On 16 June, Conservative Member of the Canadian Parliament Corey Tochor announced the introduction of legislation pushing for improved access to psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. The new legislation is dubbed Thomas’ Bill in memory of Thomas Hartle, the first Canadian to receive legal psychedelic-assisted therapy for end-of-life anxiety related to a terminal cancer diagnosis.
“There’s got to be a better way to address the mental health and addiction crisis across Canada we see in the street every day,” said Tochor.
Canada’s most recent statistics suggest mental health is in decline, particularly among young adults aged 18-34. Suicide is currently the second-leading cause of death for young adults, while 30% of adult Canadians will deal with mental health conditions and 21% will encounter substance use disorders in their lifetime.
There is now an impressive and growing body of clinical research that shows psilocybin is an effective treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, and many other conditions. Tochor’s private member’s bill would reschedule psilocybin, allowing doctors to more easily prescribe it, and make psilocybin eligible for priority review, fast-tracking Health Canada approval.
Tochor made the announcement in Ottawa alongside psilocybin advocacy groups and military veteran Master Corporal Josh Veinotte, who spoke of the potential of psilocybin to treat PTSD. Thomas Hartle was not present, having passed away in 2024 after a ten-year-fight with cancer.
Hartle was a constituent of MP Tochor’s Saskatoon district. After his diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer, Hartle’s physician suggested psilocybin-assisted therapy to manage anxiety around death. Together, they navigated Health Canada’s Special Access Program (SAP), which allows people with life-threatening conditions to access drugs not legally available in Canada.
After months of bureaucratic manoeuvring, Hartle had a psilocybin experience that profoundly shifted his feelings towards death and alleviated his anxiety, only to have the government cut off his access to psilocybin.
“It’s pretty undemocratic, I think, and it’s crazy that the government would step into the doctor’s office to tell the patient that what their doctor’s described isn’t actually good for them,” John Gilchrist of TheraPsil, an advocacy group that helped Hartle and others use the SAP, told Talking Drugs.
Canada has earned a reputation as a country with an open mind towards psychoactive substances. In 2018, after a decades-long legal battle, Canada pioneered legal cannabis.
In recent years, those advocating for legal access to psilocybin have increasingly challenged the Canadian government, following in the footsteps of successful cases that challenged laws under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, granting the first medical access to cannabis in 2001.
Two different lawsuits have mounted legal constitutional challenges arguing limiting access to psilocybin for medical uses violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically the right to life, liberty, and security of person. These remain ongoing, and if successful hold potential to dramatically change access.
In the meantime, others are simply turning to the grey market.
Earlier this year, Pete Pearson made national news when his application for medical assistance in dying (MAID) for terminal pulmonary fibrosis was approved in three weeks, but after months of waiting he was unable to access legal psilocybin through Canada’s SAP.
“It’s wrong that we are right now as a state helping patients end their life but they are not granted access to a plant that is non-toxic, non-addictive, and has the science behind it,” said Tochor. During his announcement, Tochor also criticised the fact that certain mental health conditions will be covered by MAID, saying it is wrong to assist someone in ending their life before offering them a plant shown to treat their conditions.
Pearson says he found relief after buying $40 of psilocybin mushrooms from a grey market dispensary. In most major Canadian cities, psilocybin and many other psychedelics can be purchased from storefronts, on social media, or online.
The majority of dispensaries are located in Toronto and Vancouver, which both have pushed for decriminalisation of psilocybin and other drugs. While Toronto’s 2022 application for decriminalisation was rejected, British Columbia did decriminalise drugs as an experiment in 2023, choosing to recriminalise in 2026.
A recent analysis of psilocybin dispensaries in Canada identified 75 retail stores in Canada, with all but two operating in Ontario and British Columbia. The researchers noted 33% growth between 2024 and 2025 while also flagging misleading health claims, lack of education concerning adverse effects, and packaging mimicking candy potentially causing accidental ingestion.
Liam Bedard of PsyCan, a psychedelic industry lobby group, warned that, “since this is the grey market, all of the necessary safety, chemistry, manufacturing, control protocols, risk mitigation protocols, none of that is there, right?”
Hartle, for example, chose to fly abroad to continue psilocybin treatments at significant personal expense after the Canadian government denied multiple requests through SAP. Bedard says that Health Canada is denying more SAP, sharing documents obtained through access-to-information law showing a 30% drop in approvals in 2025.
Still, Bedard is hopeful, particularly with the United States publicly endorsing psychedelics. Bedard told TalkingDrugs that pharmaceutical companies developing legal psychedelics, “typically go for FDA approval first and then eventually they come to Canada with more or less the same clinical data package.”
In April, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order accelerating research and allocating $50 million funding to the psychoactive substance ibogaine while he joked, “Can I have some, please? I’ll take some.” The move was reportedly prompted by podcaster Joe Rogan texting President Trump about the compound.
“It’s clear that there’s a policy window that’s open here. And we know it’s open because of all the positive signals that have come from across the political spectrum,” said Bedard. Gilchrist agreed: “for almost five years that I’ve been at TheraPsil, every political party has expressed support for our organisation.”
Bedard and Gilchrist do acknowledge that publicly advocating for psychedelics is still risky politically, going against decades of stigma.
But increasingly, the public record does show scattered support from individual MPs across parties over the past few years. Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski introduced a bill that would amend the SAP to cover a list of drugs including psilocybin. Green leader Elizabeth May has openly supported psychedelics along with select New Democratic Party MPs.
For Thomas’ Bill, the road to becoming a law is still a long one, with a second reading not yet scheduled. If broader support does exist within the Canadian political establishment, it remains behind closed doors for the time being.
