It stunned many, but it was a true story. Alberta, arguably one of the more politically conservative provinces in Canada, has developed their own framework for access to psychedelic therapy treatments. And the day of that program launch, is today.
But what is the program? How does it work? Are psychedelics legal in Alberta? Reach out to us for support navigating this new program, our partners and associates are ready to assist your operational development to maintain compliance under the new framework.
As of January 16, 2023, all providers of psychedelic drugs for psychiatric disorder and/or treatment, must meet the following:
- Hold a licence under the Mental Health Services Protection Act,
- Use psychedelic drugs that meet quality and safety requirements under the Mental Health Services Protection Regulations,
- Comply with quality and safety standards in the Psychedelic Drug Treatment Services Standard, and
- Have a functional complaint process and incident reporting process.
Fig 1. Steps to running a service practice under Alberta’s new Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Program.
The previous iteration of psychedelic treatment in Alberta did not have policies around licensing, product safety, drug prescription/administration/dispensation, patient complaints, and more. This new framework involves a regulatory structure encompassing these aspects of standardization and control.
The program is designed for medical purposes only of psychedelics, especially for those undergoing psychiatric treatment. Consumer usage of psychedelic drugs are not legal in Alberta at this time.
At time of reporting, the supervised medical treatments available under this program are:
- MDMA,
- Ketamine,
- LSD,
- Mescaline,
- DMT,
- 5-methoxy DMT,
- Psilocin, and
- Psilocybin.
All regulated industries, especially newly developed ones, can be difficult to traverse. Contact us today and let us ease the burden of navigating this new framework.
