A judge heard arguments that drug-harm reduction activists should be exempt from trafficking laws under the Charter, after a 2023 Vancouver police raid led to convictions now held pending decision.
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A B.C. Supreme Court judge is expected to issue a ruling Tuesday on a constitutional challenge brought by two harm-reduction activists convicted of drug trafficking in connection with the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), a “compassion club” run in Vancouver.
The case centres on Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, co-founders of DULF, who were convicted last year after Vancouver police raided the group’s premises in 2023.
Justice Catherine Murray has put the trafficking convictions on hold while she considers the constitutional arguments raised by the activists’ lawyers.
In court, the defence argued that compelling drug users to rely on unregulated street drugs violates rights protected under the Charter of Rights, and that the club’s model—selling drugs to members in pursuit of harm reduction—should fall within a constitutional exemption.
The judge said in a previous part of her ruling that while the activists’ intentions were “good” and aimed at saving lives, the conduct at issue—buying pure drugs on the dark web and selling them to members—was not covered by an exemption that allows for drug storage and testing.
Murray described the activists as “agitators” seeking to make change, while also noting they were aware that they were taking a risk of being prosecuted for trafficking.
The activists’ lawyers also told the court that shutting down the club increased harms for people living with addiction by restricting access to a regulated supply and raised the risk of death from an unregulated, illicit drug supply.
The outcome of the ruling will determine whether the activists’ convictions remain in place or whether a constitutional remedy applies to conduct they say was intended to reduce harm from toxic drugs.
The decision follows a request by the defence to maintain the convictions in abeyance pending the constitutional determination, leaving the legal status of Kalicum and Nyx’s trafficking convictions directly tied to Tuesday’s judgment.
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