In 2021, the groups asked Health Canada for an exemption from Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. In 2022, Health Canada rejected the ask. Lawyers appeared in federal court, arguing that Health Canada's 2022 rejection of the group’s attempts to administer a legally sanctioned compassion club was “unreasonable and likely to have caused harm and death to those at risk of overdose in Vancouver.” In 2023, more than 2,500 people died in B.C. due to toxic