Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 19, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C2 C 2 TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMARTS ● LIFE I LIFE TRIPPY TREATMENTS Magic mushrooms, MDMA among psychedelic drugs gaining increased use as therapy for pain, stress, PTSD A S the first terminally ill cancer patient in Canada to legally use so-called magic mushrooms to treat anxiety, Thomas Hartle is hope- ful that more temporary approvals from the federal government signal a permanent regulatory regime may be in the works. Hartle, 53, received a one-year exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act last August to use psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, during psycho- therapy. Since then, Health Canada has approved 24 more applications from cancer patients for treatment of end- of-life distress. It has also granted ex- emptions to 19 health-care providers, giving them the right to possess and use mushrooms containing psilocybin for professional training purposes, a spokeswoman said in a statement. The department has yet to decide whether it will allow the public to use any psychedelics for therapeutic purposes beyond the exemptions it has granted so far. Hartle has had two psychedelic psychotherapy sessions at his home in Saskatoon, the last one in November, with psilocybin from mushrooms he grew and dried himself. He used a cof- fee grinder to turn them into powder and placed the powder into capsules for precise dosages. The IT administrator, who is on leave from his job, said anxiety over dying from colon cancer and leaving his wife and two children, both on the autism spectrum, became unbearable after his inoperable condition was diagnosed in 2016. However, taking psilocybin during his two sessions with the help of his regular clinical psychologist helped him manage his anxiety to the point that he hasn’t felt the need to have any more psychedelic-assisted therapy while he continues traditional therapy, Hartle said. “I think that’s probably obvious to most people who have interacted with me before and after my sessions,” he said of the marked improvement in his anxiety through a deeper understand- ing of the word “serenity.” “I’ve been talking about subjects that I would previously have considered almost impossible to talk about and keep a clear voice and not break down into a very emotional state. Instead of focusing on the pain or discomfort, I’m focusing on making lunch for my fam- ily or something like that.” Before each of the two sessions, Hartle said he met with his therapist and completed paperwork to gauge his anxiety level in order to establish a baseline that could be compared with how he would feel afterwards. The first session lasted about six hours, during which he took three capsules about an hour apart, contain- ing a total seven grams of psilocybin, he said. His therapist and a friend remained by his side as he lay blindfolded and wearing a headset while listening to music from a playlist compiled by Johns Hopkins University as part of its research into psychedelics. Hartle said the range of music, from classical to chanting as well as South American and African beats, elicited different emotions and he saw multiple colours and geometric shapes as he en- tered “a state of other,” which made it impossible for him to recall the names of his family members. “It was very serene and comfort- ing to me to realize that I could have consciousness and awareness that had nothing whatsoever to do with this existence.” Hartle said that prior to his cancer diagnosis, he had never used illegal substances and only started taking cannabis oil to deal with the nausea brought on by chemotherapy as part of his cancer treatments. Focused psychotherapy sessions be- fore, during and after his two sessions were crucial to his use of psilocybin, Hartle said. “It’s not like you take a pill and sud- denly everything is fantastic. It doesn’t work like that any more than regular therapy does. There is work to be done. There are challenges to face. There are issues that need to be worked through the same as any other session. The main difference is that with the psychedelic-assisted therapy, it can get your ego out of the way so you can get at some things.” Spencer Hawkswell, CEO of TheraP- sil, a Victoria-based advocacy group for patients, said it helped Hartle apply for exemptions to use psilocybin on compassionate grounds based on Canadians’ right to medical assistance in dying (MAiD). He said access to assistance in dying should also give terminally ill patients the right to try mushrooms to reduce their emotional suffering. “When we can’t manage someone’s symptoms, that’s often when they choose MAiD. (Psilocybin) deserves to be put in between the treatment op- tions that are failing those patients and MAiD.” TheraPsil has helped people from six provinces apply for exemptions. Health-care providers who have received exemptions to use psilo- cybin themselves before leading psychedelic-assisted sessions include family doctors, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical counsellors and social workers, Hawkswell said, adding the group is putting together a training program that will need partnerships with provincial governments. Psilocybin is just one of several psychedelics being considered to treat mental-health conditions, while a growing number of private companies promote their potential use for multiple issues including obesity, smoking, alco- hol dependence and addiction to illicit substances. Mark Haden, chair of the board for the Canadian chapter of the Multidis- ciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS Canada, said psy- chedelics appear to be seen as the new cannabis before it was legalized. “A lot of venture capitalists went into the cannabis world. Many of them made money. Some of them lost a huge amount of money, so the cannabis bubble exploded and then burst. So, all of that money is saying, ‘Where do we go next? What’s the next big thing?’ And they’ve latched their view on psychedelics.” MAPS Canada is currently conduct- ing a Phase 3 clinical trial in Vancou- ver on the use of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, to treat post-trau- matic stress disorder. Haden said the small trial involv- ing about 12 people is expected to be completed next year as part of the research by over a dozen sites in the United States and Israel. Traditional PTSD therapy has a high dropout rate, may involve patients taking medication for years and has an effectiveness rate of 10 to 25 per cent, said Haden, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. “With MDMA, it takes a few months and the effectiveness is 60 to 80 per cent,” he said of research findings elsewhere. — The Canadian Press CAMILLE BAINS PETER DEJONG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Magic mushrooms have long been a element of counterculture, but new research may be paving the way to using them in psychotherapy. SUPPLIED Thomas Hartle says the biggest benefit to using psilocybin in treatment is ‘it gets your ego out of the way’ and allows the therapy to take hold. “I was in my early teens when my grandfather was actually reclaiming his heritage — his mother was Métis and she denied it,” he says. “I could see how proud he was when he talked about it… and it was something he wasn’t allowed to talk about as a kid growing up.” He is an associate artist with Red Sky Performance and has presented work around the world with the Indig- enous contemporary dance company, including at the Venice Biennale, one of the most highly regarded curated art events in the world. The experience has introduced him to other Indigenous artists and helped him better under- stand his own roots. “It’s become more and more impor- tant for me to connect to my heritage, especially because I’m getting opportu- nities because of it,” Wolfe says. “There are a lot of incredible Indigenous art- ists working in Canada, and all over the world right now, who really deserve a voice... as Indigenous, I feel like I want to make sure that people know who I am and where I came from.” eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @evawasney “Some people have private health coverage through their employment, but folks have been losing that due to pandemic job losses, and some people have no coverage at all, some insur- ance companies just don’t include that in their plans, so lots of people are paying out of pocket for it,” Kirczenow said, adding it was “heartbreaking” to see many families post in a private Facebook group over the past few months saying they’d lost their private benefits and couldn’t afford their usual supplies to manage diabetes. The devices, commonly called CGMs, use sensors embedded in the skin to deliver blood-sugar readings every few minutes, and send an alarm to the user or their caregiver as soon as levels drift out of whack. They cost $300 per month — roughly the same price as an insulin pump. The pumps are covered in Manitoba for children until they reach 18. “There’s a lot of things that people don’t see and don’t know,” about living with Type 1 diabetes, Fontaine says. Now that he’s an adult, Fontaine is facing the reality of paying those expenses on his own. He doesn’t have a CGM, and more Pharmacare coverage would really help, he says. “It’d be a huge relief, financially. I’m just 18, I still only work part-time,” he says. “So I honestly don’t make enough money to be able to cover everything that I would need in a year.” His mother, Jenn Fontaine, says she’s relieved not to have to wake up at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. every day to test her son’s blood, but she’d worry less if he had a CGM, since blood sugar is affected by so many different fac- tors, even temperature. “I think most people are under the (impression) that the fluctuations are their fault, like they ate something. They don’t understand that hormone fluc- tuations, anxiety fluctuations, feeling under the weather… all of those things impact them just as much as food,” Jenn Fontaine says. “It’s not that he snuck a piece of cake and that’s why his blood (sugar level) is not good.” The monitors aren’t just a “cool gadget,” according to Diabetes Canada, which considers them potentially life- saving for the majority of people with Type 1 diabetes and some with Type 2. The national organization says Canada lags behind other countries in coverage of these devices. Yukon pro- vides full coverage of CGMs, and there is partial coverage in Ontario and Quebec, while Saskatchewan recently announced plans to cover the cost of the devices. Even without the moni- tors, Type 1 diabetics still face annual expenses of up to $15,000 if they don’t have coverage and health benefits, says Kimberley Hanson, Diabetes Canada’s federal affairs executive director. But she said the CGMs have been shown to prevent more expensive health costs for provinces down the line. “These devices, we believe, can be, if not cost neutral, pretty close to it,” Hansen said. “We have to look at it from a bit more holistic of a perspec- tive than I think most jurisdictions have done yet.” katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay BEGIN AGAIN ● FROM C1DIABETES ● FROM C1 Fontaine jokes he’s pricked his fingers so often, ‘I actually don’t have fingerprints.’ C_02_Jan-19-21_FP_01.indd C2 2021-01-18 5:21 PM ;