After a B.C. Supreme Court battle pitting long-term heroin addicts against the federal government, prescription heroin will soon be administered from a 91原创 addictions clinic.
The Providence Crosstown Clinic in the Downtown Eastside has reportedly just received its first supply of heroin months after a court ruling in May.
Several years ago, Health Canada green-lighted a harm-reduction initiative to give pharmaceutical heroin to severely addicted patients who had previously been given the drug in clinical trials.
In 2013, Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose tried to block the medical heroin program, and Providence and the Pivot Legal Society sued on behalf of five former clinical trial patients. In May, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled potential harms faced by long-term heroin addicts if they were forced back into illicit heroin use, would make it wrong to deny them safer medical heroin.
鈥淒iacetylmorphine (heroin) assisted treatment is a proven treatment option that is a last resort for people who have tried all other treatment options without success,鈥� Providence CEO Dianne Doyle said after the ruling. 鈥淭hese patients have tried other treatments, such as methadone and detox, numerous times, but such treatments have not been effective.鈥�
Providence Crosstown Clinic will be the first clinic in Canada to prescribe heroin outside a scientific study.
