by Julia Hilbert, MSW, Chair of the Board of Directors, SSDP

SSDP joins the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) in celebrating a historic win for drug policy reform in Canada. On Tuesday, September 29, 2026 the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Drug User Liberation Front’s founders, Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx. What does this ruling mean for safe supply in Canada? 

WHAT IS DULF?

The Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) was created by Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, along with other members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), which has been organizing for harm reduction access and the rights of people who use drugs in Vancouver since 1998. In 2022, DULF was founded as a separate entity from VANDU, and Jeremy and Eris began the work that nobody else would, filling a critical gap in services by providing a non-medicalized safe supply of substances to people who use drugs in Vancouver. The substances supplied were procured by DULF via the dark web, including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Each substance was tested rigorously, labeled for its contents, and provided at-cost to a limited number of people via DULF’s compassion club program. DULF applied for a temporary criminal code exemption from Health Canada to operate their compassion club, but their application was rejected. 

Co-founder of DULF, Garth Mullins, said this organization began because “no one else was coming to save us”. (CBC News Canada)

HOW DID RECEIVING SAFE SUPPLY FROM THE COMPASSION CLUB CHANGE PEOPLE’S LIVES?

The findings are very clear. Members of the compassion club had a reduced likelihood of non-fatal overdose, and non-fatal overdose with naloxone administration.  The truth DULF already knew was evident, a safer supply of drugs, without harmful adulterants or varying levels of fentanyl, means people will overdose less. In layman’s terms, they learned that safe supply saves lives.

SO, WHY DID JEREMY AND ERIS GET ARRESTED?

Police raided DULF’s compassion club in 2023, and Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx were arrested on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking. In B.C., these charges can carry sentences up to and including life imprisonment. But DULF was expecting this raid, and they ardently refused to back down. Jeremy and Eris argued that this criminal law was preventing them from doing the work of saving lives through the provision of a non-medicalized safe supply.

WHAT HAPPENED IN COURT?

In 2025, Jeremy and Eris were convicted, each being found guilty on three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. At this point, many would have withdrawn from this fight, and done whatever was necessary to secure their own freedom, but Jeremy and Eris never faltered. Looking at the prospect of spending the rest of their lives behind bars, they doubled down, and began a grassroots campaign to fund their legal fees.

“It’s, you know, our friends, our family, and our communities who are at risk of dying, who are overdosing, who do die on a regular basis,” – Jeremy Kalicum  (CBC News Canada)

Jeremy Kalicum, image: CBC News Canada

Their convictions were paused as DULF brought a constitutional challenge. Their argument here was that Jeremy and Eris, as well as the people who use drugs in Vancouver who had relied on DULF’s compassion club, had experienced a violation of their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when the program was ended, denying DULF members the “right to life and security of the person”. 

Since Health Canada had rejected DULF’s application for an exemption, there was no way for them to seek a legal exemption from prosecution under Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act which would have covered running a non-medicalized safe supply program.

The arguments were heard in September 2026, and a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in their favor, finding that DULF’s compassion club “reduced the harms associated with the toxic drug crisis and did not negatively impact the community or public safety.” (CBC News Canada). With this, Jeremy and Eris’s convictions were stayed, and they are free.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

That is an open-ended question. Justice Catherine Murray gave the Canadian parliament six months to find a “pathway to non-medicalized safer supply.” (CBC News Canada). Expanded access to programs like DULF’s compassion club would save countless Canadian lives. But first, the notoriously slow wheels of bureaucracy must turn in order to make that happen.

DULF co-founder Eris Nyx remains resolute and realistic, saying the following in an email to DULF’s financial supporters two days after the ruling:

“Everywhere she went, someone acknowledged the importance of the judgment. No one, however, seemed to know what to do with it. The judgment was referred to as a precedent. It was discussed as a legal development. It was cited in correspondence. It appeared in documents and was mentioned in rooms where people spoke carefully about policy.

But on the street, the judgment was strangely difficult to locate.

It could not be exchanged for drugs.

It could not be injected.

It could not be smoked.

It could not be placed between two people at a table and used to prevent an overdose.

And so she began to understand that there were two kinds of victory.

There was the victory that could be entered into the law books.

And there was the victory that could be felt by a person standing on the street.

The first had happened.

The second had not.” – Eris Nyx, October 1st, 2026

Eris Nyx, Image: Vancouver Sun

SSDP STANDS WITH DULF!

The absolute selflessness and bravery exhibited by Jeremy and Eris in being willing to put their own lives and bodies on the line for safe supply has been admired by SSDP’s own activists for years. We commend them, and are thrilled to celebrate this win with them from the U.S.

Julia Hilbert, MSW

Chair of the Board of Directors, SSDP

PA Naloxone Project & Technical Assistance Coordinator, Prevention Point Pittsburgh

 Julia Hilbert, MSW (she/her) is the Chair of SSDP’s Board of Directors. She joined SSDP in 2017 by helping to found the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) chapter, and previously served on SSDP’s Board of Directors from 2019-2021, serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors. She is also currently in leadership with the SSDP Pittsburgh Community chapter, which she founded in 2021. Julia’s day job is serving as the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Coordinator with Prevention Point Pittsburgh, who provide health empowerment services to people who use drugs. Here she works on naloxone and test strip access, overdose prevention, and statewide advocacy for people who use drugs in Pennsylvania.