The Magic of Psilocybin
18/03/22 06:20
After a half-century of being locked away from doctors and therapists, the Magic Mushroom has been released from prison – albeit on day passes only.
The restrictions on psilocybin are slowly easing as clinical studies demonstrate its benefits for people suffering treatment-resistant depression, as well as anxiety, depression, and feelings of hopelessness in terminally ill patients, or substance use disorders, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
However, despite promising outcomes getting official approval to use psilocybin remains unexpectedly difficult.
Mushrooms have been a part of spiritual and healing ceremonies for thousands of years.
An early depiction appears in the Selva Pascuala mural, an ancient cave painting six-thousand years old in eastern Spain. It's believed the mural shows the fungi Psilocybe hispanica, which has hallucinogenic properties and grows in the region. Older rock paintings that may show mushroom use are found at Tassili n’Ajjer in Algeria.
Indigenous people in South and Central America, Siberia, and Southeast Asia are known to have used hallucinogenic mushrooms for thousands of years.
Our more modern appreciation of the effects of psilocybin largely begins with an article published by LIFE magazine in 1957, written by amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson titled In Search of the Magic Mushroom.
The magazine coined the term ‘magic mushroom’ in the headline.
In the article, Wasson uses “divine mushrooms,” the English translation of the Indigenous name, and describes the experience of eating the mushrooms under the guidance of a curandera, or shaman, in a remote Indigenous village in Mexico.
Wasson was with photographer Alan Richardson on that night in late June of 1955 and was later joined in the village by his wife and daughter who also experienced the visions of the divine mushrooms.
Wasson and botanist Roger Heim collected and identified several species of mushroom and sent samples to Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland.
Hofmann, who discovered LSD years earlier, isolated and identified the compounds psilocybin and psilocin.
Over the next two decades psychiatrists, scientists, and mental health professionals researched psilocybin as an aid to therapy for alcoholism, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression.
Then psilocybin was declared an illegal substance in the early 1970s and research into its medical use diminished.
Psilocybin remains a restricted substance, but it's proving to be effective in helping treat depression and anxiety among terminally ill patients, or dealing with substance use disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and treatment-resistant depression.
Psilocybin therapy, however, requires more than just administering a capsule.
To gain its full benefits the sessions must be conducted under the guidance of a trained psychotherapist.
The positive outcomes are as much about the release of thoughts and feelings as the actions of the compound itself.
The experience while using psilocybin is often spoken of as existential or mystical and patients say it helped them fully understand the root of their depression.
In Canada, non-profit coalition TheraPsil helps Canadians access legal psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and medical psilocybin.
TheraPsil Chief Executive Officer Spencer Hawkswell says patients have described “mystical experiences.”
Some rated their psilocybin use as being “one of the top five experiences in their life," according to Hawkswell, "up there with a marriage, or the birth of a child,” and it took them past mental blocks that had prevented them from fully understanding their situation.
Hawkswell says psilocybin is safe and effective when used as a therapeutic aid.
In addition to end-of-life patients, several exemptions have also been granted for people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety.
Hawkswell says people dying of cancer get the most sympathy from Canada's Minister of Health, but if psilocybin helps one class of patients escape depression, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness, it's equally suitable for treating others.
In treatment-resistant depression and substance use disorder, he says the root of the condition is often trauma.
Hawkswell says while treating people in end-of-life situations, “we had alcoholics that completely stopped drinking after their psilocybin use,” and people on several pain medications, such as fentanyl, went off those medications.
He says they were “able to get past, maybe not a physical pain, but a mental pain,” and we should be exploring this in more than just patients facing death because of cancer.
Hawkswell says psilocybin can help others who may be struggling with opioid use disorder, alcoholism, or tobacco addiction, and even Magic mushroom users who need the help and guidance of a therapist.
During a psilocybin experience a therapist helps guide a patient past some of the traumatic events they might have experienced in their life, or get over the fear and anxiety of dying.
Hawkswell says patients later reported, “in these expanded states they were able to get past mental blocks that made it almost impossible for them to fully comprehend the situations they were in and see the options they had to get past them.”
He says some talked of “seeing God, seeing angels, and being brought through many dimensions and seeing the truth of their situation in life.”
Hawkswell says regardless of the individual experience, “in 80 percent of these cases there were clinically significant decreases in hopeless, depression and anxiety,” and psilocybin “absolutely” aids the therapeutic process.
Hawkswell says the struggle for access to psilocybin is not about acceptance, but rather the barriers maintained by the government.
He says they conducted a survey and found an overwhelming majority of the Canadian public says patients who need psilocybin should have access to it.
Treatment with psilocybin can only take place if approval is granted on a case-by-case basis through an exemption from the Minister of Health.
Hawkswell says amendments are needed to section 56 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which allows exemptions for a medical or scientific purposes, because patients with an immediate need to access psilocybin treatment are not receiving it.
He says there is increasing demand, not just from patients, but also doctors who see it as a reasonable medical choice for patients dying from a terminal illness, as well as those suffering treatment-resistant depression.
Hawkswell says these patients cannot wait two to five years for the research to mature, or drugs that might assist them to be developed.
He believes that when it comes to harm reduction, safety, and compassion, we should find a solution as soon as possible for section 56 to make psilocybin available quickly and safely when doctors and patients feel it's needed.
Hawkswell says TheraPsil has about 1500 patients reaching out for help, which means there are potentially thousands of Canadians that may need immediate access to psilocybin.
So far, TheraPsil has assisted in getting about 80 exemptions.
Another problem is getting approval from the government to allow medical professionals access to psilocybin for training.
Hawkswell, says they have been successful in getting 19 exemptions under Section 56 of the CDSA last year for psychotherapists, but in January of this year, Health Canada advised them that 150 applications are being denied.
Ultimately, anyone can get Magic Mushrooms with or without permission of the government, but they will also lack the benefits of guidance from a medical professional during their psilocybin experiences.
In the end, Hawkswell says it boils down to compassion and our right to life, liberty, and security of person under Canada's Charter of Rights.
The restrictions on psilocybin are slowly easing as clinical studies demonstrate its benefits for people suffering treatment-resistant depression, as well as anxiety, depression, and feelings of hopelessness in terminally ill patients, or substance use disorders, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
However, despite promising outcomes getting official approval to use psilocybin remains unexpectedly difficult.
Mushrooms have been a part of spiritual and healing ceremonies for thousands of years.
An early depiction appears in the Selva Pascuala mural, an ancient cave painting six-thousand years old in eastern Spain. It's believed the mural shows the fungi Psilocybe hispanica, which has hallucinogenic properties and grows in the region. Older rock paintings that may show mushroom use are found at Tassili n’Ajjer in Algeria.
Indigenous people in South and Central America, Siberia, and Southeast Asia are known to have used hallucinogenic mushrooms for thousands of years.
Our more modern appreciation of the effects of psilocybin largely begins with an article published by LIFE magazine in 1957, written by amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson titled In Search of the Magic Mushroom.
The magazine coined the term ‘magic mushroom’ in the headline.
In the article, Wasson uses “divine mushrooms,” the English translation of the Indigenous name, and describes the experience of eating the mushrooms under the guidance of a curandera, or shaman, in a remote Indigenous village in Mexico.
Wasson was with photographer Alan Richardson on that night in late June of 1955 and was later joined in the village by his wife and daughter who also experienced the visions of the divine mushrooms.
Wasson and botanist Roger Heim collected and identified several species of mushroom and sent samples to Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland.
Hofmann, who discovered LSD years earlier, isolated and identified the compounds psilocybin and psilocin.
Over the next two decades psychiatrists, scientists, and mental health professionals researched psilocybin as an aid to therapy for alcoholism, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression.
Then psilocybin was declared an illegal substance in the early 1970s and research into its medical use diminished.
Psilocybin remains a restricted substance, but it's proving to be effective in helping treat depression and anxiety among terminally ill patients, or dealing with substance use disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and treatment-resistant depression.
Psilocybin therapy, however, requires more than just administering a capsule.
To gain its full benefits the sessions must be conducted under the guidance of a trained psychotherapist.
The positive outcomes are as much about the release of thoughts and feelings as the actions of the compound itself.
The experience while using psilocybin is often spoken of as existential or mystical and patients say it helped them fully understand the root of their depression.
In Canada, non-profit coalition TheraPsil helps Canadians access legal psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and medical psilocybin.
TheraPsil Chief Executive Officer Spencer Hawkswell says patients have described “mystical experiences.”
Some rated their psilocybin use as being “one of the top five experiences in their life," according to Hawkswell, "up there with a marriage, or the birth of a child,” and it took them past mental blocks that had prevented them from fully understanding their situation.
Hawkswell says psilocybin is safe and effective when used as a therapeutic aid.
In addition to end-of-life patients, several exemptions have also been granted for people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety.
Hawkswell says people dying of cancer get the most sympathy from Canada's Minister of Health, but if psilocybin helps one class of patients escape depression, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness, it's equally suitable for treating others.
In treatment-resistant depression and substance use disorder, he says the root of the condition is often trauma.
Hawkswell says while treating people in end-of-life situations, “we had alcoholics that completely stopped drinking after their psilocybin use,” and people on several pain medications, such as fentanyl, went off those medications.
He says they were “able to get past, maybe not a physical pain, but a mental pain,” and we should be exploring this in more than just patients facing death because of cancer.
Hawkswell says psilocybin can help others who may be struggling with opioid use disorder, alcoholism, or tobacco addiction, and even Magic mushroom users who need the help and guidance of a therapist.
During a psilocybin experience a therapist helps guide a patient past some of the traumatic events they might have experienced in their life, or get over the fear and anxiety of dying.
Hawkswell says patients later reported, “in these expanded states they were able to get past mental blocks that made it almost impossible for them to fully comprehend the situations they were in and see the options they had to get past them.”
He says some talked of “seeing God, seeing angels, and being brought through many dimensions and seeing the truth of their situation in life.”
Hawkswell says regardless of the individual experience, “in 80 percent of these cases there were clinically significant decreases in hopeless, depression and anxiety,” and psilocybin “absolutely” aids the therapeutic process.
Hawkswell says the struggle for access to psilocybin is not about acceptance, but rather the barriers maintained by the government.
He says they conducted a survey and found an overwhelming majority of the Canadian public says patients who need psilocybin should have access to it.
Treatment with psilocybin can only take place if approval is granted on a case-by-case basis through an exemption from the Minister of Health.
Hawkswell says amendments are needed to section 56 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which allows exemptions for a medical or scientific purposes, because patients with an immediate need to access psilocybin treatment are not receiving it.
He says there is increasing demand, not just from patients, but also doctors who see it as a reasonable medical choice for patients dying from a terminal illness, as well as those suffering treatment-resistant depression.
Hawkswell says these patients cannot wait two to five years for the research to mature, or drugs that might assist them to be developed.
He believes that when it comes to harm reduction, safety, and compassion, we should find a solution as soon as possible for section 56 to make psilocybin available quickly and safely when doctors and patients feel it's needed.
Hawkswell says TheraPsil has about 1500 patients reaching out for help, which means there are potentially thousands of Canadians that may need immediate access to psilocybin.
So far, TheraPsil has assisted in getting about 80 exemptions.
Another problem is getting approval from the government to allow medical professionals access to psilocybin for training.
Hawkswell, says they have been successful in getting 19 exemptions under Section 56 of the CDSA last year for psychotherapists, but in January of this year, Health Canada advised them that 150 applications are being denied.
Ultimately, anyone can get Magic Mushrooms with or without permission of the government, but they will also lack the benefits of guidance from a medical professional during their psilocybin experiences.
In the end, Hawkswell says it boils down to compassion and our right to life, liberty, and security of person under Canada's Charter of Rights.