Calgary man can't get experimental treatment for cluster headaches but he can get euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

This is not an easy issue, but a Calgary man has gone to court to obtain access to psilocybin, a compound in 'magic mushrooms' that he believes will reduce his cluster headaches. I do not know if psilocybin will help him, but the argument that is being made is that Jody Lance can be killed by euthanasia but he cannot access psilocybin which may reduce his cluster headaches.

Lance is currently self-medicating with psilocybin that he obtains illegally.

A National Post article by Sharon Kirkey that was published on May 29 states that:

Lance is in his early 50s, and has been suffering from cluster headaches for seven years. A former land surveyor, he’s unable to work and is on long-term disability. He’s lost his house, has been “unable to socialize outside his home,” Fothergill (Justice) wrote, and says he has contemplated suicide and medical assistance in dying, or MAID, “for which he is potentially eligible.”

Lance's lawyer, Nicholas Pope, told Kirkey that:

“He doesn’t want to die,”

“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.”

Kirkey reports that Cluster headaches are sometimes referred to as “suicide headaches,” because of the unbearable pain they can cause. 

Lance's lawyer told Kirkey that:

“The government is making it a whole lot easier to access medical assistance in dying than psilocybin, which is non-addictive and impossible to overdose on.”

Kirkey reported that Health Canada has authorized 153 requests for psilocybin, a restricted drug, under the SAP since 2022, though none for cluster headaches.

I am concerned about the suffering that Jody Lance is living with but I do not know if psilocybin is effective for cluster headaches. I do know that this article confirms that it is much easier, in Canada, to be killed by euthanasia than to receive controversial treatments, and in many cases, everyday treatments.