The Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) is a Canadian "compassion club" [1] organization in Vancouver, British Columbia that aims to advocate for and provide safe supply to drug users in Vancouver. The organization was founded in 2020 [2] by Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx and operated out of the Downtown Eastside, where it sold heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine that has been tested for impurities. [1] [3] DULF was involved in protest actions in 2020 and 2021 [4] [5] and began regular operations of its compassion club in 2022. [6] 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 as DULF's unlawful distribution of drugs was not covered the exemptions granted to the group [7] and DULF's operations were shut down by Vancouver police. Prior to this, Vancouver Coastal Health had designated DULF both as an Overdose Prevention Site and Urgent Public Health Needs Site [1]
DULF operated by buying drugs through the dark web, testing the substances and selling them to its members. [8] [9] There were 43 or 47 members, depending on the source. [8] [9] Nyx estimated DULF's annual purchase was in hundreds of thousands of dollars. [10] DULF bought from an anonymous seller inside Canada in order to avoid international trafficking charges [10] using cryptocurrency and the substances were delivered by mail to the post office for pickup. [10]
Drug testing for DULF is done at the University of Victoria and UBC [11] .
DULF works side by side with Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. [12]
DULF's first public drug distribution was in June 2020. [4] On April 14th, 2021, activists associated with DULF gave out boxes of heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine that had been tested and labelled with information about their composition. [5]
In July, DULF enlisted city councillor Jean Swanson to hand out drugs in front of a Vancouver Police Department station. [2] 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. [2]
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. [11]
In August 2021, DULF proposed to Health Canada to obtain a Section 56 exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [13] 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. [2] Despite this, in the summer of 2022, DULF began operating its compassion club. [6]
In October 2023, Vancouver Police raided DULF, arrested Kalicum and Nyx, and shut down the storefront operation. [14]
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. [2] DULF's operations were also attacked by BC provincial conservative leader John Rustad. [15]
In 2025, Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx were found guilty of drug trafficking. Justice Catherine Murray commented "They want to save lives", though the legal exemptions granted to DULF from drug laws did not cover selling the substances to members. [16] Their conviction was suspended pending the verdict of their constitutional challenge. [17]
On October 15th 2024, DULF announced that they would be launching a constitutional challenge of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act following the raid of their storefront and the arrests of Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, arguing that by shutting down DULF's operations, the Section 7 right to life, liberty and security of the person and the Section 15 right to guaranteed equality of their users was violated. [18] [17]