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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
[CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose * 4
    #28381836 - 07/01/23 09:03 PM (10 months, 12 days ago)

The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose
July 1, 2023 - Vice

Jerry Martin, 51, opened the store in Vancouver because he wanted to give people access to clean drugs and challenge Canadian drug laws.

The man who opened the first store in Canada openly selling tested heroin, cocaine, meth, and MDMA has died of an overdose.

Jerry Martin died in Vancouver on Friday, a few days after he was hospitalized due to a suspected fentanyl overdose, according to his partner Krista Thomas. He was 51 years old.

Although Martin survived the overdose initially, he remained unresponsive in hospital and his family eventually decided to take him off life support. He previously told VICE News he had been addicted to cocaine and had been homeless for much of his youth.

“Jerry believed that people were self-medicating their trauma and so long as they were doing that, they needed a safe supply to do it,” Thomas said.

“He’s no more exempt than any other human being on this earth. He had his own trauma and unfortunately, he relapsed.”

She said it wasn’t clear if he intended to use fentanyl or not, but that he wasn’t a known opioid user.

In May, Martin opened The Drugs Store—the first brick-and-mortar shop in Canada and the U.S. openly selling drugs that had been tested to ensure they did not contain fentanyl of other harmful adulterants. He was arrested within 24 hours of opening the store in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the epicenter of Canada’s overdose crisis.

“I am giving them addictive drugs but I’m giving them safer addictive drugs than you can get on the street, where they might be laced with fentanyl or some other drug,” Martin told VICE News during the opening.

“He wanted to save lives,” Thomas said Friday.

British Columbia is in the midst of a three-year pilot project decriminalizing small amounts of drugs, but selling remains illegal. The province also has safe supply projects where drug users are given pharmaceutical alternatives to street drugs, including prescription heroin. But harm reduction activists and addictions experts have told VICE News these programs are still not widely accessible. 

At the time of Martin’s arrest, Vancouver police said they supported harm reduction services but “drug trafficking will continue to be the subject of enforcement.”

Martin later told VICE News his drugs and mobile shop had been seized. He had struggled with funding and finding a space to open before eventually purchasing the mobile store.

Police also banned him from returning to the Downtown Eastside. But about a month after his arrest, he told VICE News he was still planning to re-open in a pop-up store model one day.

“He was definitely self-sacrificing,” Thomas said, adding that one of the things she’ll miss about Martin is his stubbornness and the fact that they were both “a little crazy.”

Getting to know Martin humbled her, she said, and she believes his compassion for marginalized people will leave a mark.

“It absolutely opened up my world to so many people that I may not have crossed paths with before, I may not have taken the time to understand. I think that that's one of the gifts he brings to the world.”

While he knew there was a huge risk to fulfilling his vision, “more than anything he felt like it was his thing to do and it was what he had left to do in the world.”

Thomas said Martin acknowledged that while he might be the one to “break the mold” with The Drugs Store, “someone else might come in behind him and have more structure, process, resources, and be able to complete the job.”

Martin had hoped to launch a constitutional challenge, arguing that the laws against giving people a safe supply of drugs is resulting in poisoning deaths in contravention of section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That section argues that Canadians have “the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

“People are dying,” Martin previously told VICE News. “Especially now, they've allowed the entire province to do these drugs... But they’ve provided no clean, safe supply. They're getting it from the same supply that everybody's overdosing from.”

Martin was previously tied up in a court battle for years after launching a constitutional challenge about Canada’s cannabis laws, arguing that medical cannabis patients should be able to use dispensaries rather than the mail order system.

Thomas said there’s still a possibility of launching the constitutional challenge about safe supply after his death, but it would require backing from someone who could provide funding.

In February 2022, VICE News interviewed Martin’s stepbrother Gord Rennie as part of the documentary Beyond Fentanyl, which investigated the synthetic drugs wave of the overdose crisis.

Rennie, who used benzo dope—a combination of fentanyl and ultra potent benzodiazepines, died of an overdose before the documentary aired.

Martin said he felt inspired to open his store after Rennie overdosed. He said he regretted not allowing his stepbrother to stay with him when he got out of jail, just prior to Rennie’s death.

“My mom said I should invite him over and I didn’t and he died that day,” he said.

He had hoped his store would inspire similar shops around the country.

“The more of these out there, the safer it’s going to be for everybody,” he said.

Thomas said Martin had great intentions but may have been overwhelmed by the reality of what his vision entailed. And she wished he had had more support.

“When we see people out there like that, it would be great if we didn't just rally behind them in the comments and social media, but really reached out and connected with people and [said] ‘Here's what I can do to help.’ And then maybe we would achieve more things that so many everyday people want so badly to be able to do and just maybe don't have the means to do.”

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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: veggie] * 1
    #28381849 - 07/01/23 09:19 PM (10 months, 12 days ago)

Sad news. I believe Mr Martin's heart was in the right place and he truly was trying to help people.

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Offlineviraldrome
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Registered: 09/21/18
Posts: 4,227
Loc: Parts Unknown
Last seen: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: veggie]
    #28381903 - 07/01/23 10:32 PM (10 months, 12 days ago)

Whoops posted same article, sorry veggie if you could delete mine I swear i didnt see yours when i checked


--------------------
Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD

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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: viraldrome]
    #28381914 - 07/01/23 10:49 PM (10 months, 12 days ago)

No worries, viraldrome. I'll delete yours, but you had an interesting comment about the story so I will quote that here:

Quote:

viraldrome said:

I advised some people in private to be careful re:Jerry's web store. There were ongoing issues beyond his good intentions. He was sloppy to say the least. When someone says they didnt recieve something you dont publically threaten them. And people should not have to message you ten times to get your attention, when you respond to new potential customer right away. I admire the vision but you are still selling drugs made by cartels, testing them for fent doesn't change that ugly reality.



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Offlineviraldrome
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Registered: 09/21/18
Posts: 4,227
Loc: Parts Unknown
Last seen: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: veggie]
    #28381978 - 07/02/23 01:00 AM (10 months, 12 days ago)

He made a post om june 17 on f/b

"I’ve lost everything I have absolutely nothing, no clothes, no food, no where to sleep, NP DRUGS my entire drug vault is gone. I don’t see much point in existing anymore"

But yet i just went into his online store and was able to add several items to my cart. He had several robberies, and busts, and i pretty sure in his head he would keep taking orders and send it later, which you cant do, dont take orders for stuff you dont have. He said the whole vault was gone, but his store just now let me do this

 

Bad shit happened to him for sure, someone set his trailer on fire and he was only insured for part of it, he was looking for a place to stay. He died of an od and didnt use, I see all these people online screaming conspiracy, not the first scenario I think in that situation


--------------------
Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD

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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: viraldrome]
    #28382157 - 07/02/23 07:10 AM (10 months, 12 days ago)

What? So what you are suggesting his death was either foul play or suicide? There is much more going on behind the scene to this story. Maybe more will come out as the days go by.

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Invisibledurian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
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Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 18,037
Loc: Raccoon City
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: veggie]
    #28382383 - 07/02/23 10:17 AM (10 months, 12 days ago)

tfw, the lady who owns the fudge store died of diabetes.

Or, when the submariner dies under water.

I don't dislike the person, politically or morally.

There is no ironic twist. I can see how that would have happened.

:wonka:

Except that you're calling it harm reduction.

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Invisibledurian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
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Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 18,037
Loc: Raccoon City
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: durian_2008]
    #28382385 - 07/02/23 10:18 AM (10 months, 12 days ago)

Making someone eat their drugs is a sport I have heard of, before.

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Offlineviraldrome
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Registered: 09/21/18
Posts: 4,227
Loc: Parts Unknown
Last seen: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Re: [CAN] The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose [Re: veggie] * 1
    #28383000 - 07/02/23 08:07 PM (10 months, 11 days ago)

Quote:

veggie said:
What? So what you are suggesting his death was either foul play or suicide? There is much more going on behind the scene to this story. Maybe more will come out as the days go by.





Suicide seems very possible. I dont think he had any drugs at all and his supposed fully stocked webstore just sent e mail no refunds or drugs for outstanding orders. Email also denied that he died from contaminated product they sell. Doesn't make any sense, he had heroin but was using fentanyl? Its hard to exit scam when people know what you look like but to me this had all the markings of one.

I dont have any skin in this game, thankfully, i saw enough negative reviews to avoid and stopped paying much attention, but last night snooped around and saw loads on unhappy customers. Dude is being held up as some safe supply hero for one day of selling hard drugs meanwhile he screwed over enough people.


--------------------
Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD

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