Opinion: Australia’s psychedelic progress begs the question: Is Canada falling behind?

By JJ Wilson, Co-Founder, Optimi Health

From a global perspective, Canada has always been on the leading edge of healthcare policy. With the introduction of medical assistance in dying laws in 2016 and the legalization of cannabis in 2018, we continue to make progress. But there's one area in which our federal government's delay has recently come into sharp focus: mental healthcare.

This delay is particularly troubling given the mental health crisis we're now facing as a nation still grappling with the consequences of COVID-19. In any given year, one in five Canadians will experience some form of mental illness, with depression being the most common. An estimated one in four Canadians will require treatment for depression at some point in their lifetime. Out of 24 countries studied, Canada has the highest lifetime prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), affecting 9.2 percent of the population.

Despite our progressive healthcare policies, Canada does not treat mental illness well. SSRIs, the first line of treatment for depression and PTSD, are only slightly more effective than a placebo and cause a long list of uncomfortable side effects. Other treatments such as psychotherapy are available but often come with months-long waitlists and hourly rates in the hundreds of dollars, making them inaccessible to most. In 2020, 45 percent of Canadians who sought mental health support reported that their needs were not fully met.

While these numbers are grim, they are not uncommon: rates of mental illness are similar in Australia, where last month, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) signalled it was ready to approach the country's mental health crisis in a new way.

On February 3, the TGA announced its decision to reschedule psilocybin and MDMA, making Australia the first country in the world to recognize the therapeutic potential of the two psychedelic compounds. As of July 1, approved psychiatrists will be able to prescribe psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA for PTSD.

The TGA's decision "acknowledges the current lack of options for patients with specific treatment-resistant mental illnesses" and comes after an application was made by Mind Medicine Australia four years ago to have the drugs rescheduled. In that time, Mind Medicine provided the TGA with data from more than 200 trials on psilocybin and MDMA.

As Australia prepares to manage the supply and demand of psilocybin and MDMA, Canadian manufacturers with proven cGMP operations and experience growing an industry around scheduled substances, mainly cannabis, are at the ready.

For Canadian scientists, healthcare professionals, and executives in the burgeoning psychedelic industry who have been in communication with our federal regulator for years, witnessing

Australia be the first to reach this milestone is bittersweet. We had hoped to be the first country in the world to provide legal psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Instead, suffering Canadians are left to navigate psychedelic therapy through Health Canada's Special Access Program (SAP), where fewer than 80 applications out of thousands have been approved since regulations were introduced in January 2022.

Health Canada's position to regulate psychedelics through the SAP is, and was, a necessary policy objective as industry continued to develop the science and research through clinical trials. However, they should understand that the watershed decision by Australia was not made on a leap of faith. It was made with compassion for people, backed by good evidence, and a little political courage.

Moreover, Canadians support the use of psychedelics for mental health. A Therapsil poll conducted last month found that 80 percent of Canadians believe psilocybin mushrooms should be legal for medical purposes, of which the highest levels of support coming in the cases of terminal illness, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Carolyn Bennett, and Prime Minister Trudeau have an incredible opportunity before them. They stand at the intersection of a national mental health crisis and a therapeutic solution that would give suffering Canadians the support and hope they need, so their only action should be the boldest one.

It's not too late for Canada to lead the way in psychedelic drug policy. We've already shown that we can create a successful, innovative industry around a scheduled substance, and with so many companies and researchers already invested in the medicalization of psilocybin and MDMA, not doing so represents a lost opportunity of monumental proportion.

I call on Health Canada to create legislation around psilocybin and MDMA by the end of 2023; so that the millions of Canadians impacted by mental illness each year can have access to these cutting-edge and potentially life-saving treatments.

It's time, Mr. Trudeau, for action.

JJ Wilson is a Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Vancouver-based Optimi Health.Optimi is Canada's largest end-to-end drug manufacturer and formulator licensed by Health Canada to produce and supply psychedelic substances such as MDMA and GMP-grade natural psilocybin.

Source: The GrowthOp