SALOME

Providence Health Care comments on judge ruling allows prescription heroin treatment to continue

Health advocates were in BC Supreme Court this week arguing five patients should be allowed access to prescription heroin to manage their addictions — despite recent changes to federal laws. 

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BC Supreme Court Re-establishes Access to Diacetylmorphine (Heroin) Assisted Treatment

VANCOUVER, May 29, 2014 — The Supreme Court of British Columbia has re-established access to diacetylmorphine (heroin) assisted treatment following an injunction application by Providence Health Care (Providence) and the PIVOT Legal Society on behalf of five patients who had exited the SALOME (Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness) study.

B.C. addicts get injunction to keep using prescription heroin under Providence Health Care supervision

A group of addicts in Vancouver who were part of a clinical trial examining the use of prescription heroin have won a temporary injunction that will allow them to continue accessing the drug at least until a court challenge is heard.

The ruling, issued Thursday by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is the second time in recent months that courts have interfered with Ottawa's attempt to rein in the medical use of otherwise illegal drugs.

Court rules to allow patients to continue supervised heroin use from Providence physicians

Entrenched addicts who were prescribed heroin as part of a B.C.-based clinical trial will be able to continue receiving the drug while a larger constitutional challenge is before the courts.

B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson released his decision on Thursday, finding risks associated with severe heroin addiction “will be reduced if [the addicts] receive injectable diacetylmorphine (heroin) treatment from Providence physicians.These potential harms are clearly irreparable in nature.”

Andrea Woo Reports

B.C. Supreme Court grants injunction allowing doctors at Providence Crosstown Clinic to prescribe heroin to select addicts

The supervised injection room at Providence Crosstown Clinic, where patients are given prescribed heroin as a means of managing their addictions.

THE B.C. SUPREME Court has granted an injunction that lets doctors give prescription heroin to select patients in Vancouver.

According to a 34-page decision, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson found that risks faced by the opiate addicts acting as plaintiffs in the case would be reduced if doctors were allowed to administer diacetylmorphine (prescription heroin).

Court ruling on heroin shows the way to sensible drug policy

An interim order Thursday of the B.C. Supreme Court allowing former participants of a medical heroin study to continue to receive the drug from doctors brings sanity to the drug debate and offers a reasonable way forward for drug policy in Canada.

PHC's prescription heroin case goes to Supreme Court

A battle between B.C. doctors and the federal government over the prescription of heroin to severely addicted users is set to enter Supreme Court.

Dosage errors may have tilted clinical heroin trial, B.C. court hears

Participants in a clinical trial fighting to receive prescription heroin may have failed conventional treatments only because they received inadequate dosages, a lawyer for the federal government has told a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

Lorne Lachance made his arguments on Wednesday, the second day of an injunction hearing that will determine whether select participants of the Vancouver-based heroin study will be able to receive a prescription version of the drug while a larger constitutional challenge is before the courts.

Andrea Woo Reports

Prescription heroin fight reaches B.C. courts

A local health authority and a legal rights group take their fight to court Tuesday to keep a heroin program alive after the federal government cracked down on doctors prescribing hard drugs.

Providence Health Care and the Pivot Legal Society are pushing for an injunction that would allow the former to maintain its SALOME treatment program that was serving more than 200 people.

Douglas King of Pivot said that since the federal government imposed changes last year, recovering addicts exiting the treatment portion have been unable to continue taking the clinical heroin.

Canada's health minister fails to explain Ottawa's policies on harm reduction

Providence Health Care enters the B.C. Supreme Court with a request that doctors be allowed to prescribe a special class of patients diacetylmorphine, or pharmaceutical heroin.

Federal health minister Rona Ambrose has strongly opposed the plan to provide heroin-assisted therapy in Vancouver.

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