Los psicodélicos resurgen en Canadá para tratar la depresión y otros males elobservador.com.uy - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from elobservador.com.uy Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The group also has connected patients to doctors and therapists who oversee their use of the drug.
These trial cases come amid mounting interest from researchers and investors, as well as a public push to reconsider bans on psilocybin, LSD, DMT, mescaline and other mind-altering substances such as MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.
The US state of Oregon legalized psilocybin for therapeutic use last November.
Psychedelics have been used by indigenous peoples for millennia, but Western researchers only started delving into their properties and potential uses in earnest in the middle of last century.
But that work came grinding to a halt when the substances quickly became symbols of the anti-establishment counter-culture movement of the 1960s and were banned.
To manage her stress and fears, Andrea Bird, who has terminal cancer, uses psychedelics, which are seeing a sudden re-emergence in Canada as a possible treatment for mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. The 60-year-old Canadian was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Despite aggressive treatment, the disease returned five years later, spreading to her lungs, bones and brain. As she tries to cope with her incurable ailment, Bird uses psilocybin, the psychoactive substance of hallucinogenic mushrooms that was banned in the 1970s.