16/10/2025
Activists from the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) have been brought to court. In Vancouver, Canada, they distributed tested illegal drugs to people who use drugs— in the packaging shown in the photo. They are being charged with drug trafficking. The activists’ goal was to prevent overdose deaths by making checked drugs available.
Canada is in the midst of an overdose epidemic.
Since 2016, more than 50,000 people have died from drug overdoses in Canada. That’s roughly the equivalent of a small school class every single day. More deaths than from any other type of accident.
The primary driver of fatal overdoses is the spread of potent opioid drugs on the illegal market, such as fentanyl. These substances are now used not only to cut street he**in, but also other drugs—cocaine, methamphetamine. Many people die of an opioid overdose without ever intending to consume opioids.
The traditional, prohibition-based drug policy response is:
“Don’t do drugs, or you’ll die!”
But this message clearly isn’t working. People continue to use illegal drugs in large numbers despite all warnings. Not everyone wants to or is able to stop, and relapse rates are high. Moreover, regardless of what we think about drug use itself, the fact is that illegality creates the conditions in which unknown, toxic, poor-quality substances can circulate.
DULF activists were tired of watching their friends die from overdoses. They created a club whose members were exclusively long-term drug users. They purchased drugs on the dark web, then had them tested within a government-authorized drug checking program, and listed the test results on the packaging. They continuously monitored the effects among members and found that during the program, overdoses dropped dramatically and no one died—whereas since the police shut the club down, two people have already died from overdoses.
What do you think? Do they deserve to be prosecuted?
by Peter Sarosi
