Want to get heroin in Vancouver? Go to the pharmacy. Probably not.
On January 31, adults in the Canadian province of British Columbia is not going to face criminal charges for private possession of opioids (including heroin and fentanyl), cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA (Molly or Ecstasy).
While possession of greater than 2.5 grams of medication will be against the law, Jerry Martin doesn’t care. The truth is, the 51-year-old drug dealer plans to push the laws’s outer limits by opening a Drugs Store in Vancouver – openly selling MDMA, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and crack cocaine.
“I feel now could be a good time to deliver the product more securely. The federal government calls for secure deliveries and the police calls for secure deliveries. But nobody assures her. said Martin. “For the reason that government has decriminalized drugs and… there’ll be less fear of drug use. ODs will increase, especially amongst those aged 15 to 24 [who are less experienced with drugs and more willing to take risks]. My goal is to provide safer deliveries.”
However the British Columbia Department of Health and Addictions shouldn’t be on board. “Mr. Martin’s project shouldn’t be subject to decriminalization,” the Ministry of Canada informed CBC. “The sale (or trade) of controlled substances stays illegal.”
![Jerry Martin plans to open a Drugs Store and sell MDMA, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and crack in Vancouver.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/jerry-martin-02.jpg?w=768)
While drugs on the road are notoriously unreliable in terms of potency and purity, Martin – who refuses to reveal his drug sourcing plan – says he has it covered.
“My buddy owns a company called get yourdrugstested.com. He has spectrometer, a tool used to measure purity. My plan isn’t any forgery, no cuts, 100% purity,” he said. “But we won’t say it’s one hundred pc pure since the spectrometer’s accuracy is inside 5%. So we are saying it’s at the very least 95% pure. We’ll test fentanyl individually and is not going to sell anything that incorporates fentanyl.”
Drug adviser from Vancouver Andy Bhatti has doubts.
![Although possession of drugs for personal use will be decriminalized in Vancouver, retailing will not be legal.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/vancouver-04.jpg?w=1024)
“Until the federal government makes drugs and provides them to you, you’ll be able to’t know you could have a secure supply,” he told The Post. “Drug testing will only occur up to now. You do not test the entire package of medication, you test only a small a part of it. You do not know what’s left. It’s like food poisoning. You do not know what a part of the meal made you sick.”
The shop, which is able to initially be housed in a 26-foot RV while Martin works to find a brick-and-mortar location, will be operated by volunteers. Martin calls their colleagues “drug activists.”
“The plan is for them to wear stab-proof vests; I purchased some bulletproof vests but came upon they’re illegal in Canada and I don’t desire to break the law [in that regard],” he said Martin. “I do know we’re going to get robbed eventually and I don’t desire my employees to suffer. I make them wear Covid masks so that they can [maintain anonymity and] don’t trouble yourself”.
![Martin says his goal is to prevent safer drug deliveries to prevent overdoses like this on the streets of Vancouver.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/drugs-vancouver-01.jpg?w=1024)
It could be illegal for Martin to buy body armor since it requires a license – which he cannot obtain as a convicted felon. “I even have several criminal convictions from after I was an alcoholic,” said Martin. “I once spent nine months for something I didn’t do. A conviction for cannabis trafficking is imminent. I won the constitutional arguments in this case. I’m applying for a guilty plea to get this over with.”
Martin’s lawyer couldn’t comment on this due to the Canadian publication ban related to the case.
Martin insists on doing public service. One in every of his three siblings died from drug overdose to opioids. He was found under the bridge, he said. One other was “brutally” murdered during a drug trade that went south.
![Among the drugs Martin plans to sell is cocaine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/cocaine-02.jpg?w=1024)
What if people overdose on his drugs? “I’m going to feel terrible,” Martin said. “You are taking precautions and things occur. That is a chance they’re profiting from. They need to understand how not OD.
He speaks from experience. Besides selling drugs, Martin can also be an avid user. “I took some DMT last week [a powerful hallucinogenic]I made the acid, I made the mescaline sample. I used to be smoking weed. But I smoke weed on a regular basis.
For those searching for a weaker variety, say, heroin: “I’ll take some caffeine and blend it up to 60 percent pure heroin if that is what you wish,” Martin said.
![Heroin will also be on offer, including a weaker variety that Martin plans to cut back on with caffeine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/heroin-01.jpg?w=1024)
As for profits, Martin said, “Town’s herbalists make $50,000 a day. God knows [what the Drugs Store will make]”.
He guarantees to give back a portion of his earnings to the community, as he has done when he owned an illegal weed shop in Saskatchewan. It was reported that he donated $90,000 to fund fire equipment, repairs to town’s swimming pool, and library books.
Martin plans to cook his own crack and has said he’s “unsure” about fentanyl. “It’s decriminalized,” Martin said of the drug, which is rather more powerful – and deadly – than heroin. “I should probably sell it. But I would really like to get people away from fentanyl. I’m trying to find a latest one [opioids] market of latest people who find themselves just getting addicted. The plan is that they do not switch to fentanyl in any respect. There may be a safer option.
![Heroin will also be on offer, including a weaker variety that Martin plans to cut back on with caffeine.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/jerry-martin-03.jpg?w=1024)
That said, Martin says he doesn’t want to create latest addicts: “I’ll only sell to individuals who have already got addictions. I force clients to sign documents confirming that they have already got addictions.”
Bhatti is skeptical. “He’s delusional. How to prove that the client is a drug addict? Will you simply take someone’s word for it? Possibly [that person] he was addicted for a week.”
Martin – who already sells informal and illicit drugs including cocaine and LSD in Canada through a mail order service microdelicacies.ca He said he was ready to close.
![The drug store where the volunteers work will also make their own crack.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/crack-cocaine-03.jpg?w=1024)
“If I could make some people have a higher life with drugs, it’s price going to jail… I feel it’ll be six months before I get caught,” he predicted. “Chances are high I’ll go to jail. At this point, I’ll be participating in a constitutional challenge to legalize drugs. I put a fundraising for legal fees. It gets expensive.
It went up nine days ago and raised zero dollars, but according to Martin, “nobody knows about it yet.”
The Vancouver Police Department, which has not sought comment, has a long history of looking the opposite way when it comes to illegal sales. Before marijuana was federally legalized in Canada, marijuana shops flourished in Vancouver as law enforcement flourished relatively disinterested with them. “We have now a priority-based approach to policing here in Vancouver and now we have other priorities,” a police spokesman said on the time.
![Martin says he's prepared to be arrested for selling drugs.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/meth-01.jpg?w=1024)
Bhatti stressed that there’s a difference between tolerating the illegal sale of marijuana and abolishing the trade in hard drugs.
“I do not think the police missed it; at the top of the day [Martin] it promotes addiction,” said Bhatti, a former drug addict. “I’ll be surprised if it’s open seven days before it’s mugged. The police will want to know who he buys drugs from.
“If we allow stores to sell cocaine, it can be the stupidest thing in the world.”