Founders of B.C. drug 'compassion club' file Charter challenge - Action News
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British Columbia

Founders of B.C. drug 'compassion club' file Charter challenge

The founders of a Vancouver "compassion club" that sold heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine bought on the dark web and tested for contaminants, have filed a court challenge arguing their Charter rights and the rights of users were violated when the club was shut and they were arrested.

Co-founders argue their rights and rights of users were violated when the club was shut and they were arrested

A woman with short blonde hair sits beside a man with short brown hair.
Eris Nyx, right, and Jeremy Kalicum, founders of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), speak to media in Vancouver on Tuesday. They were arrested last fall after police raids were conducted at the DULF office in the Downtown Eastside and two East Vancouver homes. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Lawyers for the founders of Vancouver's Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) say their clients are being wrongfully criminalized for operating a club that provided untainted drugs to people who would otherwise be at the mercy of a toxic and deadly illicit drug supply.

Lawyers Tim Dickson and Stephanie Dickson outlined a constitutional challenge of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act on Tuesday, filed inB.C. Supreme Court on behalf of DULF co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx.

The pair had operated a "compassion club" that sold heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine bought on the dark web and tested for contaminants.

In October 2023, Vancouver policesaid two people were arrested after raids at the DULF office at East Hastings and Columbia streets, and at two East Vancouver homes.

Police said at the time thatsuspected cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine were seized, and Nyx and Kalicum have since beencharged with drug possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Their trial is set for October 2025, but they claim their Charter rights and the rights of users were violated when the club was shut down and they were arrested.

"We want to demonstrate how deeply unfair and discriminatory it is to prevent drug users from saving lives, from saving the lives of the people they care about the most," Nyx said during a news conference.

A woman with blond hair and a man with brown hair are pictured in profile.
Eris Nyx, right, says the only way to save lives amid the toxic drug crisis is to regulate the illicit market. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The Charter challenge argues thatdenying compassion club members access to a predictable supply of drugs they depend on, while exposing them to the severe risks of the street supply is "grossly disproportionate" to any benefits of shutting down the club.

Nyx andKalicum say in their legal claim that preventing the initiative infringes on their right to liberty and the right to life and security of the person of the compassion club's members.

The legal action claims its members with serious addictions are compelled to turn to the toxic street supply for substances they depend on, making it discriminatory to shut down the club and a violation of the right to equality.

Nyx said the only way to save lives is to see "some type of regulation of the illicit drug market."

"Organized crime thrives on this market and generates money from prohibition, and organized crime does not care about regulating the potency of drugs," Nyx said.

A man wearing a mask around his chin holds up three boxes, styled like cigarette cartons. They are marked 'Meth', 'Cocaine' and 'Heroin'. The man is surrounded by other people.
A man holds boxes containing cocaine, meth and heroin that was given out during a safe supply event in Vancouver in July 2021. Denying compassion club members access to a predictable supply of drugs they depend on is "grossly disproportionate" to any benefits of shutting down the club, say DULF's co-founders. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

TheB.C. Supreme Court filing also says the pair should not have been charged because the club's site had been given the authority byVancouverCoastal Heath to collect, store and transport illicit drug samples for drug checking or analysis.

Tim Dickson said it was disappointing that there's been a "shift in the political discourse on drug policy inB.C. in recent months."

"But the advantage of the court case is that it's an opportunity to have these issues decided on the basis of evidence and of logic by an independent and impartial judge," he said. "It will be a very different process than the political debate that's been going on in recent months, which is more about soundbites than facts."

Corrections

  • A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Eris Nyx.
    Oct 16, 2024 10:48 AM PT