Justin Trudeau ‘surprised’ that B.C. firm talks about selling cocaine

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “as surprised as” British Columbia Premier David Eby after a firm received Health Canada licence amendments to produce and sell cocaine.

Trudeau said Friday that the federal government was “working very quickly” with Adastra Labs of Langley, B.C., “to correct the misunderstanding” caused by the company’s statement saying it was looking at commercializing cocaine as part of its business model.

He said Adastra did not have permission to sell cocaine on the “open market,” while Health Canada said the firm could only sell to other licence holders.

This comes as a second B.C. company says it is now licensed to produce, sell and distribute cocaine, as well as opium and MDMA, also known as ecstasy.

Victoria’s Sunshine Earth Labs, a biosciences firm that “aims to bring safer supply of drugs to the global market,” says in a news release it obtained an amended Controlled Drug and Substances Dealer’s Licence to include MDMA and cocaine last year.