3 Canadians Get Permission to Use 'Magic Mushrooms'

Psilocybin mushrooms, sometimes called "magic" or psychedelic mushrooms, are banned in Canada with rare exceptions made for medical purposes. Three such exemptions have recently been granted, the Vancouver Sun reports. Three people with mental health conditions now have legal access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, a development that nonprofit TheraPsil, which advocates for compassionate access to such therapy, hails as major progress. In all, the organization has helped 47 patients get waivers since last year, but all the others had terminal diagnoses or were receiving palliative care. Now, however, there appears to have been a shift in the criteria required to grant exemptions.

"This is a very clear indication that exemptions are now available for people who have anxiety, depression, addiction, and chronic pain,” says the nonprofit's CEO. “It opens it up to everyone.” But, he says, these patients should not have had to wait as long as 283 days for a decision, and at least 15 others are still waiting, some of them for more than 200 days so far. As the Globe and Mail reported last month, Indigenous cultures have used psychedelics for centuries, but there has been a surge of interest lately in the substances' potential to treat complex mental health issues including PTSD and addiction. (More psilocybin mushrooms stories.)