A co-founder of Vancouver's Drug User Liberation Front said he was surprised by Health Canada's lack of "urgency" about the deadly toxic drug crisis, and the absence of a pharmaceutical-grade supplier meant the club had to turn to the dark web to get pure substances.
Jeremy Kalicum continued his testimony in a constitutional challenge to Canada's drug laws in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Kalicum, a public health researcher, said the club's original engagement with Health Canada proposed two models for its operation, and the preferred option would've been to source pharmaceutical-grade heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Under cross-examination from Crown lawyer Oren Bick, Kalicum said DULF hoped to figure out a way to get a pharmaceutical supplier, but the "current regulatory framework prevented them from doing so."
He told the court that the group wanted to figure out a way to work with Health Canada to operate the drug "compassion club," to test illicit drugs and supply high-purity substances to club members to reduce overdoses.
"We were desperately trying to find a way to make it work," he said.
Without the option of a licensed supplier, Kalicum said the other proposal was sourcing drugs from the dark web.
He said Health Canada "didn't want to engage with anybody on a public health proposal in the midst of the worst public health emergency that has hit British Columbia."
"The lack of urgency and seriousness in the consideration of the proposal is what surprises me," he said.
The court heard earlier on Wednesday that the club's founders felt "invincible," and hoped media coverage of their operation would spur public conversation.
But Kalicum said he now believes the publicity led to their arrests.
He told the court that he and co-founder Eris Nyx were uncomfortable engaging with the media, but coverage of the club's operations added to public knowledge and aligned with the its principles of transparency and accountability.
The club got funding from the Vancouver Coastal Health authority, which he said paid for drug testing, but drugs sourced from the dark web were bought with donations and sold to members at cost.
Bick asked Kalicum if he thought the media visibility of the club, which included a high-profile article in The Economist magazine, brought with it a "higher risk of arrest."
Kalicum said they knew publicity was risky and the agreements they had meant they had to be careful about what they said to journalists.
"Part of our funding agreement is that we were quiet about having an exemption, we were quiet of having funding," he said. "And I think the thing that really took us down was the government's involvement."
The court heard the compassion club operated between August 2022 and October 2023, and was given annual funding of $200,000 from the health authority for drug checking and overdose prevention services, but DULF went further by buying and testing drugs to distribute in order to prevent overdoses.
Kalicum said no drugs were bought with health authority money, drug purchases were financed by donations and sales were made at cost to club members.
The co-founders were found guilty this month on charges of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, but their conviction is on hold until the constitutional challenge has been decided.
Kalicum told the court he now believes engaging with the media and putting the club in the public eye is what led to their arrests, and he feels that they were "thrown under the bus by multiple institutions."
Bick questioned Kalicum about the data and research they were producing and conducting on more than three dozen club members who accessed the club's drugs and site, and he said they published information about the club to be transparent about their work.
A post to DULF's website, dated March 3, 2025, says its legal challenge is seeking to prove that a section of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that prohibits possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking is unconstitutional and "its enforcement is killing the very people it purports to protect."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
