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Police arrest man for opening store selling hard drugs in Canada

Getty Images Clients wait outside of Insite, a supervised consumption site located in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighborhood, has injection booths where clients inject pre-obtained illicit drugs under the supervision of nurses and health care staff.Getty Images

A Canadian man has been arrested in British Columbia for opening a mobile shop to sell cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs.

Jerry Martin, 51, has said he plans to challenge his arrest in court, arguing contaminated drug supplies cause harm.

Vancouver police said it arrested a man for "drug trafficking in connection with an illicit drug dispensary" but have not laid formal charges.

The arrest on Thursday came one day after Mr Martin opened his shop.

He began selling the drugs on Wednesday out of a mobile trailer parked in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood with a high rate of drug use and concentrated drug overdose prevention services.

Mr Martin, whose brother died from an overdose, has said he had planned to open his store after Health Canada decriminalised the possession of small quantities of hard drugs in the province of British Columbia (BC) early this year as part of a three-year pilot project.

The public health measure was put forward in response to a growing number of overdose deaths from fentanyl-laced drugs in western Canada.

In 2022, more than 2,720 people died from an overdose in BC - an average of seven people a day.

BC has the second-highest rate of overdose deaths in Canada.

Mr Martin told local news outlets that he planned to sell batches of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and crack in small quantities, up to 2.5 grams, in an attempt to prevent further deaths. He said the drugs had been tested to ensure they did not contain fentanyl.

Vancouver's unusual approach offers opioid users injection sites, antidotes and even heroin on prescription.

In a statement, Constable Tania Visintin said Vancouver police "support measures aimed at improving public safety for people who use drugs, including harm reduction services and decriminalisation" but said police would continue enforcement on drug trafficking.

The CBC reported that dozens had lined up at the entrance of Mr Martin's mobile store to buy drugs on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Martin was unnamed in the police press release announcing the arrest but it was widely reported in Canadian media.

He is out of police custody pending a court hearing, police said. He has also been asked to stay away from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

BC has often been at the forefront of enacting harm reduction measures to prevent drug overdoses.

The Downtown Eastside is home to the first legal supervised drug consumption site in North America, where people could bring their own substances to use in the presence of trained staff who can quickly respond in the event of an overdose.

Since Insite opened in 2003, dozens of similar legal sites have opened across the US and Canada.

The overall number of fentanyl-related drug overdose deaths in Canada has sharply risen since 2016, increasing by more than 150% compared to 2022.