VANCOUVER—A local harm reduction advocate is lauding a Vancouver city councillor’s bid to soften a 2015 ban on cannabis stores in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).

Non-Partisan Association (NPA) Coun. Rebecca Bligh fielded a motion last week that would see city staff propose amendments to the four-year-old prohibition on cannabis storefronts in the area. A vote on the motion is slated for Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

Sarah Blyth, executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society, said it’s about time.

“I think it’s really important that people have a safe supply of cannabis in the Downtown Eastside,” Blyth said in an interview Tuesday.

“If it’s legal, then it shouldn’t be hard for people to get it, that are low income on the Downtown Eastside … That’s always been my philosophy: if people are doing something, to try and make it as safe and legal as you can.”

Under Section 11 of the city’s Zoning and Development By-Law, cannabis sales in the DTES are prohibited except for those sites with a property line on Hastings Street or Main Street, creating an “exclusion zone” intended to “limit the proximity of dispensaries to youth and vulnerable populations,” according to the motion.

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Blyth ran a small cannabis dispensary called High Hopes in the DTES until last fall, when it was forced from its home at the Downtown Eastside Market.

High Hopes, which operated without a licence, ran on a mandate of supplying low-cost or free cannabis products to area residents in a bid to provide a safe alternative to opiates and other drugs.

A record 1,514 illicit drug overdose deaths were recorded in B.C. in 2018, according to the B.C. Coroners Service, with nearly 40 per cent of those occurring in the City of Vancouver.

Many individuals who struggle with opioid dependency are using drugs to combat pain, trauma, cancer symptoms, anxiety or other debilitating conditions, Blyth noted.

Meanwhile, recent advances in cannabis science are beginning to show that cannabis may be effective in treatment of the same disorders, including HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and opioid dependency.

M-J Milloy, an epidemiologist and research scientist with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, was appointed last year as professor of cannabis science at the University of B.C. The position mandates Milloy — who has written more than 150 peer-reviewed articles on how policy can affect health outcomes for people who use drugs — to study the potential role of cannabis to treat opioid addiction.

Coun. Bligh’s motion notes research conducted by Milloy showed that among 2,500 hard drug users in the DTES, cannabis helped 20 per cent to stay with treatment after six months.

Milloy, along with BCCSU executive director and Canada Research Chair in Inner City Medicine Evan Wood and executive medical director for the B.C. Centre for Disease Control Mark Tyndall, have all come out in support of low-cost, legal cannabis options on the DTES as a measure to support better health outcomes for residents.

Cannabis regulations have also advanced since the 2015 DTES prohibition was first implemented, including Canada’s landmark 2018 federal legalization of the substance. Bligh’s motion asks the city to take that progress into account in reconsidering the ban.

“Despite the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada, and regulatory structures in place provincially and at the City of Vancouver, there does not appear to be a regulatory option available that would enable low-cost, legal cannabis … for the Downtown Eastside and its most vulnerable residents who may want to use cannabis as an alternative to opiates and more dangerous drugs,” the motion notes.

She cites an April 2019, press release from the city, which touted its commitment to “addressing the issues that further exacerbate the struggles around substance use.”

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According to that release, a “comprehensive approach” — which includes prevention, harm reduction and treatment — “will save so many lives.”

Melanie Pratt, a High Hopes volunteer and Overdose Prevention Society worker, said last fall that she’s seen cannabis help numerous people ease or eliminate their opioid dependency. Pratt herself said she’s been “off the needle” for 12 years, largely because she has access to cannabis as a harm-reduction option.

“It saved me from myself,” Pratt said. “It keeps me out of a whole lot of trouble and a whole lot of heartache. I went through taking seven prescription drugs … for mental health, anxiety, panic attacks. Because of cannabis I went from taking seven different prescription drugs down to one.”

But lower-income and homeless individuals may not have the credit cards or even home addresses necessary to access the country’s medical cannabis supply, Blyth said. Nor can they afford to purchase pot products at one of the city’s few legal retail stores, where prices are set by the province.

Blyth said she sees Bligh’s motion as an opportunity for a store such as High Hopes — a research-focused, “by the community, for the community” social enterprise — to provide a safe, affordable cannabis supply to “those who need it most.”

With files from The Canadian Press

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