A 51-year-old Calgary man who suffers debilitating cluster headaches has won a Federal Court battle forcing Health Canada to reconsider his bid for legal access to psilocybin to treat his extreme pain.
Ottawa Federal Court Judge Simon Fothergill, on May 24, granted an application for judicial review of Health Canada’s denial of Jody Lance’s bid for legal access to medical grade psilocybin — the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms — to manage pain associated with the headaches, which is so bad they have earned the nickname “suicide headaches.”
That decision — which also highlighted the need to consider a patient’s Charter rights — is being hailed by others fighting to access psilocybin for medical reasons.
Requests to access controlled substances in special medical circumstances are filed through Health Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP). In their July 12, 2023, SAP application Lance and his Calgary neurologist, William Jeptha Davenport, requested legal access psilocybin to help treat pain. Health Canada denied the request due to lack of research into the efficacy of the drug to treat cluster headaches.
Pharmaceuticals are a money making business … their secondary role is medical care … if we allowed them and gave them the patents, they would be happy to sell and distribute cocaine and heroin if it meant they could profit from it.
Heroin was originally developed as a pharmaceutical, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is still being manufactured and distributed as such somewhere in the world. Morphine has certainly never gone out of style.