Canada has become one of the first countries to ever allow heroin for medical use, under a new rule put into effect this month.
The new rule by Health Canada’s Special Access Programme lets physicians prescribe medical grade heroin (diacetylmorphine), for the use in cases of severe addiction to opioids.
In order for a physician to access medical heroin for their patient, the patient’s condition must be serious and life-threatening, and it must be shown that conventional treatment methods have failed to bring adequate relief.