Health Canada must reconsider man's bid to use magic mushrooms for cluster headaches, Federal Court rules | CBC News (2024)

Yvette Brend · CBC News

· Posted: May 30, 2024 7:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: May 31

A 51-year-old Calgary man who suffers debilitating cluster headaches has won a Federal Court battle forcing Health Canada to reconsider his bid for legal access to psilocybin to treat his extreme pain.

Ottawa Federal Court Judge Simon Fothergill, on May 24, granted an application for judicialreview of Health Canada's denial of Jody Lance's bid forlegalaccess to medical grade psilocybin —the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms —to manage pain associated with the headaches, which is so bad they haveearned the nickname "suicide headaches."

That decision — which also highlightedthe need to consider a patient's Charter rights— isbeing hailed by others fighting to access psilocybin formedical reasons.

Requests to access controlled substances in special medical circ*mstances are filed through Health Canada'sSpecial Access Program (SAP). In their July 12, 2023, SAP application Lance and his Calgary neurologist, William Jeptha Davenport, requested legal access psilocybin to help treat pain. Health Canada denied the request due to lack of research into the efficacy of the drug to treat cluster headaches.

Ruling a major step forward, advocate says

Last week's ruling gave the health ministry 14 days to reconsider Lance's request and totake his Charter rights into more careful consideration. Fothergill called the decision to deny Lance access to the drug "unreasonable" and "unintelligible."

Health Canada told CBC News via email that it hasnoted the court's decision and will comply with the judgment.

In an email to CBCNews, Lance said he hopes this ruling helps others like him who are seeking safe, legal options to avoid what he called an"unnecessarily difficult journey."

"It's a first step in the right direction," wrote Lance, a former land surveyor.

Spencer Hawkswell, president of the psychedelic advocacy group TheraPsil, described the rulingas a majorstep forward that makes clear that "what thesepatients are asking for is not ridiculous."

"This is the first time that we've actually had the courts and a judge say a [Health Canada] decision lacks that justice and intelligibility," he said.

Pain from cluster headaches

The Mayo Clinic describes cluster headaches as a rare, painful form of headache often involving "extreme sharp or stabbing pain" often around the eyes, in the head or neck that can last for weeks. According to experts, the exact causesremain unclear.

Ottawa human rights lawyer Nicholas Pope, who helped prepare Lance's exemption application, described cluster headaches as "one of the most painful conditions known to humanity."He notedthat some studies comparing pain levelsof different conditions suggest theyaremore painful than gunshot wounds,kidney stonesor childbirth.

Fothergill cited experts in his ruling who describedcluster headaches as"capable of inflicting the most severe pain known to science."

In recent years there's been emerging evidence suggestingpsilocybin can help relieve pain forsome who sufferfrom the headaches, with atleastone clinical trial observinga small reduction in cluster headache attacks inparticipants who were given the drug.

WATCH | The push for more research into magic mushrooms:

In 2022, Peter McAllister, the medical director of the New EnglandInstitute for Neurology and Headache, wrote then Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos in support of Canada allowinglegal exemptions for the use of psilocybin for cluster headaches, whichhe described as an "agonizingly painful condition that can push patients to suicide to escape the suffering."

McAllisterwrote that in his experience,"many cluster headache patients obtain outstanding results using psilocybin-containing mushrooms," which he said helped prevent episodes with little danger or side effects.

Pope, the human rights lawyer, saysit was the same for Lance.

"He tried a whole laundry list of medications and dozens of different combinations," Pope said. "Some worked for a brief period of time and then stopped working, or even made the headaches worse."

He argued that by denying Lance access to psilocybin, federal authoritiesinfringed on hisCharter right tomake reasonable medical choices regarding his physical and mental wellbeing.

The ruling noted that this infringement wasexacerbated by delays and riskedLance'slife due to his suicidal ideation and the fact that he could potentially be eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

Pope saysthe processfor becoming approved to usepsilocybinlegally in Canada seems more difficult than applying for MAID.

"He's found a treatment that works for him and makes life bearable. But it's absurd: If he couldn't get access to this treatment, then MAID really would be a legitimate possibility."

"Mr. Lance should be allowed to use this for medical purposes with dignity and not be called a criminal for it," Pope said.

Psilocybin controls

Psilocybin has been legal for Canadians to accessin a limited way under the Special Access Program since 2022. As of November 2023, Health Canada had authorized 153 requestsfor161 patients.

Ian MacKay, the SAP manager forHealth Canada's office of clinical trials, told federal court he has a 13-memberteam that handlesabout 1,000 requests and 800 phone callspermonth,many of whichare medical emergencies.

Lance has suffered fromcluster headaches for seven years andhastriedto treat his condition with prescribed medications. When they failed,the neurologist suggested other patients had found relief using hallucinogenic mushrooms, which was when Lance first tried them himself, his lawyer explained.

Lance will know within a few weeks if he will finally be able to get legal doses of the controlled substance.If he is denied, his legal team plans to return tocourt to fight.

"I would much prefer if I could put all my focus toward trying to get better rather than on court proceedings, but I am doing this in the hope that others in my situation will not need to go through this," Lance wrote to CBC on Wednesday.

The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation declined comment on the case.

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