The founders of a Vancouver “compassion club” that sold heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine bought on the dark web and tested for contaminants, have filed a court challenge arguing their Charter rights and the rights of users were violated when the club was shut and they were arrested.

Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, the co-founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, say denying compassion club members access to a predictable supply of drugs they depend on, while exposing them to the severe risks of the street supply is “grossly disproportionate” to any benefits of shutting down the club.

They say in their legal claim that preventing the initiative infringes on their right to liberty and the right to life and security of the person of the compassion club’s members.

The legal action claims its members with serious addictions are compelled to turn to the toxic street supply for substances they depend on, making it discriminatory to shut down the club and a violation of the right to equality.

The B.C. Supreme Court document also says the pair should not have been charged because the club’s site had been given the authority by Vancouver Coastal Heath to collect, store and transport illicit drug samples for drug checking or analysis.

Nyx and Kalicum have been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking in a case that set off significant public sparring between the governing NDP and the Opposition BC United.