The Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) is a Vancouver, BC based organization that aims to advocate for and provide safe supply to drug users in Vancouver. The organization was founded in 2020 [1] by Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx and operates out of the Downtown Eastside, where it sells heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine that has been tested for impurities. [2] [3] The goal of DULF is to reduce drug overdose deaths due to the ongoing opioid epidemic. In 2025, Kalicum and Nyx were found guilty of drug trafficking by the BC Supreme Court, though Justice Catherine Murray added "They want to save lives". Prior to this, Vancouver Coastal Health had designated DULF both as an Overdose Prevention Site and Urgent Public Health Needs Site. [2]
DULF cooperates closely with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
Drug testing for DULF is done at the University of Victoria and UBC. [4]
The DULF founders Kalicum and Nyx have characterized the DULF model as being composed of a Fulfillment Centre, which is responsible for sourcing, testing, and accurately labelling substances, and a Compassion Club, which screens and enrolls members. [5] The DULF compassion club also serves as an overdose prevention site, where members can consume substances whether purchased from DULF or otherwise in a monitored and sanitized environment. [6]
The drugs are sourced from the dark web and then tested first with paper spray ionization mass spectrometry and then with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry and NMR. [5]
Over its lifespan, DULF had served 49 members. [5]
DULF's first public drug distribution was in June 2020. [7] On April 14th, 2021, activists associated with DULF gathered on East Hastings to give out boxes of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine that had been tested using FT-IR and immunoassay and clearly labelled with information about their composition. [8] Concurrently, DULF release a communique announcing that
In response to the 1716 overdose deaths in 2020 and continued inaction in British Columbia, the Drug User Liberation Front has taken matters into their own hands, by any means necessary, to provide a real safe(r) supply of drugs to people who use drugs. [9]
In July, DULF enlisted city councillor Jean Swanson to hand out drugs in front of a Vancouver Police Department station. [1] Early on, DULF built itself off of crowdfunding and collaboration with Vancouver Coastal Health, the BC Centre on Substance Use at UBC and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition at Simon Fraser University. [1]
In 2021, Vancouver City Hall voted in favor of supporting DULF and Vancouver Coastal Health started providing $200,000 in annual funding to DULF for harm reduction. [4]
In August 2021, DULF proposed to Health Canada to obtain a Section 56 exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [10] They requested to either be allowed to buy drugs from a licensed, regulated provider or keep buying from the dark web. In 2022, Health Canada rejected DULF's proposal over DULF's insistence of providing drugs without a doctor's diagnosis, concerns about street diversion of the drugs being handed out, and the lack of an authorized provider. [1]
In October 2023, Vancouver Police raided DULF, arrested Kalicum and Nyx, and shut down the storefront operation. [11]
As public opinion turned against safe-supply in the Downtown Eastside, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called it a "disgrace" that the B.C. government was supporting DULF. [1]