Psilocybin Use | Senator Campbell’s Cafe

It happened last fall on the West Coast. A beautiful sun warmed Galiano Island, which emerges between the great island of Vancouver and the metropolis of the same name. And Larry Campbell, one of 1,000 islanders in this “george Strait gem,” was feeling great.

Judith Lachapelle
The Press

Strangely well, even.

In fact, he hadn’t felt this good since… since… “Oh.” For a very, very long time, ”says the 74-year-old man, former mayor of Vancouver, former police officer and senator in Parliament from Ottawa since 2005.

Because behind this busy career, Larry Campbell has suffered from chronic depression for 30 years now. “And I’ve always been a bit irritable. It didn’t get better with age…”

But in this fall of 2021, oddly, he felt good. He no longer went out of his hinges at the slightest hassle. His angry temper seemed appeased.

Intrigued by this new-found serenity, he spoke to his wife about it. Who, she was not really surprised.

Wait, wait, begs our interlocutor. This story is not that of a wife who drugs her husband in secret, he insists. “Before you blame my wife, you need to know that she told me what she would do. But hey, like many husbands, I tended not to always listen to what my wife said…”

He laughs heartily at the end of the line. But the essence of his message is not about the circumstances by which microdoses of psilocybin – the hallucinogenic element in so-called “magic” mushrooms – ended up in his coffee.

What Larry Campbell wants to emphasize is the therapeutic potential that this drug contains, and that it must be studied closely by expanding access to therapeutic use. “The science on this is still incomplete, but there is evidence that psychedelic drugs can help treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic shock and addictions. »

His example is eloquent, he underlines, since in his case, the placebo effect can be ruled out. And by ingesting microdoses of psilocybin, he never felt any hallucinogenic effect.

“After three or four days after starting to use, I started to feel happy. That’s the only way I can describe it. I didn’t see any unicorns, the sky wasn’t bluer, I didn’t have a sudden urge to listen to Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix… I just felt happier. »

“Before, I could stupidly get upset just waiting in line. But then, when I could have gotten angry, I managed to reason with myself. That was really a big change. Well, I still get angry sometimes, but it doesn’t happen so often anymore! »

From the RCMP to the Senate

Larry Campbell knows a bit about narcotics. A drug squad officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), he founded Vancouver’s first coroner’s office in 1981 before being appointed Chief Coroner for British Columbia. Years of harrowing investigations, he recounts, where the opioid crisis began to wreak havoc in the West. A post-traumatic shock syndrome still haunts him. “We do not carry out investigations into thousands of deaths without paying the price…”

In 2002, he was elected mayor of Vancouver by proposing a new strategy to combat addiction and drug abuse. The following year, he piloted the opening of the city’s first supervised injection site (sorry: the first in North America!), then was appointed senator in Ottawa in 2005.

Did the narcotics squad policeman imagine one day self-medicating with magic mushrooms? ” No no no ! laughs Larry Campbell. “I was a policeman, I enforced the law and I thought it was the right thing to do. But one day I became a coroner, and my job was to keep people alive by preventing death. And in Vancouver, he recalls, hundreds of people are dying “of a disease called addiction.”

While he was well aware of the opioid problem, he knew little about psychedelic drugs. These create little dependency and can even, in some cases, alleviate suffering. Work carried out among others at Johns Hopkins University, in the United States, has revealed encouraging results of microdosing psilocybin for the treatment of depression and addictions.

In Canada, with rare exceptions, the production, sale and possession of magic mushrooms are still illegal.

The senator, by the way, does not hold an official exemption to consume his psilocybin. He says he has read a lot on the subject (in particular the works of the American mycologist Paul Stamets). He uses a small scale to measure his own milligrams of mushrooms, which he consumes as needed. But he is careful not to advise anyone tempted by this experience. “I take responsibility for what I do for myself,” he says. If you have severe depression, it’s not a bad idea to discuss it with your doctor. Maybe he can refer you to another specialist who knows about psilocybin, even if there aren’t many of them. »

And how does he get his supplies? “I can’t speak for the rest of Canada, but here in British Columbia, it’s not very difficult to find someone who can advise you and sell you some…”

Which isn’t ideal, agrees Larry Campbell. And that is why he seizes every opportunity to make elected officials aware of this issue.

“There are people in the Senate and in the House of Commons who will think that I am old and crazy… But we have to talk about it. »

Mushroom Update

Promising results

Over the past few years, many studies have revealed promising results regarding the use of psilocybin in a clinical setting. Unlike microdosers like Larry Campbell, who self-medicate without medical supervision, taking psilocybin in a clinical setting is combined with psychotherapy – in other words, the patient takes the substance in the presence of therapists who will monitor its effects for a few hours. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) have published several studies on this subject, in particular on the relief of anxiety in cancer patients, in those who suffer from severe depression or who have addictions. In some cases, a single dose of psilocybin has had beneficial effects that lasted for a year.

Obtaining psilocybin with Health Canada

Last January, Health Canada announced a new program to allow physicians to apply to prescribe certain restricted psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and LSD, for people with serious or life-threatening illnesses. According to the program, the taking of these substances must take place in a clinical environment, combined with psychotherapy led by specialists trained in this approach. According to Health Canada, as of June 23, 18 requests to treat 22 patients with psilocybin have been granted. “The other requests are under review or have been withdrawn by the requesting physician,” Health Canada told us.

More or less restricted access

Despite this announcement presented as a relaxation, the new program has proven to be more restrictive than the old exemption approach: between August 2020 and December 2021, 79 Canadians obtained an exemption from Health Canada to be able to consume psilocybin. Since January, applicants have seen their applications refused because they did not meet the new rules. This is the case of Janis Hughes, a 65-year-old woman from Winnipeg whose story, reported by the CBC in February, particularly outraged Senator Larry Campbell. M^me Hugues, who suffers from terminal breast cancer, wanted access to psilocybin to soothe the anxiety that was ruining his last months of life. His request for access for therapeutic use made to Health Canada was refused. “I understand what she’s going through,” says Larry Campbell. Two years ago, I spent 40 days in the hospital for cancer treatment. The irony, as this lady pointed out, is that she could get medical assistance in dying in 10 days, but she can’t get psilocybin. »

An increasingly open trade

Paradoxically, buying magic mushrooms on the market seems to be getting easier and easier – just type a few keywords into a search engine to find well-researched mushroom supplier sites that promise discreet delivery. In recent months in Vancouver, many businesses have even started selling magic mushrooms openly without too much trouble from the police. “Hundreds of businesses across the country were selling cannabis before it was legalized,” Dana Larsen, owner of the Magic Mushroom Dispensary, told CTV in May. “I think we’ll see a similar phenomenon with mushrooms. »

Interest in Quebec

Last May, a first clinic in Quebec, Mindspace, obtained approval from Health Canada to treat a patient suffering from depression with psilocybin. Researcher and pharmacist Michel Dorval, from Université Laval, wants to document the social acceptability of taking psilocybin for people at the end of life. “It’s not something that’s very well known. We want to know what people think about it, if they could be interested in this possibility,” says Mr. Dorval. The problem of accessibility to a trained doctor for this treatment remains a major obstacle. “We have patients who are ready to consider this option, but who cannot find a doctor to support them. »