Vancouver police have seized cannabis products meant for those addicted to opiates, an overdose prevention advocate says.

According to Sarah Blyth, director of the (OPS), the cannabis products were seized Friday morning from an open-air market in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

OPS鈥檚 High Hopes program operates a table at the market where they distribute cannabis products to help addicts stop using stronger, potentially lethal drugs.

鈥淚t's really, really unbelievable that the police are doing this right now and putting people's lives at risk,鈥� Blyth told CTV Vancouver. 鈥淚t's just completely shocking that they would do that at this time when people are dying in the streets every single day.鈥�

In a cellphone video , police can be seen conducting the seizure. Blyth can also be heard explaining the purpose of the products to which a police officer replies, 鈥淢arijuana is still illegal, Sarah.鈥�

Vancouver , saying that the products were 鈥渄isplayed for sale today at an unmanned table鈥� in the market.

鈥淣o one would claim ownership of the products, so they were taken to the #VPD property office for destruction,鈥� police said.

Cannabis will become legal for recreational use on Oct. 17. It is currently legal for medical purposes, but only when sold by licensed producers.

Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside is widely considered to be ground zero for the ongoing opioid crisis, which claimed .

鈥淚t's a life-saving program that helps people get off of some of the harder drugs using cannabis and cannabis is going to be legal soon,鈥� Blyth said of High Hopes. 鈥淚t's a really great program. It's shown to be successful. There's been studies and research done on it.鈥�

Speaking to CTV Vancouver, University of British Columbia researcher Dr. M-J Milloy said that police should not be seizing cannabis products meant to help people.

"This is like arresting people who are handing out life jackets on a sinking ship," the infectious disease epidemiologist said. "It's a public health crisis in the Downtown Eastside and we should be supporting all public health-based efforts to save the lives of our fellow citizens."

While Milloy notes that Vancouver police 鈥済enerally (have) a good record鈥� of cooperating with harm reduction initiatives such as High Hopes, the department 鈥渙wes us an explanation as to why these actions were taken.鈥�

Milloy has even recently conducted a preliminary study that suggested that hard drug users are 55 per cent less likely to report an overdose if they also use cannabis products.

鈥淲e know that there is not fentanyl in cannabis,鈥� he said in an interview last month. 鈥淏ut fentanyl has turned up in crystal methamphetamine, it's turned up in cocaine, it's turned up opioids -- really the entire list of drug supply is contaminated by fentanyl.鈥�

According to Blyth, of the 100 people currently in the High Hopes program, 25 have quit heroin while 50 have reduced their consumption of the potentially deadly drug.

It is not clear what the raid means for the future of High Hopes. In the meantime, Blyth said, its participants will surely suffer.

"I don't know what people are going to do," she said. "This is what people rely on to ease their stress and trauma and some of the things that they're having to deal with down here being homeless."

With a report from CTV Vancouver