It’s easier to get access to an assisted death in Canada than to a treatment that could make life bearable, according to the lawyer for a Calgary man fighting for legal access to a psychedelic drug to treat excruciating cluster headaches.

Jody Lance’s request for emergency access to psilocybin, a compound found in “magic mushrooms,” was denied by Health Canada last year, after the regulator claimed there was insufficient evidence psilocybin is safe and effective for cluster headaches and that other alternative and lawful therapies hadn’t been ruled out.