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a saskatoon dad in palliative care is still waiting to find out if he can legally use psilocybin for mental health
"cannabis, i felt, was a very effective tool," says thomas hartle. "i believe that psilocybin will also be an effective tool.”
jun 23 2020
4 minute read
thomas hartle is one of four canadians to be granted a medical exemption to pursue psychedelic therapy.
thomas hartle
in a video posted to her facebook page on world mental health day, minister of health patty hajdu says, “no matter where i go, i hear from people who are having a hard time getting the services they need. no matter where you live in canada, you should have access to mental health services when you need them.”
for thomas hartle, a 52-year-old husband and father of two from saskatoon who has been living with terminal cancer since 2016, this message feels especially pertinent. hartle is one of at least four palliative canadians who have applied directly to the minister for an exemption to section 56(1) of the canadian drugs and substances act. he has requested the minister respond by the end of the month.
if granted, the exemption would allow hartle to pursue psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy on compassionate grounds. hartle, who has worked as an it professional for the last 25 years, became a medical cannabis consumer shortly after his cancer diagnosis, trying the plant for the first time at the age of 48.
“i f it works, i use it,” he says. “that’s my whole litmus test. cannabis, i felt, was a very effective tool. i believe that psilocybin will also be an effective tool.”
psychedelics have proven potential
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hartle says that traditional anti-anxiety medications come with a range of unpleasant side effects and do not address the existential anxiety that he is feeling as he wrestles with the reality that he will be leaving his family behind. he believes psilocybin — a psychedelic drug derived from magic mushrooms — could help ease that pain.
a 2016 study from john hopkins university demonstrated that psilocybin therapy led to significant and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer, in addition to improved quality of life and a renewed sense of optimism. six months later, those changes persisted. about 80 per cent of participants continued to show substantial decreases in depression and anxiety.
“that is way better than anything else,” hartle says of those results. “it’s dumbfounding how the minister could ignore numbers like that.”
hartle completed his application with the assistance of therapsil, a b.c.-based, non-profit coalition of doctors and healthcare professionals, policymakers, lawyers, researchers and advocates. spencer hawkswell, executive director of therapsil, says the demand is growing.
“more individuals reach out every week, and i think many more across canada would want to explore this option if they were aware of it,” he says.
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bill c-14 passed in 2016 which granted canadians the right to medical assistance in dying (maid). since then, more than 7,000 canadians have exercised that right. hawkswell says that maid is “a great liberty” for those that choose to pursue it, but that it shouldn’t be the only option. due to its therapeutic potential, others have referred to psilocybin treatment as medical assistance in living.
“with so many canadians diagnosed with terminal illnesses each year, and many choosing maid, we hope to be another option for the patients who are experiencing end-of-life distress and want to try something like psilocybin,” hawkswell says.
getting the government’s attention
hawkswell says they’ve had a difficult time engaging the government in this discussion. in 2017, the organization’s founder, dr. bruce tobin, applied for an exemption to treat dying canadians with medically supervised, psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. after three years of limited communication with health canada, the application was denied. hawkswell hypothesizes that the original application was rejected because it was for a class of dying patients, not an individual. since that ruling, they have pivoted their strategy to focus on individual exemptions.
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“when we sent out a patient-specific application they responded quickly to the first patient, with a request for further information. however they have since gone silent and not responded to other patients we have assisted,” he says.
“we understand that health canada is under considerable pressure, with the covid-19 pandemic. but given the deteriorating health of our patients, time for them grows shorter and that just increases their anxiety and daily distress.”
how it works
psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is more than “just a trip,” hawkswell explains. it begins with multiple preparatory sessions between the patient and therapist before the mushroom is consumed.
the potential for breakthroughs comes in the moments of extreme anxiety, he says, as patients confront their negative emotions. “this is often where some of the most important psychotherapeutic work happens as patients let go of long-held negative beliefs.” the therapy concludes with multiple post-integration sessions, where the patient and therapist work through the experience.
hartle says, if necessary, he will pursue this therapy through his own means, but he wants other canadians to have a legal choice.
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“if we can do this the right way, and go through official channels, it will pave the way so other people can follow in my footsteps,” he says. “i am hoping that eventually, people like the minister and canadians, in general, will see that people are benefiting from this and it is not the harmful, non-beneficial substance that it has been portrayed as.”
he says after receiving confirmation that his application was received earlier this month, he has heard no further news. he followed up on his application with a private video message to the minister, which he shared with the growthop . “for myself and others like me,” hartle says in the video, “there is a clock that is ticking.”
a request for comment to the minister of health’s office was not returned.
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