Thomas Hartle, a terminal cancer patient, is the lead plaintiff in a legal case against Health Canada to allow medical access to psilocybin. In partnership with Hartle is non-profit Therapsil, as well as seven other patients and one medical professional. The claim filed states psilocybin access is a Constitutional Right.
Led by cannabis and psychedelic lawyer Paul Lewin argues current pathways to legal psilocybin access violate Section 7 of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada’s first medical framework for cannabis was created with the same Charter Challenge in 2001 with the landmark R v Parker case.
The legal action is the culmination of lengthy negotiations between Therapsil founder Dr. Bruce Tobin and Health Canada. Tobin first began seeking access to psilocybin for terminal patients in 2017 after reading research from Johns Hopkins, with limited success.
However, within the current landslide of positive psychedelic press and research, the legal argument for psilocybin access has an increasingly strong foundation.
Legal Psilocybin in Canada
Previously, Canadians seeking access to psilocybin have either needed to enroll in a clinical trial or use Section 56, which allows exemption from drug laws with permission from the Federal Health Minister.
Section 56 has helped about 60 Canadians and allowed Thomas Hartle access to the first legal psilocybin therapy in Canada in 2020. While this represents progress, Section 56 and available clinical trials are open to only a limited number of people in need.
Earlier this year, Canada created a third pathway by amending the “Special Access Program” to allow for access to psilocybin. The SAP was initially created for cancer drugs not available in Canada.
However, despite small moves in a direction advocates praise, Therapsil states that 150 patients have received no response from Health Canada regarding their applications. As a result, the organization’s waitlist has grown to over 800 people seeking assistance accessing psilocybin.
This has led Spencer Hawkswell, the CEO of Therapsil, to criticize the SAP as “the slow access program” and elaborated that:
“It seems obvious that Canadians should have a medical right to Psilocybin after what happened with Cannabis. Furthermore, the patients who are fighting this fight may not have enough time to see its resolution. It is essential that the Ministers work with these patients, to fight this case would be a stain on Canada’s so-called “patient-centered” healthcare system.”
Hawkswell has expressed frustration that individual Ministers of Health have been inconsistent with granting exemptions and that the current framework is ill-equipped for psychedelics. The current framework was created to access drugs unavailable in Canada — but psychedelics aren’t just another drug. And Therapsil is not advocating for decriminalization but for medical psilocybin, where the compound is used as part of a psychedelic-assisted therapy protocol.
In a therapeutic context, medical psilocybin needs to be administered by experienced healthcare professionals, ideally who have trained by using psilocybin themselves. Therapsil was previously helping therapists train by sending each other on 5-gram journeys, but Health Canada has also been inconsistent with granting exemptions for training psychedelic therapists. The claim filed will also address this issue if successful.
Access to Psilocybin for Medical Purposes
A previous attempt by Therapsil to remedy the situation has been the submission of a 165-page document dubbed the Access to Psilocybin for Medical Purposes Regulation or APMPR. The proposed regulations for legal, medical psilocybin access follow previous cannabis legislation established in 2016 – the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes or ACMPR.
Therapsil first submitted the document in 2021, but Health Canada has not been quick to act. However, Hawkswell told Microdose that he is optimistic:
“I believe that the Honourable Ministers of Health will accept the ACMPR and adopt these regulations or regulations exactly like it. Instead of reinventing the wheel, our team has done the most administratively simple thing and modeled these robust regulations off of our current medical Cannabis regulations.”
If approved, the APMPR regulations would allow individuals and companies to grow or synthesize psilocybin following approved production best practices. Like previous cannabis regulations, the processing of natural psilocybin into products and the sale of medical psilocybin to other license holders would be allowed. Requirements for allowable amounts, packaging and concentrations of psilocybin are also included.
The CBC reported that Therapsil is not the only organization petitioning Health Canada with a regulatory framework. Both The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and the Canadian Psychedelic Association (CPA) also have propositions for Health Canada. Health Canada has not issued any statements of its intentions moving forward. However, the psychedelic conversation reaching the ears and desks of Canadian regulators does spark optimism.
One would hope an honest review of existing psychedelic research, legal businesses being created, and compassion for people like Thomas Hartle would inspire policy allowing Canadians medical access to psilocybin.
Note: Therapsil is currently conducting a campaign to raise funds for the case and, at the time of writing, has not yet reached its $100,000 dollar goal. You can donate dollars and crypto here.