DULF reveals defense strategy for Compassion Club criminal charges

TVancouver’s Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) has outlined its proposed defense against criminal charges against two of its founders for distributing tested heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. It calls the prosecution of a compassion club designed to save lives unconstitutional.

In a press conference on October 15, Erys Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, along with attorneys Stephanie and Tim Dickson, announced their intention to pursue various defense options, including challenges to the charge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Stephanie Dickson said the Compassion Club operates at a designated location for “urgent public health needs,” which exempts it from certain provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), including possession for the purpose of drug trafficking.

This designation stems from DULF’s operation of an overdose prevention facility, despite the organization’s application to Health Canada for a separate exemption from the CDSA to operate a compassion club.

“The goals of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are public health and public safety, and the Compassion Club promotes public health and public safety.”

“Furthermore, we await evidence that this provision has not in any way exempted the Compassion Club from Section 5(2) of the CDSA, such that this provision violates Section 7 and Section 15 of the Charter,” said Stephanie Dickson.

Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to life, liberty and security of the person, while Section 15 protects against discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

On the latter, Tim Dickson said that Compassion Club members “were all seriously addicted,” meaning they couldn’t just stop taking drugs.

“This is not a situation where you just say no,” he said, noting that Section 15 “makes this distinction based on a recognized disability, namely addiction.”

Stephanie and Tim Dickson

On Section 7, he said that prohibiting Compassion Club members from accessing safe, predictable care forces them to obtain medication from an unpredictable street supply, putting them at risk of serious injury.

“We say this is arbitrary,” Tim Dickson said. “The goals of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are public health and public safety, and the Compassion Club promotes public health and public safety. It protected lives. It protected members from serious injury.”

“The ban [against DULF] does not promote public health or public safety,” he continued. “It undermines those goals. But if anyone believes that banning this program will provide any benefit, then the impact on members so far outweighs those benefits that the ban is completely disproportionate.”

It was Erys Nix and Jeremy Kalicum arrested in October 2023. DULF and their homes were searched in response to secure supplies has taken root in British Columbia. At the end of 2022, the province’s conservative parties began doing so after years of relative silence on mitigation complain against it Policies such as safe supply.

In response, the governing BC New Democratic Party quickly withdrew funding from the DULF overdose prevention website, and the Vancouver Police Department conducted a raid soon after.

On May 31, after months of rallies in support of DULF, Crown prosecutors announced approved fees against Nyx and Kalicum, who are each charged with three counts of possession for the purpose of human trafficking. The fees could theoretically– although it is so highly unlikely– punishable by imprisonment up to life imprisonment.

DULF also sought a judicial review of Health Canada’s denial of a CDSA exemption for the Compassion Club, and a federal court hearing was held in March. In this case too, the Dicksons represent DULF, the decision is still pending. They declined to speculate at the press conference about what impact the outcome of this case might have on the criminal proceedings.

“People’s wellbeing has been catastrophically affected by the closure of the scheme. And some people we haven’t even been able to get in touch with yet, and I’m very worried about them.”

Nyx said the difference between a supply of tested heroin and the supply on the street is “night and day,” and that when people are cut off from the DULF supply, they are at far greater risk of overdose and death .

“Many people who have been removed from the program have had more overdoses, but they are also at risk of all the other contaminants that enter the illicit drug supply,” she said, comparing pure heroin to a substance that has been reduced to xylazine , benzodiazepines, “or worse, drywall dust or rat feces, God knows what else.”

“People’s welfare has been catastrophically affected by the closure of the program,” she said. “And some people we haven’t even been able to contact yet, and I’m very worried about them.”

Nyx noted at the start of the press conference that DULF’s announcement comes amid the eighth year of a drug-related health emergency, which she described as perhaps the worst health crisis in British Columbia’s history.

“Very little is being done to prevent deaths from skyrocketing. A plane full of people die every month due to a deregulated and toxic drug supply,” Nyx said. “We want to show how deeply unfair and discriminatory it is to prevent drug users from saving lives, and indeed from saving the lives of the people they care about most.”

From left: Stephanie and Tim Dickson, Jeremy Kalicum, Erys Nyx

While opponents of harm reduction have described the movement as anti-recovery, Nyx said that was untrue – and acknowledged the need for a “full continuum of care” ranging from abstinence-based treatment to compassion clubs.

Kalicum said he has helped people trying to access treatment but has had difficulty navigating a system where that is the case Waiting lists The term can range from months to over a year.

“In this crisis, it is a disgrace that we are being prosecuted for saving lives,” Nyx said, pointing out that in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where DULF’s Compassion Club operated, there was 556.8 per 100,000 residents People die from overdoses – which equates to one in 180 people dying every year.

“These deaths are caused by the deregulation of the illegal drug trade, and that is a byproduct of a prohibition regime, a regime that is outdated and dangerous for people who use drugs,” she said.

“It is overwhelming that the enforcement against us was triggered by politicization.”

Kalicum said the intent behind DULF’s Compassion Club is to explore a potential model for engagement across the continuum of care – one that prioritizes input and transparency to ensure the best outcomes.

“We spoke to whoever we could whenever we could to inform ourselves about our work – and that included conversations with police, with all levels of government, with health authorities, with research institutions, treatment centers, community media and the public.” Kalicum said, adding that the federal minister of mental health and addictions visited the Compassion Club before the raids.

“Every step of the way and from every stakeholder we spoke to, we asked for feedback,” Kalicum said. “We asked about concerns. We never had any concerns. Every stakeholder only praised us for what we did. It is overwhelming that the reason for the prosecution against us was politicization.”

He said DULF’s assurances to the authorities even included a willingness to close down operations if they were asked to do so at some point – “but no one ever did that.”

Kalicum also noted that Compassion Club’s data collection has resulted in the publication of two peer-reviewed articles to date, with more in the works.

This research has demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in total hospitalizations, overdoses requiring naloxone administration, and overall overdoses among Compassion Club participants. And although thousands of doses of DULF-provided drugs were observed at the Compassion Club, none resulted in an overdose.

“This wouldn’t happen with street drugs,” Kalicum said. “These are groundbreaking findings that need to be considered. The fact that they are simply pushed aside is politicization in its most vile form.”

Qualitative research from DULF also showed that almost two-thirds of members said they had reduced their drug use through the Compassion Club, and more than two-fifths said their membership had helped them stop using drugs altogether.

DULF was also found to help reduce the risk of violence, reduce negative interactions with police, and reduce reliance on criminal activity, each in approximately three-quarters of members.

“DULF has carried out a market regulation project, a project aimed at saving the lives of the people we care about most.”

“What we are seeing is a decrease in overdoses, a decrease in money flowing into the illegal market and a decrease in crime,” Kalicum said. “These are things we all want to see in society.”

“It doesn’t take much thought to realize that the positive aspects we expressed without the club are turning into negative ones,” he continued. “So without the club, more money flows into the illegal market and organized crime. Without the club, overdoses increase.”

In particular, he noted that those who were able to stop using drugs due to DULF will not have access to this predictable care if they resume use – and that is the case together with abstinence-based treatment, and which particularly makes people who use opioids vulnerable to overdose due to lower tolerability.

Nyx added that the provincial government’s safe prescription care model – which British Columbia’s Conservatives have demonized over the past two years – is ill-suited to addressing the enormous problems created by prohibition.

Access is “extremely limited, particularly outside urban centers,” she noted, due to barriers such as daily intake checks, urine testing and high diagnostic and monitoring requirements.

“From this standpoint, DULF has undertaken a market regulation project,” Nyx said, “a project aimed at saving the lives of the people we care about most.”

All photos, including the top photo of Kalicum and Nyx, by Dustin Godfrey