Low-barrier Downtown Eastside cannabis service shut down by police

A well-known cannabis advocate says he’s been charged with trafficking on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for selling low-cost cannabis out of his R.V.

After two years of setting up near Main Street And East Cordova, Neil Magnuson of the Cannabis Substitution Program says on Tuesday afternoon, Vancouver police officers surrounded the R.V.

Magnuson says he and two of his staff were charged with trafficking against the cannabis act. The R.V. was seized and towed away, he says.

However, Magnuson admits, “We’re not stopping.”

“We are still going to be here until they drag us away in chains and put us into cages. We can’t stop helping these people. We’ve known them for years, we care about them and we’re not going to turn our backs on them just because the government says you have to do it legally or not at all.” 

Magnuson says they have over 200 members who rely on the cannabis products and without them, they’re at risk of deadly overdose from the toxic drug supply. 

“They’re really horrified,” Magnuson tells CityNews.

Without high-dose edibles, Magnuson emphasizes people the Program delivers cannabis, could die. 

“Almost everybody that’s down here that is visibly addicted … They want out. They want to get off of what they’re on. They signed up for rehab and maybe been through it a couple times; it hasn’t worked for them,” Magnuson explains. “If they could use high dose edibles, like the 260 members that we have, they can get through the withdrawal, then they can get on with their lives and use cannabis concentrates or high dose edibles to do for them what their other drugs are doing.

“Almost everybody that’s… addicted [that use the R.V.’s resouces] suffered traumas in their life that they’re trying to deal with. It’s really hard for them to deal with it. They found drugs that could help them deal with that. But those drugs are addictive. And those drugs carry all sorts of other side effects and other problems. And they want off and they need to have stores with low barrier access to high dose edibles to be able to get off.”

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Magnuson says the charges and seizing of the R.V. have created major set backs. Between 10,000 and 12,000 milligrams of high dose edibles are supplied daily through the program.

“They’re really impacting the poor people in the neighborhood and causing terror that doesn’t need to be there. 

“If they actually succeed in shutting us down, I shudder to think of what would happen to many of our members, and what would happen to them. They’re gonna go back into the poisoned drug supply. Many of them will die.”

Through Vancouver, a number of government run cannabis shops are open, but Magnuson says the prices are far too high for people he supplies to and edibles in these stores don’t have edibles with a high enough dose. 

“The smoked cannabis is not powerful enough to compete with heroin, and fentanyl, and crystal meth, and alcohol, and cocaine. But the edibles go through a different route. It goes through the liver, not the lungs. It can last for hours. You can eat way too much and be almost comatose for days if you eat too much cannabis. So because you can eat too much of it, you can also eat enough,” he explains. 

Research at UBC includes studies that found cannabis use resulted in less use of cocaine and it increases the chances people will stay in treatment to get off opioids. 

Low barrier access in the form of low cost and no cost cannabis is critical and needed, Magnuson says, since there are people who are not visible addicts and need help through the program. 

“It’s the invisible addicts that are all throughout society and all the demographics that are ashamed of what’s happened to them and getting addicted to drugs because of maybe being put on opioids, by healthcare professionals for workplace accident or other things like that. And then they couldn’t get off it and they haven’t told anybody.”

Businesses need a license to sell non-medical cannabis in B.C….but Magnuson says this is medicine. He applied for a Health Canada exemption for a license to sell low barrier cannabis and is still waiting for a decision. Until then, this business remains illegal. 

Magnuson shared this notice to appear in court in July. The Vancouver Police Department says there is an ongoing investigation but it’s not sure if charges have been approved. The B.C. Prosecution Service and Public Prosecution of Canada were unable to confirm the charges.