Meet the London care providers fighting to prescribe psychedelic mushrooms

Two London, Ont. healthcare workers are supporting legal efforts to allow doctors, therapists and patients to use magic mushrooms, or psilocybin, for medical needs, stressing the urgency to change the system.

A charter challenge was launched in July 2022 by five Canadians, some of whom are terminally ill, to rewrite the laws around medical psilocybin use. 

At the same time, more than 100 individual healthcare professionals and therapists are fighting to be able to experience the drug, so they can understand how to use it and prescribe it.

Psilocybin is prohibited in Canada by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) and has been illegal since 1975. The health minister has recently used her authority under a section of the act to grant legal exemptions, mainly to people with terminal illness and treatment-resistant depression.

What we're talking about is very different from someone walking into a mushroom shop, picking up a bag of mushrooms, going off into the forest, and hoping for the best.- Dr. Ceara McNeil

In 2021, just over 60 Canadians had been granted an exemption, according to data obtained by Health Canada. In 2022, 97 exemptions were granted, the majority to patients.

This year, three patients have been approved to use psilocybin but so far, not one healthcare worker has been given the green light, according to numbers provided by Health Canada.

Jared Dalton, a London-based social worker and psychotherapist, said his request for an exemption to receive training to prescribe psilocybin was denied. He's currently appealing the decision through a judicial review. 

He says witnessing his mother's death 3-years ago opened his eyes. He described it as difficult and scary for her. 

"The amount of distress that she experienced at the end of her life, the available medications just didn't seem to help," said Dalton. "I became really convinced that we need to do better for people."

"I really do believe that something like psilocybin could have made a huge difference for my mom."

Promotes neuroplasticity

End-of-life care was how emergency and family medicine physician, Dr. Ceara McNeil, became interested in the potential benefits of psilocybin.

She was granted an exemption and experienced the psychedelic drug in assisted therapy training sessions with TheraPsil. It's a B.C.-based non-profit that' s doing the bulk of the legal work to challenge Health Canada while supporting health care providers.

"What we're talking about with psychedelic assisted psychotherapy is so very different from someone walking into a mushroom shop, picking up a bag of mushrooms, going off into the forest, and hoping for the best," Dr. McNeil said.

Psilocybin allows parts of the brain that don't normally interact to do so, which allows new paths to be made and promotes neuroplasticity, said McNeil.

"A lot of times the intentions of patients sound something like, 'I don't want to be afraid of dying. I want to know what's waiting for me on the other side,'" said McNeil. She believes the spiritual experiences palliative patients have while experiencing the psychedelic drug can help them come to terms with their mortality.

Health Canada says psilocybin is showing promising results in clinical trials where it's being used to treat mental health disorders such as treatment resistant depression, substance abuse issues.

Last July, Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) received the first-ever federal grant to study whether the active component in 'magic' mushrooms can be used to treat depression without the psychedelic effects. Sixty adults who have been living with depression for at least three years and haven't responded to alternative forms of treatment are participating. 

"It's really exciting to think of what this could offer," said Dalton.

Illegal shops concerning

But both London healthcare workers are frustrated by the process. Dalton, who can't get the training to better understand the substance, and McNeil who has the training but can't get her patients exemptions to use it. 

Instead, they're forced to watch as illegal mushroom shops open, including one in London, a move reminiscent of pre-legalization cannabis dispensaries. FunGuyz, a dispensary chain that advertises its products as medicinal, opened in May. 

"It concerns me that patients who know that these medicines could help them at the end of life are being denied access by the government," said Dalton. "Meanwhile, the rest of the public has open access."

What concerns him and other health care providers is that the magic mushroom dispensaries don't know how to properly advise customers on how to use the products safely. 

"I think this really creates a sense of urgency to have this charter challenge move through the system," said Dr. McNeil. 

While Dalton, McNeil, and others in their situations wait and watch, they're hoping the opening of unregulated dispensaries will spurs lawmakers into action.