Health professionals want to expand access to magic mushrooms
VANCOUVER — Sixty health professionals across the country intend to continue their fight in court to be able to use magic mushrooms for medical purposes in their practice, even though a ruling earlier this week did not prove them right.
Megan McLaren, who works as a licensed clinical counsellor in British Columbia, is one of those professionals who has filed an application in Federal Court for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
This exemption would allow them to take magic mushrooms themselves as part of "experiential training", before they can offer them in treatments offered to patients.
After using magic mushrooms in group therapy to grieve her death following her mother's death in 2021, McLaren believes more people should have access to the tool.
"Right now, there are people in Canada who can use medical assistance in dying, but who can't even take mushrooms," she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"It's a bit retrograde to allow people to end their lives, but not give them the chance to prolong their lives or, at least, die with less anxiety."
McLaren and a group of 60 other health professionals have asked the Federal Court to overturn an old decision that denies them access to the authorization they need to move their project forward.
However, a nearly identical application filed by nearly 100 other medical professionals in 2022 was rejected Monday by a Federal Court judge, who upheld the court's previous ruling.
In his decision, the judge argued that "there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the need
for or benefit of experiential training with psilocybin."
"The evidence does not establish that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy by an experience-trained practitioner is safer and more effective," he wrote, noting in passing that his decision does not prevent patients from accessing psilocybin under their own exemption or accessing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
Call if necessary
Nicholas Pope, who is a human rights lawyer in Ottawa, says he will appeal the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary.
He is convinced that case law supports professionals who wish to be able to offer treatments
with psilocybin-based magic mushrooms in the long term.
"We are talking here about a substance that is safe and whose effectiveness has been proven. We have two decades of laws that say people have the right to access them, so it's only a matter of time before these cases are heard in the right courts," he said.
According to the lawyer, it is "absurd" that almost anyone can get magic mushrooms from the illegal clinics that have sprung up across the country, while people with "serious and urgent medical and health problems" fight for legal access.
"That's why I decided to get involved in so many files and dealt with them voluntarily. This is something that needs to change," he said.
Difficult for patients
In July 2022, Pope filed a lawsuit on behalf of several patients to challenge the ban on psilocybin use.
According to him, this ban is unconstitutional.
According to Thomas Hartle, one of the eight plaintiffs in this case, the real problem is not access to magic mushrooms, but rather access to qualified therapists who can administer the treatment.
Diagnosed with colon cancer eight years ago, Mr. Hartle was one of the first people in Canada to be legally authorized to consume magic mushrooms under the Special Access Programme for Assisted Psychotherapy.
However, he had to fly from his home in Saskatchewan to British Columbia for treatment.
Traveling so much is both physically and financially exhausting, he laments. He had to spend thousands of dollars on travel, food and accommodation to receive therapy in another province because there were no qualified therapists closer to home.
In an interview Friday, Hartle revealed that his stage four cancer continues to progress, but that mushroom therapy sessions have been effective in alleviating his end-of-life anxiety.
"I think I won't be here to see the outcome of this legal saga," he sighs. I really wish I had the chance to know the end of the story, but at the rate things are going, I don't think the odds are in my favor."
Megan McLaren, who works as a licensed clinical counsellor in British Columbia, is one of those professionals who has filed an application in Federal Court for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
This exemption would allow them to take magic mushrooms themselves as part of "experiential training", before they can offer them in treatments offered to patients.
After using magic mushrooms in group therapy to grieve her death following her mother's death in 2021, McLaren believes more people should have access to the tool.
"Right now, there are people in Canada who can use medical assistance in dying, but who can't even take mushrooms," she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"It's a bit retrograde to allow people to end their lives, but not give them the chance to prolong their lives or, at least, die with less anxiety."
McLaren and a group of 60 other health professionals have asked the Federal Court to overturn an old decision that denies them access to the authorization they need to move their project forward.
However, a nearly identical application filed by nearly 100 other medical professionals in 2022 was rejected Monday by a Federal Court judge, who upheld the court's previous ruling.
In his decision, the judge argued that "there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the need
for or benefit of experiential training with psilocybin."
"The evidence does not establish that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy by an experience-trained practitioner is safer and more effective," he wrote, noting in passing that his decision does not prevent patients from accessing psilocybin under their own exemption or accessing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
Call if necessary
Nicholas Pope, who is a human rights lawyer in Ottawa, says he will appeal the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary.
He is convinced that case law supports professionals who wish to be able to offer treatments
with psilocybin-based magic mushrooms in the long term.
"We are talking here about a substance that is safe and whose effectiveness has been proven. We have two decades of laws that say people have the right to access them, so it's only a matter of time before these cases are heard in the right courts," he said.
According to the lawyer, it is "absurd" that almost anyone can get magic mushrooms from the illegal clinics that have sprung up across the country, while people with "serious and urgent medical and health problems" fight for legal access.
"That's why I decided to get involved in so many files and dealt with them voluntarily. This is something that needs to change," he said.
Difficult for patients
In July 2022, Pope filed a lawsuit on behalf of several patients to challenge the ban on psilocybin use.
According to him, this ban is unconstitutional.
According to Thomas Hartle, one of the eight plaintiffs in this case, the real problem is not access to magic mushrooms, but rather access to qualified therapists who can administer the treatment.
Diagnosed with colon cancer eight years ago, Mr. Hartle was one of the first people in Canada to be legally authorized to consume magic mushrooms under the Special Access Programme for Assisted Psychotherapy.
However, he had to fly from his home in Saskatchewan to British Columbia for treatment.
Traveling so much is both physically and financially exhausting, he laments. He had to spend thousands of dollars on travel, food and accommodation to receive therapy in another province because there were no qualified therapists closer to home.
In an interview Friday, Hartle revealed that his stage four cancer continues to progress, but that mushroom therapy sessions have been effective in alleviating his end-of-life anxiety.
"I think I won't be here to see the outcome of this legal saga," he sighs. I really wish I had the chance to know the end of the story, but at the rate things are going, I don't think the odds are in my favor."
