DULF

The most urgent legal case in drug policy needs money. For Overdose Awareness Day, give what you can.

The question is not whether allowing access to regulated drugs is the right thing to do –– that is now confirmed. The question is whether enough collective will can be mustered to overcome the carceral bureaucracy keeping regulated drugs out of reach. DULF can do that –– with your help.

Euan Thomson

29 Aug 2025 — 2 min read

DULF is short on funds for its compassion club legal defence and challenge. Can you help them?

The Drug User Liberation Front is sounding the alarm that its legal fund is running short, with just over a month before the trial.

The fund was established to support DULF's legal defence against drug trafficking charges and their Charter challenge of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Together, these are the most ambitious and important legal cases in modern Canadian drug policy – arguably worldwide.

Give what you can to the DULF fund

Their potential lies in DULF's to overturn the federal legislation responsible for more deaths in this country than the second world war. The arguments are clear; whether or not they are successful hinges on funding for legal preparations.

International Overdose Awareness Day was established as a remembrance day of action. DULF ran for over a year without deaths among its forty members; since its forced closure by Vancouver police, DULF now memorializes three members with a fourth in prison. The group has published a trove of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of its pilot compassion club.

DULF had funding from the provincial government and operated with a City of Vancouver business license. Its operation under these legal approvals means that everyone responsible for arresting and charging Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum had tacitly endorsed their work.

Be a part of the most important legal fund in Canadian drug policy

Unlike the private clinics and pharmacies that control the flow of legal drugs, Nyx and Kalicum have no profit motive. Their club operated as a nonprofit, with diligent record-keeping. Unlike the police who arrested them, Nyx and Kalicum had evidence on their side – evidence that their actions reduce harm.

DULF continues to await a decision on its March 2024 appeal of Health Canada's refusal to grant the club an exemption under Controlled Drugs and Substances Act Section 56.

As the federal government becomes increasingly misaligns with the public on Israel's genocide in Gaza, its pursuit of charges against Nyx and Kalicum also runs afoul of the public. The discrimination and endangerment of people criminalized for drug use through the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are bound inextricably to these charges.

The charges and the CDSA must be stopped. This legal action can do it.