How a Medical Journalist Helped to Legalize Heroin in Canada

Abstract

The article describes one physician's campaign to have heroin legalized for medical use as a painkiller. Funding and lobbying support from the public was marshalled by the author to put the heroin issue on the federal government's agenda. The Canadian cancer establishment generally fought the proposed reform and made many unfounded arguments. The government compromised by granting physicians the right to administer heroin, while tying up the process with such demanding red tape that almost no one bothers with the narcotic.

Heroin in the hospice: opioids and end-of-life discussions in the 1980s

“…Little did Walker realize that he would open "Pandora's box." 1,2 His story embodies how the politics of pain, opioid addiction and proper end-of-life therapies present enduring challenges in a modern democratic society, which remains important in 2017. Medico-political calculations blend consumer protection, patient safety, crime prevention and medical innovation.…”