 grams in British Columbia,” said Optimi’s regulatory affairs adviser Michael Kydd in a press release last August.

“Governments often use incremental shifts in policy to test public sentiment, which sometimes triggers broader policy change down the road.”

Optimi, which has two facilities comprising a total of 20,000 square feet in Princeton, B.C., is poised to produce MDMA “at an unmatched scale,” Kydd said, noting that it will benefit the company “when we eventually see these wholesale policy changes.”

The release said Optimi is currently the largest psilocybin and MDMA cultivator in North America, and its goal is to be “the number one trusted, compassionate supplier of safe drug products throughout the world.”

While the possession of 2.5 grams of cocaine and MDMA, along with opioids and methamphetamine, is temporarily decriminalized in B.C. (from Jan. 31, 2023, to Jan. 31, 2026), sale to the general public is still prohibited. But the limits of medicinal uses and distribution to addicts are being tested in the province and nation.

For example, MDMA is undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cocaine is used as a topical anesthetic in sinonasal surgery in Canada, though the incidence of heart problems has called it into question. A recent study of patients in Ontario suggested, however, that there is no concern in using cocaine as an anesthetic.

‘Subtle Move’

Jeremy Kalicum, co-founder of Drug User Liberation Front, said he sees B.C.’s drug regulation policies as heading incrementally toward less and less restriction, and that decriminalization signals a likely further expansion of permitted drug possession and use in the future.

“I think this is probably a subtle move towards more like a medical-based system, like being able to provide people with cocaine through a prescriber,” he told The Epoch Times.

Kalicum’s group seeks to provide a safe supply of cocaine to recreational drug users in B.C., but he says they are operating in a legal “grey area.”

“We are still at risk of arrest. … It’s the kind of grey area when you’re in a public health emergency,” he said, referring to the province’s high number of overdoses, about 2,300 in 2022, due in part to contaminated drugs.

His group is technically distributing drugs illegally, he said, but the regulatory climate is such that he doesn’t expect prosecution. They have the drugs tested at local universities for purity.  The organization says it targets confirmed regular drug users and examines how receiving a “safe supply” affects them over time.

Kalicum said he recognizes there are no “safe drugs,” but he believes that offering a cleaner supply helps. The group applied for a section 56 licence from Health Canada to be permitted to handle cocaine as a research group, which would qualify it to purchase from Adastra and similar companies. However, the licence was denied.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has criticized B.C.’s relatively open drug policy for causing overdose deaths, and he has said the most recent efforts at further drug decriminalization will only make the situation worse.

“They’ve allowed heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs to flood our streets,” Poilievre told NTD Television, The Epoch Times’ sister media, earlier this year. “It has created hell on earth in parts of our major cities, particularly east central Vancouver.”

He said on Twitter March 3 that the answer to addiction is “more treatment and recovery—not more poison.”

The Liberal government has been supportive of the B.C. decriminalization plan, with federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett saying on Jan. 30 that it will reduce “the stigma, the fear, and shame that keep people who use drugs silent about their use, or using alone.”

‘Not a Permission’

When Adastra made its announcement that it had obtained a licence to sell cocaine—and that announcement made headlines—it garnered attention from B.C. Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, both of whom said they were surprised at the news.

“There are limited and very restricted permissions for certain pharmaceutical companies to use that substance for research purposes and for very specific narrowly prescribed medical purposes, but it is not a permission to sell it commercially or provide it on an open market,” Trudeau told reporters in Winnipeg on March 3.

He said that decriminalizing the commercial sale of cocaine “is not something that this government is looking at furthering.”

Adastra did not reply to an Epoch Times inquiry as of press time, and Sunshine Earth Labs declined to comment.

Health Canada told The Epoch Times via email that licences of these types have been issued for decades, but it did not respond to questions about how many such licences have been issued and whether the number has increased in recent years.

An increase might signal how many companies are preparing for a potential opening of commercial opportunities in the hard-drug market.