The province’s Community Safety Unit raided two cannabis stores in Vancouver Wednesday, threatening programs that provide drug testing for people using street drugs.
Around 11 a.m. on Wednesday officers raided two Medical Cannabis Dispensary locations at 1182 Thurlow St. and 651 E. Hastings St., seizing unregulated cannabis and cash. Vancouver police officers also attended as a safety measure, a spokesperson told The Tyee.
The CSU is responsible for enforcing the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act, which regulates legal sales.
The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General told The Tyee it wouldn’t offer reasons for the specific raids but that it would use escalating enforcement to crack down on the unregulated production and sale of cannabis.
The CSU “prioritizes enforcement on factors including public safety, links to organized crime, the integrity of the legal market and consideration of the province’s commitment to reconciliation,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Medical Cannabis Dispensary locations are run by the non-profit Vancouver Dispensary Society, which also runs two mushroom stores in the city called the Medical Mushroom Dispensary.
The mushroom stores were not raided.
Profits from the dispensaries fund needed drug testing
Society spokesperson and longtime drug policy reform advocate Dana Larsen told The Tyee the profits from the stores go towards offering a free drug-testing service called Get Your Drugs Tested, which is “the world’s busiest free street drug analysis centre.”
The BC Centre on Substance Use’s drug-testing dashboard says Get Your Drugs Tested has tested over 77,160 drug samples since Jan. 1, 2020, accounting for about 55 per cent of the province’s total.
Vancouver Coastal Health lists Get Your Drugs Tested as an overdose prevention site, which means that people can’t be arrested for getting their drugs checked. No drug use is allowed on site.
Get Your Drugs Tested was founded in 2019 after the society decided to fund a drug-checking service and has grown “beyond my wildest dreams,” Larsen said.
“We’re doing 100 samples a day. We get samples from all over Canada, all over the world,” he said.
Anyone can walk in to the Get Your Drugs Tested at 880 E. Hastings St., hand over a sample of their drugs and get a phone call, text or email with an explanation of what’s in the substance. Results take under two hours — and sometimes as little as 10 minutes. The site also lets people mail in samples with a way for staff to contact the sender with the results.
The Get Your Drugs Tested location at 245 W. Broadway is temporarily closed due to a lack of funding because of the raids, Larsen said. But he hopes to reopen it soon, even if for a couple of days a week.
“We’re kind of victims of our own success. It’s hard to keep up right now; we’ve got a backlog of samples.”
Larsen estimates they’re two weeks behind on drug-checking mailed-in samples.
“We can’t pay enough people because we keep getting raided and losing out money,” he said. “We could hire five new staff if we had the money to battle with the backlog and let us grow. We could be testing twice as many substances as we are right now.”
Larsen said he understands he is “challenging the laws here and doing civil disobedience” but added the province and police should “reprioritize things.”
“I don’t see any situation where we should be at the top of the pile of who they want to arrest.”
No legal cannabis stores in the neighbourhood
Toxic drugs are the leading cause of death in B.C. for people aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and diseases combined. In October 2024, which is the most recent data, the BC Coroners Service reported 155 people died from toxic drugs, totalling 1,925 deaths so far that year.
Larsen said the cannabis stores were raided in 2019 and the mushroom stores in 2023 and again in 2024. This has all cost the Vancouver Dispensary Society around $250,000, he added.
“I’d almost rather they charge us and go to court and let us fight this in court. But when they just come in and take all your stuff and leave, it’s impossible to challenge it legally or to do anything about it, so you just have to suck it up and take the hit.”
Larsen said the dispensaries follow the rules as much as possible, applying for business licences with the city and paying GST, PST and income tax.
“We run everything as legitimately and legally as possible, other than the items that we sell. For the items that we sell, we do transparently and openly. There’s no secret back room. There’s no secret deals going on here. Everything we sell is on the menu.”
Larsen said he wanted to reopen the cannabis stores Wednesday afternoon or early Thursday because the locations address an underserved community’s needs. There are no legal cannabis stores in the Downtown Eastside because of “ridiculous” city zoning bylaws, he added.
“Medicinal users really need [to be able to access medical cannabis] especially in this area, where many people use highly potent edibles as a substitute for opiates as well,” he said.
“There’s a lot of research and experience showing that people who use high-potency edibles and opiates will use less opiates and can reduce or eliminate their use of opiates.”
An October 2020 report by Vancouver city staff recommended improving access to medical cannabis in the Downtown Eastside because it can be used as an alternative to opioids. Health Canada also says cannabis could help with opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Being raided costs a lot, Larsen said. “But we're not backing down. We’re not giving up. I'm 100 per cent committed. I can’t say we’re going to be here forever, but we’re going to be here as long as we can. And I think we’ve still got a good future ahead of us despite these challenges. But, oh man, it’s going to be a hard couple of months for us.”
Standing at the Hastings location shortly after the raid concluded, Larsen lets out a long sigh while looking at the store’s empty shelves.
“It’s like a big smash-and-grab. They come in, terrorize everybody and take all of our cannabis,” he says.
He shakes his head and pulls out his phone to document what’s been taken.
“We have to be strong and carry on because, like I said, I know in my heart that we are absolutely on the right side of this movement,” he says. “What we're doing is morally correct. What we're doing is on the right side of history. We are going to win this battle in the end.”
Read more: Health, Rights + Justice
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