drugs

Dear Rona Ambrose, As a member of the federal government, you are currently titled Canada’s Health Minister. I question the accuracy of that nomenclature.

Ideological bents from Ottawa continue to put lives at risk, according to one of B.C.’s top medical minds.

BC's health minister said he is not pleased with the federal government's plans to crack down on prescribing unapproved drugs to treat patients.

The B.C. health minister has come out against the federal health minister's decision to ban illicit drugs like heroin from being distributed under the Special Access Program, saying he has concerns about the government's decision. 

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.”

Dave Murray tried to beat his heroin addiction with methadone treatments 10 different times since 1971. Nothing worked until he received diacetylmorphine – the active component of the illicit drug – as part of a Providence Health Care clinical trial that enabled him to stabilize his life, volunteer, form a support group and get healthier over the past year.

Severely entrenched addicts who were recently granted Health Canada authorization to receive prescription heroin – a first in the country – will explore their legal options after the federal government announced it has banned the practice, effective immediately.

If a society is judged by how its cares for its most vulnerable, we are basically faced with a test of what we are willing to try to help the most beleaguered. Consider the heroin addict.

Dr. Perry Kendall is the provincial health officer for British Columbia. He is the former president of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario and served on advisory panel for the NAOMI study. In light of Rona Ambrose’s announcement, The Globe and Mail talked to him about heroin-assisted treatment. Here is part of the conversation.