Former chief coroner describes years of calls for changes to help toxic drug crisis

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe provides an update on illicit drug toxicity deaths in the province during a press conference at B.C. Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Monday, February 24, 2020. (Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press) (CHAD HIPOLITO)

VANCOUVER — The former chief coroner for British Columbia says the provincial government didn’t seem influenced by evidence or expert advice on how to prevent overdoses after it ignored multiple recommendations from experts to create a safer drug supply that did not require a prescription.

Lisa Lapointe told a judge in a constitutional challenge by two people found guilty of possession for the purpose of trafficking after running a “compassion club” that she set off three expert panels into the overdose crisis since 2017.

Lawyers for Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, the founders of DULF, or the Drug Users Liberation Front, are arguing that shutting down the club that sold tested heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine violated the Charter rights of those wanting to use the safer drugs instead of those purchased on the streets.

Lapointe said Wednesday that the last two panel reports in 2022 and 2023 recommended the government oversee a “non-medical” model of providing drugs without the need for a prescription, similar to what DULF was doing.

She told the court that recommendations from the 2017 received a detailed response from the government, though not everything was implemented, but the later two did not get the same reaction.

“By that point it seemed that government was not being influenced by evidence or expert advice, and I’m not sure what they would need,” she said.

She said in 2022, the government responded to the recommendations with a list of projects that were underway to expand prescription safer supply but were “silent” about a model not requiring a prescription.

Lapointe, who retired last year after 13 years in the position, said she found out at the news conference while releasing the third report that the government had already said that a non-medical model was not being considered.

She told the court that the 2022 report in particular was written with a sense of urgency as deaths climbed and there was “a great deal of fear” among those on the front line trying to help.

The B.C. government declared a public health emergency in 2016 as deaths started to climb and since then, at least 15,000 people have died.

Lapointe said she feels frustration with the provincial funding of in-patient recovery facilities without keeping data on how the beds are used and whether they are “successful,” while also not regulating recovery facilities in the province.

Safer supply programs, on the other hand, are very well monitored, she said.

Lapointe testified that “political winds have shifted” both on the federal and provincial level from a health focus to one more interested in law enforcement.

DULF originally applied to Health Canada for an exemption to Canada’s drug laws that would allow them to run a compassion club that tests and sells drugs at cost to a small group of users to track its effectiveness.

When that request was denied, the group went ahead anyway, buying drugs off the dark web and testing them for safety.

Their lawyers have said that the Health Canada exemption was not “practically available” to the club because of a series of bureaucratic and legislative barriers.

The court has heard that no group is currently licensed to provide the type of legal drugs Health Canada would require be used if it were to grant an exemption for a program like DULF.

Federal Crown lawyer Oren Bick flagged for the judge that the provincial government was not a part of the case and did not have a lawyer present to take a position.

The court heard that the provincial attorney general’s office is aware of the case but chose not to participate.

This report by Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press, was first published Dec. 10, 2025