This Harm Reduction Pop-up Shop is Giving Away Free Weed

Cannabis is a known alternative to lethal painkillers and illicit opiates like heroin — so much so that High Sobriety rehabilitation center in Los Angeles uses weed to help patients wean off more dangerous drugs. Now a pop-up overdose prevention site in Vancouver is doing the same thing.

A year ago, community organizer Sarah Blyth and a team of volunteers set up a supervised injection facility in a tent in a Vancouver back alley rife with opioid use and overdoses. There, opioid users could use clean needles, have access to overdose antidotes like naloxone, and shoot up under supervision in case of an emergency.

Some of the cannabis capsules Blyth and her team offer contain THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, while others contain only CBD, a non-psychotropic compound known to help with anxiety, inflammation, insomnia, seizures, and other ailments. In addition to cannabis, the team has also been distributing kratom, an herbal painkiller devoid of the same withdrawal symptoms as other pharmaceutical pain medications.

Read the full article at Janest