Harper overrules Health Canada on heroin prescriptions

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,778
454
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Harper government overrules Health Canada on heroin prescriptions for study participants

The Harper government announced regulations Thursday aimed at denying heroin to Vancouver addicts involved in clinical research.

The move was made less than a year after the former federal health minister said political interference in the drug approval process was a “recipe for disaster.”

Health Canada last week approved prescribing heroin to the study participants.

But that decision was overruled by the regulations that Health Minister Rona Ambrose announced Thursday. Meanwhile, the Conservative party has launched a fundraising drive linked to the issue.

“The prime minister and I do not believe we are serving the best interests of those addicted to drugs and those who need our help the most by giving them the drugs they are addicted to,” Ambrose said at a news conference in Toronto.

“The answer of course is not to treat heroin addiction with heroin. … Our goal must be to take heroin out of the hands of addicts. We must focus on treatment and we must focus on recovery.”

The regulations, which took immediate effect, will “protect the integrity” of Health Canada’s special access to medication program by denying doctors the right to use it to provide illegal drugs like heroin or cocaine to patients, she said.

The special access program provides emergency access to medicines not yet available in Canada to doctors treating patients with “serious or life-threatening conditions when conventional therapies have failed, are unsuitable, or unavailable,” according to Health Canada.

Ambrose’s decision relates to 21 participants in a major clinical trial, all chronic long-term addicts who had failed to respond to methadone treatment.

Their approvals to access the heroin won’t be revoked, though they can’t be renewed after the permits expire in three months, according to Scott Bernstein, a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver who represents their interests.

The trial was an attempt to determine if hydromorphone, a legal opioid painkiller, can work as an alternative maintenance treatment over diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin.

The study’s proponents say ongoing provision of heroin, or a substitute without heroin’s “emotional and regulatory barriers,” keep addicts involved in the health care system, improve their chances of eventually breaking their habits and/or finding housing or employment, and sharply reduces the likelihood of their return to back alleys, dirty needles and crime.

Ambrose’s rebuke of Health Canada’s approvals coincided with a fundraising letter sent to Tory supporters by party official Fred DeLorey.

“I was shocked to learn today that Health Canada approved applications to give heroin to addicts — against the wishes of our elected government,” he stated. “We’re going to take steps to make sure this never happens again — but we need your help. If the NDP or Liberals are elected in 2015, you can bet they would make this heroin-for-addicts program permanent.”

The government’s approach received a scathing rebuke in Vancouver from the program’s supporters.

“The minister is medically, morally and ethically wrong,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and an internationally prominent advocate for so-called “harm reduction” measures.

“This again falls into a pattern on the part of the federal government of acting based on ideology, while ignoring the science.”

Both Montaner and Bernstein, the Pivot Legal Society lawyer, said the announcement contradicts that of Ambrose’s predecessor less than a year ago.

Then health minister Leona Aglukkaq, in a letter to her provincial and territorial counterparts, rejected a request to delay the approval of generic versions of the highly-addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin, also known as “Hillbilly Heroin.”

“A drug approval process based on politics is a recipe for disaster,” Aglukkaq said.

Bernstein said legal action may be considered to fight the decision. Supporters of harm reduction efforts won a major legal battle when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2011 against the federal government’s bid to shut down Insite, the supervised injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Harper government overrules Health Canada on heroin prescriptions for study participants
 

skookumchuck

Council Member
Jan 19, 2012
2,467
0
36
Van Isle
The fact that someone is a health care worker does not make them a wise politician. Sadly many do not see that at all.
 

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
15,441
150
63
BC Supreme Court sides with evidence based medicine:
B.C. Supreme Court grants injunction allowing doctors to prescribe heroin to select addicts | Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly
With an injunction secured, Smith continued, the next step is to see Providence's constitutional challenge enter the courts.

"We’re anticipating that could take a year, which is disappointing," she said. "The good news is that this decision will keep our clients safe during that year. I’m hopeful and our clients are hopeful."

In a March 2014 telephone interview, David Byres , vice-president of acute clinical programs at Providence, explained that a study similar to SALOME called NAOMI (North American Opiate Medication Initiative), conducted from 2005 to 2008, found that in certain cases, heroin-assisted therapy proved more effective than methadone in improving the wellbeing of long-time opiate addicts. Those results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 and are supported by similar academic findings in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

“The NAOMI trial provided definitive evidence that diacetylmorphine is an effective treatment,” he said.​

Though, the availability of diacetylmorphine may still be an issue. This is a positive step for combating addiction and the associated societal harms.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
108,748
11,088
113
Low Earth Orbit
Why not just ask junkies what works and what doesn't. My sister in law went from Heroin to Fentanyl just fine.

Seems pretty arbitrary Heroin or Methadone...both addicting. Both bad for you.

I've read about a couple of herbs that can help and sometimes stop addiction with a single dose.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca as an Addiction Treatment: Shamanic Visions to Cure Your Addiction?

Edited: and accidentally removed the link to Ibogaine.

Ayahuasca is freaking amazing once your done puking and sh-tting.

Marc Emery ran an Ibogaine rehab with success all on his dollar.
 

lone wolf

Grossly Underrated
Nov 25, 2006
32,493
210
63
In the bush near Sudbury
I'd like to see some restraint placed on methadone clinics. The idea is to get an addict OFF opiates by reducing dosage. Too many are in it for the free high on the government buck.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Satelitte Radio Addict
May 28, 2007
14,582
2,318
113
Toronto, ON
I am confused as to how giving a Heroin addict Heroin will break his addiction. Is it mutated Heroin or something that is being prescribed?
 

WLDB

Senate Member
Jun 24, 2011
6,182
0
36
Ottawa
I am confused as to how giving a Heroin addict Heroin will break his addiction. Is it mutated Heroin or something that is being prescribed?

Its safer and cleaner, plus if they lower the dosage bit by bit they can wean them off of it. Better they do it that way than do it on the streets.
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
41,030
43
48
Red Deer AB
Can't have people of normal/low intelligence acting like Sherlock just because they are doing a bit of heroine. Perhaps they should ban alcohol with all politicians and company ceo's.
 

Twila

Nanah Potato
Mar 26, 2003
14,698
73
48
Sometimes its not about what the person is addicted to but why they choose that particular drug. There is some interesting research being done on mental issues ( emotional pain, unresolved abuses etc) showing these things are what caused people to be addicted and not the substance that is addicting.