Cannabis Substitution Project Surrey

09/01/2026

🧥 DONATIONS NEEDED FOR THE UPCOMING FALL/WINTER SEASON! 🧤

As the colder months approach, we’re preparing to support our community members who are living outside or struggling to stay warm.

The Cannabis Substitution Program Surrey is collecting donations of:

🧦 Socks
🛏️ Blankets
⛺ Tents
🧥 Warm jackets
🧤 Mitts & gloves
🧢 Hats & toques
🧣 Scarves

Every donation can make a real difference. ❤️ A warm pair of socks, a good jacket, or a blanket can mean everything when someone is facing a cold night outside.

Have items you’d like to donate? We’ll come pick them up! 🚗

📞 236-330-1176
📧 [email protected]

Please share this post with your friends, family, workplaces, and community groups. 🙏

Let’s make sure our most vulnerable neighbours aren’t facing winter without the basics they need to stay warm. 💚💛

08/31/2026

💚💛 ANOTHER SATURDAY OF SAVING LIVES WITH CANNABIS! 💛💚

Another Saturday at the Cannabis Substitution Project Surrey, and what a day it was!

🌿 157 people served
🩹 We helped connect a couple of community members with the iHART team for wound care
🤝 We provided support, resources, education and connection
😊 And, as always, we spread smiles, peace, love and a little pot throughout our community!

But we’re not stopping there.

📊 MOVING FORWARD, WE’RE STARTING TO COLLECT DATA.

For too long, programs like CSP have been judged by opinions and assumptions instead of evidence. We want to start collecting meaningful statistical data so we can better understand who we are serving, what supports people are accessing, and what impact cannabis substitution is actually having in our community.

Our goal is simple: listen, learn, measure and improve.

And we’re also getting involved in something bigger. ✊🌿

We will be gathering signatures in support of the Vancouver Cannabis Buyers Club petition headed to the House of Commons, advocating for the establishment of a BC College of Medical Cannabis Dispensers.

This is about recognizing the people who have been doing this work for years, protecting access to medical cannabis, and creating a system that puts patients, compassion, dignity and lives first.

Every person matters.
Every connection matters.
Every life saved matters.

157 people today. One community. One mission.

🌿 SAVING LIVES WITH CANNABIS. 🌿

08/31/2026

🕯️ Overdose Awareness Day — We Remember Them

Today, we remember the people we have lost.

Not statistics.
Not numbers.
People.

Since the public-health emergency was declared in April 2016, more than 18,000 people in British Columbia have died from toxic-drug poisoning. In 2025 alone, another 1,826 lives were lost.

And after more than a decade of this crisis, we have to ask:

How is this acceptable?

We still have people struggling to access detox and treatment.
We still have long wait lists.
We still have people unable to find appropriate care when they are ready to ask for help.
We still have a housing crisis that keeps people trapped in survival mode.
We still have poverty, stigma and barriers to care.

And instead of putting all of our energy into fixing those gaps, we spend far too much time arguing about harm reduction versus abstinence, pointing fingers and blaming one another.

Meanwhile, people are dying.

At the Cannabis Substitution Project, we have watched this crisis up close. We have seen people who were at extraordinary risk and had nowhere else to turn.

So we stepped up.

CSP has risked everything to respond to a crisis that existing systems have not been able to adequately address.

And yes, there is risk in what we do.

We operate without the clear legal framework we have repeatedly tried to establish. We have made efforts to communicate with political parties, decision-makers and law enforcement because we want to do this properly. We want accountability. We want a pathway forward.

But too often, we encounter the same cycle:

Blame.
Blame.
Blame.

Meanwhile, services are being shut down, rearranged or lost, while the people who desperately need them are left trying to navigate an increasingly complicated system.

We don’t believe harm reduction should have to compete with treatment.

We don’t believe abstinence and harm reduction have to be enemies.

We believe people deserve options.

Some people need detox.
Some need treatment.
Some need housing.
Some need medical care.
Some need recovery support.
Some aren’t ready for abstinence.
And some people simply need someone to keep them alive long enough to have another chance.

There is room for all of it.

On Overdose Awareness Day, we remember every person lost to this crisis.

We remember their families.
We remember their friends.
We remember the people who tried to help them.
And we remember the people still here, fighting to survive.

But remembering isn’t enough.

We need action.

We need accessible treatment.
We need detox when people are ready—not weeks or months later.
We need housing people can actually afford.
We need evidence-informed harm reduction.
We need recovery supports.
We need fewer barriers and less stigma.
And we need governments and communities to stop fighting each other long enough to actually fight the toxic drug supply.

Because while we argue about whose approach is right…

people are dying.

And CSP will continue to show up.

Because every life matters.

🕯️ We remember them. We honour them. And we will keep fighting for the people who are still here.

08/28/2026

💊 Did you know cannabis was once listed as a legitimate medicine in the United States Pharmacopeia?

Long before “medical marijuana” became a modern political debate, cannabis was already being used by physicians.

In the 1800s, Irish physician William Brooke O’Shaughnessy studied cannabis preparations while working in India. His published observations helped introduce cannabis-based medicines to Western medicine. Physicians began using cannabis preparations for things like pain, muscle spasms, convulsions and other conditions. (NCBI⁠)

By 1850, cannabis had been included in the United States Pharmacopeia, the official reference for medicines used by physicians and pharmacists. Cannabis preparations were available through pharmacies and were used medicinally for a wide range of ailments. (Wikipedia⁠)

🌿 So here’s the fascinating part:

Cannabis isn’t a “new” medicine.

It has a documented history in Western medicine stretching back nearly 200 years—and a much longer history of traditional medicinal use around the world.

The question isn’t whether cannabis has a medical history.

It absolutely does.

The important question is how we take that history and combine it with modern science, responsible regulation, education and compassionate care.

That’s part of the conversation we believe needs to continue.

💚 Cannabis Substitution Project Surrey
Cannabis saves lives. Education saves lives. Compassion saves lives.

08/28/2026

Naloxone saves lives. Find it. Carry it. Use it.

08/28/2026

🪴 Sir J. Russell Reynolds and the Victorian medical cannabis story.

In Victorian England, cannabis wasn’t primarily associated with the counterculture or recreational drug use we think of today. Doctors were actively experimenting with it as a medicine.

One of the most important physicians involved was Sir John Russell Reynolds, a highly respected neurologist who eventually became Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria’s household. He was also deeply involved in the emerging science of neurological disorders.

By the time Reynolds wrote about cannabis in 1890, he said he had more than 30 years of experience using it medicinally. His article, “Therapeutical Uses and Toxic Effects of Cannabis Indica,” appeared in The Lancet on March 22, 1890.

And his conclusion was remarkably strong:

“Indian h**p, when pure and administered carefully, is one of the most valuable medicines we possess.”

That wasn’t a fringe activist saying it. This was a prominent Victorian physician writing in one of the world’s leading medical journals.

08/25/2026

✌️🪴💚

🌿 420 VANCOUVER GRASSROOTS

Our Mission. Our Values. Our Movement.

420 has never been just about getting together to celebrate cannabis.

420 is about community.
420 is about advocacy.
420 is about freedom.
420 is about patients.
420 is about the people who refused to be silent.

For generations, cannabis consumers, medical patients, activists, educators and grassroots organizations have challenged stigma, prohibition and the barriers that kept people from accessing cannabis.

Legalization was an important step forward — but it was not the end of the work.

🌱 OUR MISSION

420 Vancouver Grassroots exists to continue the fight for meaningful cannabis reform, with a strong focus on medical access, patient rights, education, harm reduction and community voices.

We believe people who use cannabis for medical purposes deserve more than access to a recreational marketplace.

They deserve education, support, affordability, dignity and a medical framework that actually recognizes their needs.

💚 OUR VALUES

PATIENTS FIRST
Medical cannabis patients deserve to be heard and included in policy decisions that affect their lives.

EDUCATION
People deserve accurate, evidence-informed information about cannabis—not stigma, misinformation or fear.

HARM REDUCTION
We believe in meeting people where they are and supporting approaches that reduce harm and improve quality of life.

COMMUNITY
Grassroots voices matter. Patients, frontline workers, advocates, educators, researchers and community organizations all have something important to contribute.

ACCESS & EQUITY
Legalization means little if the people who need cannabis most cannot afford it, navigate the system or access appropriate support.

ADVOCACY
Change happens when ordinary people come together, speak up and refuse to accept that the status quo is good enough.

⸻

🌿 WHY WE NEED YOU

The future of cannabis policy is being shaped right now.

If we want a better medical-cannabis system, we need people willing to stand up and say:

Patients matter.

Medical access matters.

Education matters.

Harm reduction matters.

Community voices matter.

We need patients.
We need healthcare professionals.
We need frontline workers.
We need researchers and educators.
We need legacy cannabis advocates.
We need community organizations.
We need volunteers.
We need speakers.
We need media.
We need sponsors and supporters.

Most importantly, we need people who believe that legalization should be the beginning of better access—not the end of the conversation.

✊ THIS IS GRASSROOTS.

We aren’t waiting for someone else to fix the gaps.

We’re bringing the people together to identify them, speak about them and push for change.

420 Vancouver Grassroots is about carrying forward the voices of those who fought before us while creating space for the next generation of advocates.

420 IS MORE THAN A DATE.

It’s a movement.
It’s a history.
It’s a community.
And the work isn’t finished.

🌿 Stand with us.
💚 Support the movement.
✊ Add your voice.