Heroin addicts launch Charter challenge to prescription ban

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

heroin_syringeFive people severely addicted to heroin are launching a constitutional challenge to the federal government’s ban on the prescription version of the drug. Health Canada’s special access program (SAP) had recently approved applications from B.C. doctors to give diacetylmorphine (heroin) treatment to about 20 patients who were completing their participation in a Vancouver-based clinical trial. But federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose immediately denounced her own department’s approvals. (See also: Legal challenge to heroin prescription ban will draw on Insite case)