“I’m having a hard time sleeping and I’m having a hard time staying asleep,” the Burnaby, BC, musician said during a recent phone interview while dealing with the same persistent headache that often comes with dizziness and exhaustion.
“In April 2011, my appendicitis also ruptured, and it was life-changing.  I have survived rotting four times. 
“I used to live my life with tons of energy and now I’m like an old cell phone that doesn’t work properly and doesn’t charge properly.”
McKenney’s story is one of several included in a request for judicial review filed Monday in the Federal Court on behalf of more than 100 health professionals across the country, including doctors, psychologists, clinical counselors, social workers and nurses.  They are challenging the federal health minister’s decision last month to reject their application to use restricted psychedelic drugs for training in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
This treatment involves taking consciousness-altering substances, such as psilocybin, an active ingredient in magic mushrooms, in a clinical setting as part of more traditional psychotherapy.  Other drugs could include ketamine, LSD or MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy.
The federal government signaled earlier this year that it would deny the applications, said Nicholas Pope, an attorney representing TheraPsil, an advocacy group that runs the training program in which health professionals are enrolled. 
Pope said at the time that the only reason cited was that those professionals could access an existing clinical trial.  Then in June, when the application was officially denied, Ottawa suggested they could do their own trial. 
“So in our submissions, we said this is not going to work for a number of reasons,” Pope said. 
Most importantly, existing tests are expensive and do not work for many of the professionals it represents due to time and location.
“You can’t just throw together a clinical trial in a few days,” Pope said.
“Many patients on waiting lists have suicidal ideation because of their depression, and many of them have distress at the end of life, have terminal cancer, and could die soon.”
McKenney said she tried to join an existing trial as a patient, but it was too expensive for her, too.
“Because I’m on disability, I can’t pay $6,000 for three rounds of treatment,” she said.
Pope said some professionals also don’t want to participate in existing trials because they are designed to research psilocybin.
“This can affect education because the primary goal of a clinical trial is not education, it’s information gathering. And there is no uncertainty in the expert community about the safety of psilocybin in healthy adults.”
In 2020, Health Canada began granting exemptions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to provide psychedelic therapy for patients suffering from end-of-life psychological distress, treatment-resistant depression and major depressive disorder. 
Documents filed in court show hundreds of Canadians ask about it each year, but Pope said there aren’t enough professionals in Canada to provide the treatment.  Some sought the substances to treat anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or other illnesses.
“In Manitoba, there are no fully trained and qualified health professionals, but there are 10 patients on the waiting list for TheraPsil,” reads the summary of the application.
“Two health professionals in Manitoba have requested exemptions. If these two exemptions are approved, patients who otherwise do not have qualified health professionals thousands of kilometers away could gain access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.”
McKenney said that if she wanted to, she could get the drugs through other channels.  But she is reluctant because she has a mental illness. 
“If I’ve done too much or had a bad trip, sometimes there’s no going back that.  If I’m going to do it, I want to set it up and I want it to be monitored just for security purposes.”
Pope said in the request for judicial review that he also wants the federal government to recognize patients’ rights to life, liberty and security are being violated.
A spokesperson for Health Canada said in an email that it is deeply concerned about the burden of mental illness on Canadians.
“Health Canada is aware that psilocybin is being studied by researchers in Canada and internationally for its potential to treat a variety of conditions, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and various substance use disorders,” said Marie-Pier Burelle.
“Each request for an exemption … is considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all relevant considerations, including evidence of potential benefits and risks or harms to Canadians.”
McKenney said if more professionals were trained and she had easier access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, her life would change.
“I’ve been relatively disabled for 10 years. If I can get even a tenth of my former life back, that would be something.” 
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 11, 2022.