Holly Kaystrofridis is the owner and operator of Healing Garden Medicinals, providing high-quality herbal products made from both wildrafted and organically-grown materials. (Submitted photo/Holly Kaystrofridis)

By Jennifer Olson

harm reduction

Cannabis accessibility for harm reduction remains a concern for Canada’s most vulnerable

Sep 11, 2023 | 2:12 PM

Cannabis is an effective and safe rehabilitation tool when treating opioid withdrawal and other addiction symptoms, however, accessibility to quality cannabis is an issue for the country’s most vulnerable.

There are organisations and individuals who have dedicated their efforts to providing accessibility to cannabis for harm-reduction purposes. Holly Kaystrofridis is the owner and operator of Healing Garden Medicinals, providing high-quality herbal products made from both wildrafted and organically-grown materials. The products are harvested and prepared following strict Sinixt protocols on unceded Sinixt territory where Kaystrofridis resides.

Her company’s mission is to provide organic, full spectrum herbal products for use in harm reduction.

“Headlining and funding harm reduction initiatives within a ‘grey’ market is challenging; only private investments are available,” Kaystrofridis said.

“I spend most days [working] with my plants and most nights making herbal remedies, and this makes it hard to find time to network. Vulnerable people need access to cannabis and other herbs. The demand has become so great that I now do distributions to city centres in need of cannabis and other herbal substitutions.”

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Earlier this summer, Kaystrofridis and a colleague travelled to downtown Vancouver to attend an annual cannabis market for “Cannabis Day” – an alternative celebration to conventional Canada Day events. While the event has been taking place successfully for years, it is unsanctioned by the government and this year it was met by extreme police presence.

“We arrived at the market in Thorton Park, and by 10 a.m., there were over 70 VPD (Vancouver Police Department) present, getting paid time and a half. The City of Vancouver had the entire park blocked off by eight-foot metal gates and proceeded to inform the vendors and musicians the market was cancelled,” Kaystrofridis recounted.

“The police were harassing minorities including Indigenous women, Elders and the disabled. They were handing out lists of fines we would face if we didn’t leave. There were fentanyl dealers in the same park, and the police didn’t bat an eye. We are currently in the throes of a national drug epidemic. I can’t stop asking myself why fentanyl is so easily accessible, while cannabis and poppy, which help with so many opioid-induced health issues, are so hard to access?”

Kaystrofridis and her colleague proceeded to provide free herbal products to those who need it most: Vancouver’s vulnerable and unhoused population.

“We walked the entire Downtown Eastside and distributed cannabis oil, joints, balms, salves, and various herbal tinctures used for treating addiction symptoms and the nervous system. People told us they can’t access organic, affordable cannabis or herbal products, and that the products they do find are too expensive,” she shared.

“I have provided treatment for Indigenous youth with facial stab wounds, eye infections, severe withdrawal symptoms, recurrent STIs and BV, and intravenous infections. These are people who would otherwise feel optionless. In Crab Park, a permanent tent city in Vancouver’s Eastside, every single person who lived there needed, wanted, and couldn’t find cannabis.”

Healing Garden Medicinals is set to launch a luxury line of full body care products including body butters, facial and body oils, facial serums, tea blends, cannabis oil, elixirs, oxymels, and tinctures. Kaystrofridis will continue to use the profits from her business to fund her harm reduction efforts.

“If we want to better know the needs of our street communities, it begins with connecting to the street community and asking what they have access to and what they do not,” she stated.

“It won’t take long to realise that lack of access to safe and effective remedies is a serious problem, one that needs to be addressed immediately.

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info@westernbuzz.ca