Pubdate: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 Source: Metro (Toronto, CN ON) Copyright: 2015 Metro Canada Contact: http://www.metronews.ca/toronto Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3462 Author: Jessica Smith Page: 14 REVEALING THE HEALING MAGIC OF MUSHROOMS Fungi Chemical Psilocybin Can Help Elderly With Anxiety Drug advocates and medical experts will be gathering in Toronto to discuss the potential health benefits of magic mushrooms. The event, slated for Sunday at the Centre for Social Innovation, is part of a worldwide day of action organized by the 920 Coalition. The Toronto event is being organized by Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy. CSSDP co-chair Gonzo Nieto said the event is meant to bring attention to the medicinal and spiritual effects of psilocybin mushrooms and counteract stigma around their use. "The 920 Coalition, a couple of months ago, came out with the idea to make Sept. 20, like 420 is for cannabis, for psilocybin mushrooms," he said. "Now, there are 22 events happening worldwide in Canada, the U.S. Mexico and Australia." One of the Toronto speakers will be Wende Wood, a pharmacist who worked at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for 13 years. Compared the volume of research done on marijuana, there has been very little on psilocybin, but what has been done has been promising, Wood said. One well-known study cited by Wood found the drug led to lasting personality changes in subjects, many of whom reported feeling closer to God. "The headlines were, 'God in a pill,' and that was kind of pushing it," Wood said. "The most important thing was it showed we can, under the right conditions and the right researchers, study this stuff ethically and responsibly." Wood said other researchers are examining the impact of psilocybin on end of life care. Scientists in California found supervised trips on psilocybin helped some terminally ill patients come to terms with their mortality and lessen their anxiety about death, she said. Wood hopes that after hearing her talk on Sunday people will realize that just because a drug is illegal doesn't mean it can't be beneficial in certain cases. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom