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Ben Woodfinden: A Tory MP wants easier access to magic mushrooms. Hear him out

It is worth letting doctors prescribe psilocybin for end-of-life depression

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A few days before Parliament rose for its summer recess, Saskatchewan MP Corey Tochor tabled a private member’s bill (C-286) that would loosen federal law to let doctors prescribe drugs containing psilocybin for depression, particularly end-of-life depression, and fast-track the regulatory approval of those drugs. You may not have heard of psilocybin, but you have probably heard of magic mushrooms, the fungi it comes from. And you might be wondering why on earth a Conservative MP, from a party that has taken tough stances on drugs in recent years, is tabling a bill to loosen access to a controlled substance. What, you might ask, is this MP smoking (or taking)? But get your laughs out now. Private member’s bills rarely become law, and most never make it through the legislative process at all, but this one is a serious piece of work, and when the House returns on September 21 it deserves a proper look from members of every party. 

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Before getting into the substance (pun intended), it is worth being clear about what the bill is not. C-286 is a narrow medical measure. It does not legalize psychedelics for the wider population or for recreational use. It amends two statutes, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Food and Drugs Act, moving psilocybin and its cousin psilocin out of the most restricted tier and into the framework that already lets doctors........

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