Terminally ill patient hoping Canada approves psilocybin therapy

As the first terminally ill cancer patient in Canada to legally use socalled magic mushrooms to treat anxiety, Thomas Hartle is hopeful that more temporary approvals from the federal government signal a permanent regulatory regime may be in the works.

Hartle, 53, received a one-year exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act last August to use psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, during psychotherapy.

Since then, Health Canada has approved 24 more applications from cancer patients for treatment of end-oflife distress. It has also granted exemptions to 19 health-care providers, giving them the right to possess and use mushrooms containing psilocybin for professional training purposes, a spokeswoman said in a statement.

The department has yet to decide whether it will allow the public to use any psychedelics for therapeutic purposes beyond the exemptions it has granted so far.

Hartle has had two psychedelic psychotherapy sessions at his home in Saskatoon, the last one in November, with psilocybin from mushrooms he grew and dried himself using a coffee grinder to turn them into powder and placed into capsules for precise dosages.

The IT administrator, who is on leave from his job, said anxiety over dying from colon cancer and leaving his wife and two children, both on the autism spectrum, became unbearable after his inoperable condition was diagnosed in 2016.

However, taking psilocybin during his two sessions with the help of his regular clinical psychologist helped him manage his anxiety to the point that he hasn’t felt the need to have any more psychedelic-assisted therapy while he continues traditional therapy, Hartle said.

“I think that’s probably obvious to most people who have interacted with me before and after my sessions,” he said of the marked improvement in his anxiety through a deeper understanding of the word “serenity.”

“I’ve been talking about subjects that I would previously have considered almost impossible to talk about and keep a clear voice and not break down into a very emotional state. Instead of focusing on the pain or discomfort, I’m focusing on making lunch for my family or something like that.”

Before each of the two sessions, Hartle said he met with his therapist and completed paperwork to gauge his anxiety level in order to establish a baseline that could be compared with how he would feel afterwards.

The first session lasted about six hours, during which he took three capsules about an hour apart, containing a total seven grams of psilocybin, he said.

His therapist and a friend remained by his side as he lay blindfolded and wearing a headset while listening to music from a playlist compiled by Johns Hopkins University as part of its research into psychedelics.

Hartle said the range of music, from classical to chanting as well as South American and African beats, elicited different emotions and he saw multiple colours and geometric shapes as he entered “a state of other,” which made it impossible for him to recall the names of his family members.

“It was very serene and comforting to me to realize that I could have consciousness and awareness that had nothing whatsoever to do with this existence.”

Hartle said that prior to his cancer diagnosis, he had never used illegal substances and only started taking cannabis oil to deal with the nausea brought on by chemotherapy as part of his cancer treatments.

Focused psychotherapy sessions before, during and after his two sessions were crucial to his use of psilocybin, Hartle said.

“It’s not like you take a pill and suddenly everything is fantastic. It doesn’t work like that any more than regular therapy does. There is work to be done. There are challenges to face.

There are issues that need to be worked through the same as any other session.”