A handful of North Park residents have been questioning the validity of SOLID Outreach’s Cannabis Substitution Program (CSP), a program that provides free cannabis as part of a harm reduction approach.
The initiative is run collaboratively through SOLID Four Directions Society, a service under the same umbrella as SOLID Outreach, who operate out of the same building in North Park.
SOLID’s CSP has been ongoing since 2017, but has been operating out of their 1056 North Park Street location since 2020.
This harm reduction program was launched by SOLID as a way to provide low income individuals free cannabis as an alternative to using street drugs, such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Since its inception, UVic has conducted studies on its effectiveness, which found that people in the program used less street drugs, had better quality of sleep, more money to spend on food and rent, increased participation in support groups and better access to SOLID’s various services.
Mark Wilson, Senior Director of SOLID Outreach Society, says that the CSP service is typically used by unhoused individuals who want to take a break from the street drug prevalence of Pandora Avenue.
“What we tend to find is people come to our drop in space to take a break from that, particularly a break from their [street drug] use, smoke a free joint, have a coffee and have a snack with us,” said Wilson.
“People tend to do this for a few days in a row and it’s a nice chance to rest, to eat and to not be in a community that’s strictly based on street drug use.”
It is important to note that, those who access SOLID’s CSP must meet set requirements and become members of the program in order to receive any product from the organization.
Since 2020, SOLID’s CSP has been operating on a Temporary Use Permit (TUP).
Their most recent TUP expired in July, but before its expiration, SOLID applied for a rezoning permit to grant them a retail cannabis license. While this rezoning permit is being considered, they are permitted to operate as they have been, providing cannabis substitution services to those who rely on it.
“It’s a bit of a catch-22 with licensing for cannabis, which is if you have a license, you can’t give it away for free or cheap—it’s the same as liquor licensing,” said Wilson.
He further explained that the City of Victoria has no other way of classifying their service, other than through a retail cannabis license, so that is what SOLID is seeking.
They applied for this licensing through a modified rezoning permit back in July to permit them the ability to continue providing the CSP through the lens of “distribution of cannabis as an ancillary use to harm reduction services”.
They filed this application with the full backing of the North Park Neighbourhood Association, who see the service as necessary, as well as the support of Island Health.
However, their applying for a retail cannabis license has prompted some residents of North Park to question the program and SOLID’s intentions.
These individuals have come together in an attempt to have SOLID stripped of their ability to provide this harm reduction service, on the grounds that they technically do not possess a valid TUP for the program, and because SOLID does not yet possess a retail cannabis license.
One key point these residents have brought up is that they do not believe the service should be labelled as harm reduction.
“We feel the word ‘harm reduction’ has been weaponized and used to create governance gaps in the system and that people in governance positions are afraid to ask the tough questions,” wrote the organized North Park residents.
These residents claim that there has been increased crime in the North Park area because of SOLID Outreach, with an increase in open drug use in the area.
They also say they have previously reached out to the Province, Island Health, VicPD and city council, but did not hear anything of it until recently.
City Councillor Stephen Hammond agreed to meet with the residents to address their concerns, and did so in recent weeks.
Wilson says this came about because a group of residents who were angry about SOLID’s services showed up to a North Park Neighbourhood Association meeting in September and were yelling, disrupting the meeting.
“Stephen Hammond was like, ‘hey, let’s not disrupt a [neighbourhood association] meeting, I will meet you separately’,” Wilson explained.
“So he met with the people who were opposed two weeks back so he could hear their grievances with them. Then he met with supporters a week ago, so that everyone could air their interests.”
He noted that around 12 people showed up to oppose SOLID’s CSP, while 30 came out in support.
The next steps for SOLID’s rezoning will see the matter be addressed by the Victoria City Council, but at this time Wilson does not know when that will be.
Lack of legislation accounting for cannabis substitution programs
One challenge that Wilson says SOLID’s CSP program has faced since cannabis was legalized has been that little thought was given by legislators to recognize the harm reduction capabilities of cannabis.
“Several groups across Canada are doing this type of harm reduction work with cannabis,” said Wilson.
“It’s somewhat underresearched, but when we talk to the people researching it, they say ‘We don’t understand why this isn’t being taken more seriously as a substance management tool, because it works pretty well.’”
Wilson says the biggest barrier is that for someone to buy cannabis through a store costs too much for those who use their services, looking for an avenue to lessen their use of harmful street drugs.
“There needs to be an increased access to a medical approach, but when you’re working with this population, they’re not going to tend to have a prescription and be able to go through those steps,” he explained.
“So having a very low barrier approach is, it’s easy to run but it’s just hard regulation-wise, so it’s a bit of a mismatch. I just don’t think the feds were thinking about any of this stuff when they were putting the [Cannabis Act] together.”
“It was focussed on recreational use and not so much on access for people,” he added.
SOLID had initially approached the Province, but they were redirected to the federal government and Health Canada to navigate changing legislation surrounding cannabis as harm reduction.
They first contacted Health Canada in 2020 in hopes of having cannabis as harm reduction included under the Cannabis Act, and are continuing to work towards this goal.
