Alberta to be 1st province to regulate psychedelics for therapy, government says – CBC
Province also adding new restrictions for prescribing high-potency narcotics
Oct 05, 2022
Alberta will become the first Canadian jurisdiction to regulate the use of psychedelic drugs for people in therapy, the province announced Wednesday.
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Mike Ellis also introduced new rules to limit who can prescribe high-potency drugs to people with difficult-to-treat opioid addictions.
The changes are aimed at protecting the public, ensuring that patients receive high standards of care and preventing risky drugs from inadvertently ending up on the streets.
Dr. Rob Tanguay, a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction medicine and pain medicine, said patients are vulnerable while taking psychedelics and need protection.
“The risk is much lower with a regulated psychologist who is registered with their college than someone who printed [a certificate] off the Internet, and then went on to the Internet to advertise, ‘I’m a psychedelic therapist, come see me,’ ” Tanguay said at a news conference in Edmonton Thursday.
