B.C. judge overturns trafficking convictions in safer-supply case

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has stayed the trafficking convictions of two drug activists and ruled that parts of federal drug legislation are unconstitutional.

According to a report by The Canadian Press, Justice Catherine Murray ruled that sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act violate Sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The ruling affects Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, who were convicted of trafficking last year.

The pair had admitted to purchasing drugs on the dark web and selling them to members as part of an effort to reduce the harms associated with toxic drugs.

Murray said operating a non-medicalized safer-supply program was central to what Kalicum and Nyx were doing and formed the basis of the criminal charges against them.

The judge has suspended the effect of her ruling for six months to give Parliament time to develop a framework that would allow such a safer-supply program to operate.

Murray also said the applicants had taken on the significant burden of bringing the constitutional challenge and described their efforts as public-interest work carried out at considerable personal cost.