Fongs Magios, Psilocybin cubensis. (IStockphoto)
Four months after allowing a handful of patients in palliative care to use psilocybin to alleviate end-of-life suffering, the Department of Health Canada has paved the way for more than a dozen of doctors may use this psychedelic drug to help develop therapies for future use.
The Canadian Ministry of Health reported that it granted 16 exemptions to a group of nurses, doctors, therapists and social workers, allowing them to possess and use psilocybin for their personal training without fear of being prosecuted under the drug control laws in the country.
“This is not a small step. It’s a giant step, ”said Sean O’Sullivan in the small town of Tillsonburg, in the province of Ontario.
Dr. Sean O’Sullivan is one of 16 health professionals who have been granted an exemption from Canadian drug laws for using magic mushrooms. (Photo: CBC / Siguin O’Sullivan)
The decision comes after the Canadian Ministry of Health granted four exemptions to patients who were in palliative care to use the drug in end-of-life psychotherapy last August. Since then, other exemptions have been granted to those patients who want to use magic mushrooms.
The exemptions granted to health professionals will allow those who want to treat patients with psilocybin to understand what it would feel like and what the best way to use it would be. These permits are valid for one year.
“Psychedelic substances and treatment with these substances, such as psilocybin, is a growing area of scientific study and research. Because psilocybin is not an authorized therapeutic substance, the availability of rigorous scientific evidence to demonstrate its safety and efficacy is limited, ”the Canadian Ministry of Health said.
“Exemptions do not allow health professionals to prescribe or provide fungi that contain psilocybin to another person. There are no drugs containing psilocybin that have been authorized by the Department of Health of Canada. The decision of the Department of Health of Canada to grant such exemptions does not constitute an opinion or support of the Department of Health of Canada on psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, training or the safety, efficacy or quality of psilocybin.
One gram of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic fungi. (Photo by AP / Seth Wenig)
“This is an immense step that the Government has taken, and a very wise step, totally congruent with science and published literature. It’s a very brave decision on the part of the government, “said O’Sullivan.
Psychedelic therapies like psilocybin and LSD have had a negative reputation, in part because of the war on drugs, O’Sullivan said.
“The war on drugs has been a total disaster all over the world. He has criminalized behaviors that do not need to be criminalized. Cannabis has been legalized, and the sky has not fallen, “O’Sullivan said.
Among those who have received exemptions are psychiatrists associated with the University of Toronto, a community psychiatrist in Hamilton and his partner, as well as health professionals in Calgary and British Columbia.
Psilocybin allows the brain to set aside the “network by default,” the part of our brain that cares about taxes and dinner and the shopping list, and allows it to dive deeper into the subconscious.
“If you look at your network by default, you’ll find that the issues that come up are the same ones that came up last year and the year before and the decade before,” O’Sullivan said. “Psychedelics disarm the network by default and allow a person to have new experiences in a carefully controlled clinical environment. When the network is reassembled by default, it is not reassembled in the same way as before.
That’s why a single dose of a psychedelic drug can have more effect than years of conversation therapy or medication, said Sean O’Sullivan, the director of TheraPsil.
Sources: CBC / K. Dubinski / Canadian Press / RCI