A Psychedelic Breakthrough in Canada
A major advancement in psychedelic therapies for Canadians suffering from serious mental illness.
A major breakthrough in psychedelics has been made in Canada: Health Canada has approved access to psychedelic drugs for medical purposes among those with serious or life-threatening health conditions.
The new amendment will allow physicians and pharmacists to request restricted psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and MDMA as part of the Special Access Program.
“There has been emerging scientific evidence supporting potential therapeutic uses for some restricted drugs, most notably psychedelic restricted drugs such as MDMA and psilocybin,” reads the Canadian Government’s official communication. It goes on to cite the compelling research on the efficacy of psychedelic drugs in treating "post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression, respectively."
In December 2020, Health Canada requested medical clinics, mental health organizations, psychedelic advocacy groups, and law firms to provide feedback on the proposal to restore potential access to restricted drugs through the Special Access Program. As the official statement reads, there was overwhelming support for broader access to psychedelic drugs:
Overall, nearly all comments were supportive of the proposed regulatory amendments and/or increasing access to psychedelic substances more broadly. The Department received very little opposition to the proposal, making up less than 2% of all responses.
Over 80% of all respondents associated Health Canada’s proposal with increasing access to psychedelic restricted drugs (e.g. MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, DMT), often for the treatment of various conditions, most notably mental health disorders...Physicians and therapists often expressed interest in expanding their treatment options to include psychedelic restricted drugs.
Government regulatory bodies across the world have been notoriously slow and cautious in approving medical usage of psychedelics. Whole underground industries have propped up across major American, Canadian, and British cities offering psychedelic therapies since the legalized medical prospects for psychedelics have been far from promising — at least in the near future.
However, this is a major breakthrough, according to Payton Nyquvest, CEO and founder of Numinus, a Vancouver-based mental healthcare company that provides and researches evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies.
“Any data that shows a positive result through a phase two or phase three study (which, with psychedelics, there are quite a few) gives unlimited amounts of Canadians access to those drugs or therapies,” Nyquvest told The Dales Report. “So, it’s a huge advancement…I don’t think it can be understated.”
Nyquvest also believes the criteria for severe mental illness must be clarified in the future:
“What are the criteria for someone to be in a state where they are in dire need? For psychedelic therapy, we think that needs to be prioritized. We shouldn’t have to guinea-pig someone through three different SSRI treatments if they are in a dire state,” he said.
Legalization of Psychedelic medicines is long over-due. The clinical trials on a variety of compounds continue to show reliable safety and promising results.
Last May, Nature Medicine published the results of a Phase 3 trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD funded by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Astoundingly, 67% of participants fully recovered from PTSD, meanwhile 88% of participants experienced a clinically significant reduction in symptoms. All this from just three sessions of MDMA reinforced with trauma-focused therapy.
Psilocybin-assisted therapy has also shown great promise. A 2020 study conducted by leading researchers at Johns Hopkins gave two five-hour sessions of psilocybin alongside supportive psychotherapy to a group of 24 chronically depressed participants. The findings were incredible:
For the entire group of 24 participants, 67% showed a more than 50% reduction in depression symptoms at the one-week follow-up and 71% at the four-week follow-up. Overall, four weeks post-treatment, 54% of participants were considered in remission – meaning they no longer qualified as being depressed.
Yes, more than half of participants were depression-free after four weeks. No anti-depressant drug comes even close to achieving such high efficacy.
“The magnitude of the effect we saw was about four times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market,” says Alan Davis, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins psychiatry professor.
About 2 million Canadians are affected by depression and close to 3.8 million Canadians will experience PTSD in their lifetimes. The pandemic has only exacerbated our mental health crisis with rising rates of suicide, depression, and self-harm.
Psychedelic therapies are by far the safest, most effective, and holistic treatments that address the root causes of mental illness.
It's about time the Canadian government is beginning to awaken.
The psychedelic revolution isn't impossible.
Rav Arora is a 20-year-old independent journalist widely published in The New York Post, The Globe and Mail, and Foreign Policy Magazine. He has appeared on The Ben Shapiro Show, Sky News Australia, Jordan B. Peterson podcast, The Dr. Drew Show, and other programs.
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Such a huge milestone! Incredible!
So can doctors prescribe psilocybin now in Canada?