So over here this is the room
where I have done
my first two psychedelic therapy sessions
so right here is where the first legal use
of psilocybin therapy happened in Canada.
Psilocybin if you're wondering
is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms
and Thomas Hartle was the first Canadian
to legally take them.
This is footage of Thomas
about to go on that first psychedelic trip in 2020.
Next to him is a doctor and one of Thomas's good friends.
It was a very pure emotional experience
your entire being is that emotional feeling
so it isn't a matter of feeling it you are that experience.
In any given year hundreds of thousands of Canadians
experience depression and anxiety
could magic mushrooms be a revolution in their treatment?
Or as Canadian law tells us right now
are they a dangerous substance we should avoid?
To understand how Thomas in his fifties
found himself hallucinating in his basement in Saskatoon
we need to go back a few years.
Back to the day he was diagnosed with stage four cancer
the anxiety for that was really consuming
my every minute of every waking day
it felt like I was actively dying.
Thomas tried conventional ways
to care for his end-of-life anxiety
such as therapy and meditation
he tried antidepressants too.
I know that antidepressants for me
were able to take like the peaks off of anxiety
but they also were taking the peaks off
of things like happiness and love.
When nothing worked Thomas
decided to try magic mushrooms
he applied to Health Canada and a few months later
they gave him a special exemption to use psilocybin pills
in the presence of a medical professional.
Thomas says after his four-hour psilocybin experience
the symptoms of his anxiety were basically gone.
It gave me the ability to approach the idea
that someday I'm going to die
and I'm not going to be there when my family needs me
it doesn't change the way that I feel about dying
it has changed the way that I think
about the entire concept of death and dying
so unlike a drug which changes
how you're feeling while you are taking it
this is something that has changed my perspective on it.
But here's the thing Health Canada only gave Thomas
the right to use psilocybin for one year and that's expired.
He's asked for a renewal
but months later he's still waiting.
As it stands today would be illegal
to do it here in this room for you?
For me right now it would be completely illegal
so that which was previously the most safe and secure
that I could possibly have is now something
that would be illegal for me to do.
All the way over your feet
okay how's that feel?
Like a million bucks?
There is another way to legally get psilocybin in Canada
you need to find a doctor who's willing to apply for you
that's what Dr. Michael Verbora does for some of his patients.
For him psychedelics are the future of medicine
remember you will also have a guide with you at all times
to ensure your safety
and maximize the healing potential
of this psychedelic experience.
I got out of med school
well residency about seven or eight years ago
and I knew at that moment
I could not do what I was trained to do
which is to continue to prescribe pills every day
for patients with chronic illnesses who weren't getting better
it was beating my head against the wall.
Dr. Verbora is a doctor at Field Trip Health
a private clinic in Toronto
that specializes in psychedelics
he says because it's difficult to get permission
to use psilocybin
he's only able to administer it to one or two patients a month.
Mio Yokoi has stage four pancreatic cancer
and end-of-life anxiety.
I thought to myself if this is something that can help me
to have a better quality of life
for whatever time I have left
then I would like to try to experience that as much as possible
I believe that magic mushrooms can help me not suffer
at the end of my life.
Mio wants to spread the message that psilocybin helped her
that's why she allowed us to film her treatment.
Dr Verbora never leaves a patient's side
during their experience
and he tells me what he believes the psilocybin molecule
is doing inside Mio's brain
he says it's like a reboot
if you run software 24/7 on your iPhone or your computer
it starts to get slow and bogged down
and it doesn't work good
but if you close all the software
you reset the computer it tends to be faster
more efficient and that's how these molecules work
they temporarily suspend the way we normally think
and they allow different parts of our brain
to communicate with one another
that typically don't communicate.
Dr. Verboro is convinced that psilocybin works
But the Center for Addiction and Mental health
in Toronto psychiatrist, Dr. Ishrat Husain isn't so sure.
I don't think at this moment that we can say for certain
that psilocybin is safe and effective for depression
or any other mental health condition.
There is encouraging evidence that it could be safe
and effective but nothing conclusive at present.
Dr. Husain is the lead investigator in a new trial
the first of its kind commissioned by Health Canada
to test whether psilocybin works
so this is the CAMH psychedelic-assisted
psychotherapy treatment room
when we're administering the treatment
we want it to be quite ambient soft lighting
as relaxing as possible for people.
Dr. Husain says there's another question
he hopes the trial will answer.
That's whether psilocybin actually needs
to induce a psychedelic trip
to have therapeutic benefits
it's assumed psilocybin acts by sort of inducing
this very powerful hallucinogenic experience
and that's why people seek benefit from that approach
but as yet nobody's tested that hypothesis
that's important because if there's no psychedelic effect
then a patient wouldn't need as much support
and the treatment wouldn't be as expensive.
These days Thomas Hartle meditates
to try to cope with his anxiety
but he's not giving up on access to psilocybin
in fact, he's taking Health Canada to court
as part of a charter challenge.
What I am asserting is that it is my right
to have access to this treatment
my right to live and be healthy.
Here in Canada right now the only way that I can do that
is by having access to psilocybin-assisted therapy.
Health Canada won't comment on Hartle's situation
because it's before the courts.
I don't know how i would manage to live with that
without access to that kind of a therapy
having both cancer
and being in this extreme state of anxiety for me
it's not it's not really living anymore.
Nick Purdon, CBC News, Saskatoon.
Well let's connect now with Dr. Shimi Kang
a psychiatrist here in Vancouver.
And you were the principal investigator for Canada's
first study of its kind on magic mushrooms
and their impacts on treatment-resistant depression
tell us who could qualify now for this experimental treatment?
Currently and there's not a lot of options
one option is the special access
where a patient and doctor have to prove
that they've tried every other treatment
and get special approval that is private pay
so it costs money out of your pocket.
The second option is through research studies
clinical trials like the one you mentioned
there's one in toronto at CAMH that we just heard about
those don't cost money.
However there's no guarantee you'll get in
and there's quite tough exclusion criteria as well
and so we saw people in the story taking it
under very controlled supervised circumstances.
What would you say to anyone who's watching
who's considering self-medicating without supervision?
I'd say don't do it
and these are very powerful plants
yes they're natural
but we know when used well
they can have profound health effects
we're seeing that
but when not used appropriately in the wrong dose
at the wrong time with uhout proper medical supervision
interactions for other health conditions or medications
there can be serious negative side effects.
However you know these are generally safe
when used appropriately under appropriate trained
experienced individuals who know how to do these trips.
And so given that, where do you see this headed in Canada?
Do you think it will become a more mainstream treatment?
As a psychiatrist for 20 years
I certainly hope so
we do need more options in mental health
as well I feel that we are at the bridge of more studies
there will be more on their way
we have a lot more research
a lot more work to do and understanding the science.
I'm very hopeful but I'm also
it's a tale of caution.
We don't want what happened before
when the psychedelics emerged
and they got a very bad name
and went illegal and underground
and a lot of serious consequences occurred to people's health
so we got to be careful we have to be cautious
we have to be optimistic
but I think we're definitely headed in the right direction.
Dr. Kang, always nice to have you on the show.
Thank you.