Ruby Cornish

Ruby Cornish

@rubycornish.bsky.social

CBC News journalist based in Vancouver. Formerly ABC News Australia. Trail chaser, rhymer, signer. Get in touch ruby.cornish@cbc.ca

886 followers312 following7 posts

Last week the BC Supreme Ct made a hugely consequential decision. It upheld a constitutional challenge by the Drug User Liberation Front. For a year, Jeremy Kalicum & Eris Nyx purchased heroin, methamphetamine & cocaine from the dark web, tested it for purity & sold it to drug users at cost price.

View full thread

This means the federal government has to amend its drug laws to permit a non-medicalized safer supply program in Canada to operate. Justice Murray has given it 6 months. It's a landmark decision in a province — & a country — that remains very much in the throes of a toxic drug crisis.

Last week the BC Supreme Ct made a hugely consequential decision. It upheld a constitutional challenge by the Drug User Liberation Front. For a year, Jeremy Kalicum & Eris Nyx purchased heroin, methamphetamine & cocaine from the dark web, tested it for purity & sold it to drug users at cost price.

They were arrested & convicted of trafficking. In their constitutional challenge, they argued the laws used to convict them breached Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- that their program saved lives and did not impact public safety. And Justice Catherine Murray agreed with them.

In her ruling she said: "By prohibiting non-medicalized safer supply, s 5(2) of the [Controlled Drugs and Substances Act] has the effect of driving people who use drugs, particularly those with severe drug dependencies, to the unpredictable and dangerous street drug supply."

You are up to date.