Lawyers for Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, the founders of a compassion club supplying tested heroin, meth and cocaine to users, say they were shocked prosecutors laid drug trafficking charges against the two while a related case is before the courts.

At Emily Carr University, the User Experience Design Certificate program equips students to tackle the dynamic demands of a fast-developing industry.

DULF — the Drug Users Liberation Front — had applied to Health Canada for an exemption from Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in order to run the compassion club.

The request was denied and DULF is challenging the decision in Federal Court.

“We also were surprised that, given our clients’ life-saving efforts, there would be a public interest in prosecuting such efforts,” said Stephanie Dickson, lawyer for Nyx and Kalicum.

Since 2020, Nyx and Kalicum have held protest events and supplied tested heroin, cocaine and meth to drug users, despite the risk of arrest for breaking Canada’s controlled substances laws.

The pair ordered the drugs from sellers on the dark web, then tested them before distributing them to a small group of people who are addicted and at high risk of death from illicit toxic drugs.

Nyx and Kalicum previously told The Tyee they were driven to start the compassion club after losing friends and neighbours, and after responding to dozens of overdoses.

They said they bought drugs from suppliers on the dark web because there was no legal source for prescription-grade heroin in Canada.