Psychedelics helped him deal with terminal illness anxiety, but getting them was a long, strange trip – CBC

75-year-old with terminal disease used illegal ‘magic mushrooms’ after Health Canada denied him legal access

Apr 07, 2026

Pete Pearson had three reasons for trying psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” for the first time at age 75.

“I hope it will keep me from losing my mind,” he told CBC’s White Coat, Black Art. “I hope it will keep me from being a complete jerk to everybody, and being so hard on Susie” — his wife.

Pete had been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a progressive lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe. The average survival prognosis is three to five years and he’d already passed that. Now, the physical limitations were triggering a toxic stew of anxiety, frustration and depression known as “end-of-life distress.”

“I just feel so useless,” he told CBC’s Dr. Brian Goldman when they first spoke in October 2024.

So, on Jan. 3, 2026, at about 11 a.m., Pete drank a tea containing five grams of natural psilocybin. He stretched out on the hide-a-bed in the front room of his house in Mooretown, Ont., facing the St. Clair River.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/psychedelic-treatment-health-canada-9.7151538