Can psychedelics help treat alcoholism?
Some brave adventurers here in the Okanagan are helping researchers determine if a psychedelic drug can help heal their souls and put down the bottle in the process.
Kelowna-based Okanagan Clinical Trials is one of several sites in Canada and Finland participating in the study, which is assessing the effectiveness of psilocybin -- the active ingredient in magic mushrooms -- as a treatment for alcohol use disorder.
Volunteers who pass screening receive 10 therapy sessions, two of which include 25-milligram doses of synthetic psilocybin. (It’s a randomized study, so some patients will receive a placebo at those two sessions.)
“It’s a fairly large dose. If someone receives that, they’re in kind of an altered state with a psychedelic experience for roughly six to eight hours,” said Ethan Klukas, trial co-ordinator for Okanagan Clinical Trials, in an interview this week.
Patients are never left to trip alone, though.
“They’re monitored. They’re not doing therapy during those dosing sessions, but therapists are in the room with them helping if they have any sort of symptoms of anxiety or need help getting through the experience.
“But they’re really just lying down listening to a pre-selected playlist and then directing themselves inwards,” explained Klukas.
“And then there are obviously therapy sessions after dosing where people can unpack their experience and how it relates to their goals around alcohol use.”
Following the 10-week trial period, patients are followed for another three months during which their alcohol consumption is tracked to compare it to pre-therapy use.
A total of 160 patients are required for the study, which began in August 2022.
Klukas expects the door to close in April 2024 but welcomes new patients until then.
Volunteers must be generally healthy, between the ages of 19 and 70, and diagnosed with a moderate to severe case of alcohol use disorder.
“It’s different than how we treated addictions in the past,” added Klukas.
“It’s very much focused on going deep into self psychologically and working on things that they may not have touched previously in their life that might be holding them back from their goals for abstaining or reducing use of alcohol.”
The study is sponsored by Vancouver-based biotech firm Clairvoyant Therapeutics Inc.
“Our goal is to be the first company in the world to obtain regulatory approval for the clinical use of psilocybin in AUD,” said Clairvoyant CEO Damian Kettlewell in a November 2023 press release announcing the trial was halfway towards the required number of volunteers.
“The medical benefits of psychedelic compounds like psilocybin have been supressed for decades. We are pleased that regulatory authorities are now engaged in evidence-based approaches to review these potentially remarkable compounds.”
But despite “increasing interest in the potential therapeutic uses” of psilocybin, it still remains illegal for ordinary citizens to possess it, according to Health Canada.
“While clinical trials with psilocybin have shown promising results, at this time, there are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin in Canada or elsewhere,” explains a dedicated page on Health Canada’s website.
“Clinical trials are the most appropriate and effective way to advance research with unapproved drugs such as psilocybin while protecting the health and safety of patients.”
For more information, visit: okanaganclinicaltrials.com.
A frequent FOI filer in Summerland had his wings clipped this week after a outside agency determined his voluminous requests are an unfair burden on the local government.
In response to an application from the District of Summerland, the B.C. Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner on Thursday issued an order limiting Brad Besler and his family to having just one active freedom of information request at a time with the local government for the next three years.
The decision, which is retroactive to November 2023, also permits the district to ignore 10 outstanding requests from Besler, plus work through seven newer requests one at a time until they’re complete. Only when those are done will Besler be able to file a fresh request.
“Given the small size of the district’s staff and their responsibilities to respond to other applicants and to carry out many other duties, I am satisfied that responding to the 10 requests at issue would unreasonably interfere with the district’s operations,” wrote adjudicator Celia
Francis.
“I also accept that having to hire an external private consultant to assist with the volume of the respondent’s requests has been a drain on the district’s time and finances and has thus interfered with its ability to respond to other applicants and carry out its other duties.”
The decision was welcomed at municipal hall.
“The district works hard to meet its duties under the (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and transparency is one of our core values. However, the adjudicator has confirmed these requests subject to the application were ‘systematic’ and ‘excessively broad’ and were an ‘unreasonable interference’ with the district’s operations,” said Graham Statt, chief administrative officer, in a statement Friday.
“We appreciate the relief provided by the decision given that an estimated 180 requests were submitted from the respondent since 2019. In 2023 alone, the district spent more than $100,000 to manage the volume of requests for information, excluding any other amounts for staff time and associated legal fees.”
Besler -- who’s not actually named in the decision but confirmed it’s about him -- said in an email Friday he views the decision as “deeply flawed and unreasonable.”
“I will immediately be seeking a judicial review in B.C. Supreme Court to have this decision overturned,” wrote Besler.
“I will continue fighting for transparency and accountability in Summerland because the truth matters.”
According to the decision, Besler and his family filed 79 FOI requests from 2019 through November 2023, when the district made its application, but when duplicate and overlapping requests were considered the actual number was closer to 180.
“The flow of requests increased in 2023, sometimes with two to four arriving on the same day or within a day or two of each other,” wrote Francis in the decision.
The district estimated the 10 outstanding requests, which it’s now authorized to ignore, would have generated 47,000 pages of documents that required vetting before release.
One such request from Besler in July 2023 cited in the decision was for: “All communications sent or received by (the mayor, two councillors and two staffers) in 2023 that include any of the following keywords: stupid, dumb, rude, idiot, angry, mad, stress, stressed, stressing, bully, bullied, bullying, prevent, stopped, sick, crap, and/or uncomfortable.”
“The requests at issue follow the same method and pattern the respondent used in making the past requests, that is, requesting all records about the same individuals and about essentially the same topics, using key words, for various time frames,” concluded Francis.
The district’s application to curtail Besler was made under a little-used section of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Just four other people in B.C. have had their FOI privileges similarly curtailed since 2020, according to the OIPC decision database.
To read the complete OIPC decision, see the electronic version of this story at: pentictonherald.ca or kelownadailycourer.ca