Canada issues a license to a company to produce and sell cocaine

MADRID, 3 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government of Canada has issued a license this Thursday for the company Adastra Labs to legally possess, produce, sell and distribute cocaine, all in an effort to improve the safety conditions of addicts in the country.

The Canadian Ministry of Health has given the company, specialized in cannabis processing, the approval to become a distributor of drugs and controlled substances, so it will be able to interact with up to 250 grams of cocaine and import coca leaves to manufacture and synthesize. the substance, as reported in a statement by Adastra Labs itself.

"Harm reduction is a central and critically important issue, and we remain at the forefront of drug regulation across the board," said Adastra CEO Michael Forbes.

The opposition to the government of Justin Trudeau has criticized the measure, however, assuring that cocaine "is not safe" and emphasizing that "it is wrong", according to the CBC network.

"Cocaine is not prescribed, it is not safe and this is wrong (...) Marketing cocaine as a business opportunity is equivalent to legalizing the cocaine trade, period," said Kevin Falcon, a member of the Liberal Party of the British Columbia.

In the Canadian state of British Columbia, a three-year exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) has existed since January 2023 for adults 18 years of age or older who possess up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA or any combination thereof.

More than 11,000 people have died from overdoses of illicit substances since British Columbia declared a public health emergency in 2016. Deaths skyrocketed as the opioid fentanyl became the dominant illicit drug.