In the U.S., cocaine is a Schedule II controlled substance and its use, possession, etc. is illegal except for certain, limited medical applications. The licensed sale of cocaine for recreational use is not even remotely a concept in the U.S., and the same goes for Canada. Why then did we see a Canadian cannabis company announce that it had the ability to make and sell cocaine to the consumer public? Essentially because of a mishap with or misunderstanding about a government license amendment it received from Health Canada. While not as "out there" as the premise of the popular movie Cocaine Bear, AdAstra's announcement about being open for business in the commercialized cocaine market sent shockwaves through the cannabis and psychedelics industries.
关于可卡因的新闻稿
On February 22, publicly traded (in Canada) AdAstra issued a press release in which it stated that its subsidiary, B.C. based AdAstra Labs, received approval from Health Canada "to include cocaine as a substance that the Company can legally possess, produce, sell and distribute". The company claimed the same about psilocybin and psilocin. This alleged approval came in the form of an amendment to AdAstra Labs' Controlled Drug and Substances Dealer’s License. After this announcement, the company's stock also soared.
政府对可卡因商业化的反应
Nonetheless, reactions from both the B.C. legislature and Health Canada soon cooled the excitement around AdAstra's cocaine announcement. The provincial government essentially took the position that AdAstra overstated what could be done with the License amendment and the federal government clarified that the License amendment limits AdAstra to just undertaking research about the drug and nothing more (and it certainly cannot also commercial sell either psilocybin or psilocin). Why did this all happen in the first place? Because of B.C.'s new three-year decriminalization pilot program for the possession of small amounts of cocaine (and other drugs), which is meant to support harm reduction and combat addiction. However, that decrim program in no way legalizes the commercial production, distribution, or sale of cocaine or other drugs in B.C.
关于可卡因的澄清与说明
上周，AdAstra就最初关于可卡因的公告发布了更正声明及说明。值得注意的是，最新公告中指出：
颁发给Adastra Labs的经销商许可证 并不 允许 Adastra Labs 向公众销售古柯叶、裸盖菇素或可卡因。就可卡因而言，根据该经销商许可证，Adastra Labs 仅被允许向许可证中列有可卡因的其他持牌经销商销售，包括药剂师、执业医师、医院，或根据《受控药物和物质法》（CDSA）第 56(1) 条持有研究用途豁免的持有人。 本公司目前未依据该经销商许可证开展任何涉及可卡因的活动；在开展此类活动之前，本公司将仅在经销商许可证允许的法律范围内，并在与相关省政府协商后进行。
随笔
一如既往，非刑事化与合法化是截然不同的两回事。不列颠哥伦比亚省目前仅在试行非刑事化政策，以观察其对成瘾问题和减害措施会产生何种影响（如果有的话）。该政策从未为任何人提供过从事可卡因商业交易的机会。
The other interesting legal tidbit here is that Canadian cannabis companies may be eligible under law to have operations around certain psychedelics and other controlled substances that we just may never see here in the states. In states with cannabis legalization, it is universally prohibited for licensees to conduct certain other trades on site, like alcohol production; and don't even think about the right to make and sell other drugs under the same roof as cannabis.
尽管AdAstra遭遇了这起可卡因丑闻，但在大麻及其他毒品问题上，美国和加拿大仍存在分歧，而加拿大在法律改革方面仍基本处于领先地位。
