11/05/2025
The Nation ( Oct 27, 2025)
by Carl Hart
“On Trial for a Radical Approach to Reducing Drug Overdoses in British Columbia”
“The Vancouver duo behind the Drug User Liberation Front faces 40 years behind bars for drug trafficking. But this is no ordinary case.”
“East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood, where fatal drug overdose rates range between 15 to 25 times higher than in the United States and the rest of Canada.(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Bluesky
Arguments ended on October 15 in the trial of Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, founders of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), a Vancouver-based “compassion club,” which tends to operate outside of the law providing life-saving services to the most likely victims of poorly addressed health crises. The pair faces up to 40 years behind bars for drug trafficking. But don’t get it twisted. This isn’t the run-of-the-mill, cop-worshiping, drugs-are-destroying-the-community case that dominates the American faux discourse on drugs. Nyx and Kalicum are heroes, and I’m down to do battle with anyone who claims otherwise.
I hung out with the pair the Saturday after the trial ended in Vancouver’s Ivanhoe Pub, even though alcohol isn’t my or their drug of choice. Your first impression is that they are an eccentric and beautiful mix of Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of Ron Woodroof in the film Dallas Buyers Club. The carrot: Kalicum is soft-spoken, charming, and patient. The stick: Nyx is intense, blunt, and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. The second impression is that they are profoundly principled people. And third is that you’d be proud if either were your own child.
Just ask the stream of supporters that filled the courtroom during their trial. Or read any of the number of articles published in respected outlets like The Guardian and The Economist that spotlighted their innovative approach to drug overdoses before their arrest on October 25, 2023. And this is to say nothing of the lives they undoubtedly saved or the governmental hypocrisy they exposed.
The thirtysomething Canuck duo formed DULF after they had grown sick and tired of watching their family, friends, and neighbors die from drug overdoses. Both had worked in and around organizations that provide services to drug users long enough to have seen firsthand how most deaths were caused by contaminated substances from the illicit drug market, infamously known for its unpredictable and sometimes toxic supply.
They also know that there’s always going to be a subset of people, in spite of the risk, who will continue to seek illicit drugs to get high. So when BC authorities declared these mounting deaths a public health emergency, mainly exploiting the situation to push the same, tired teetotal interventions that created this mess, it was just too much to stomach.
Back in December 2016, 161 people died from overdoses in BC. It was the largest number of people that had ever perished in the province in a one-month period, prompting the government to proclaim a public health crisis. By August 2022, the number would climb to 169 people. So, Nyx and Kalicum turned their idea into a full-fledged club with a storefront in the Downtown Eastside section of Vancouver, where fatal drug overdose rates range between 15 to 25 times higher than figures in the United States and the rest of Canada.
Nyx and Kalicum bought he**in, co***ne, and methamphetamine—the drugs most often linked to overdoses—from online sources known for having high-quality drugs and tested the purchased products for purity before selling them at cost to their 47 DULF members. They explained that buying high-quality drugs from the deep web is quite complicated, even for most people with stable employment and housing, let alone those without such basic needs. Consistent with best practices for delivering social services, they sought to meet club members where they were at. This was the protocol from August 2022 to October 2023.
Their goal was to prevent overdoses by making available drugs devoid of dangerous contaminants. And it worked. Not one compassion club member died during the 14-month period. What’s more, detailed analysis of data collected during this period showed that club membership was even associated with a significant reduction in non-fatal overdoses. The International Journal of Drug Policy recently published these findings.
But even an irrefutable success story isn’t immune to hell-bent politicians who scapegoat drugs for all that ails society. It’s one of the few issues on which both Canadian liberals like Kevin Falcon and conservatives like Pierre Poilievre ardently agree to be wrong together. These jokers managed to distort DULF’s activities to make opposing it a cause célèbre, claiming that it would inevitably lead to overdoses, homelessness, joblessness, among other intractable preexisting problems in the Downtown Eastside.
Then Vancouver Police raided DULF, arrested Nyx and Kalicum, and shut down their storefront operation, in October 2023.
The Crown contends that this is a cut-and-dried case: Nyx and Kalicum trafficked illegal drugs, period. But the evidence suggests it’s murkier than that.
For one thing, DULF assiduously informed officials of its exploits every step of the way. A recording played during the trial, for example, revealed that Nyx and Kalicum spoke candidly with Vancouver police officers about their intent to buy drugs from the dark web before testing and selling them to DULF members. In another recording, police appeared to give the duo tacit approval, responding that this is “great work that you’re doing” before saying that they were “happy to assist in any way we can.
For another, DULF had been granted an exemption by Health Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to test illegal drugs in order to determine their composition and purity as a strategy to reduce deaths resulting from tainted drugs. Their lawyers argued that this exemption also permitted Nyx and Kalicum to provide drugs for the purpose of trafficking them to their compassion club members, in part because officials were aware of their intent to traffic when the exemption was issued.
In the meantime, DULF requested a broader exemption to purchase and sell illegal drugs to its members. It’s a logical next step in ensuring the availability of a safe drug supply. However, Health Canada denied their request. DULF appealed and idly awaits a final decision.
Sadly though, at least two DULF members have died since Nyx and Kalicum were arrested and forced to close the doors of their compassion club.
Meanwhile, Health Canada boasts on its website that the federal government’s response to the overdose crisis is driven by “compassionate, evidence-based solutions that prioritize saving lives and reducing harm.” This is about as convincing as the Trump administration’s claims to protect Americans from the harms of drugs by attacking Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
It is true that BC’s drug policies are generally more progressive than most around the world, but they are wrong in this case.
The British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray will decide Nyx and Kalicum’s fate on November 7. Kalicum told me that if they’re found guilty, they plan to vigorously appeal the decision and hope that there is an outpouring of public support. “After all, who can be against saving lives?”
“Carl L. Hart is the Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia and author of Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear.”
