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Homepage – Mental Health Commission of Canada
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
Toronto Psychedelic Community
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health | CAMH
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OK hello Hello Tyler Bryden here it is Monday kicking off Monday, with some psychedelics 2 things. One of them right away jump into was an event in Toronto this weekend from research to reality and it was a global summit and secondly assisted therapies and medicine. And what was really interesting about this is that it was Co hosted by Cam H, CSA and Mental Health Commission of Canada. So when we think of psychedelics we all often think of it. In the sort of early adopter.
You know, hippy people who aren’t in these big regulatory structures and environments. And yet with this conference. It was actually Co hosted by some of the largest organizations and players and mental health in Canada. And so it really spoke to this sort of newfound legit legitimacy within psychedelics and that was a very exciting thing and I think that energy sort of flowed through the conference there. So anyone in in Canada, generally you know, paying attention to healthcare specifically, mental health knows of these organizations that make a huge impact.
And they are sort of dominant forces in shaping treatment and the mental health landscape. And in Canada. So it was definitely a big milestone. They had tried to put this conference together for several years and COVID and everything came and so finally it was pushed to last weekend. And I attended basically what was a public event, which was really nice. There was an entire comments over three days. I didn’t have quite the ability to attend all of those three days, but was happy to do this event. It was on Saturday night and had some great speakers on the panel. Rick Doblin was there, David Nutt and just a wonderful diverse panel of of perspective of experience of expertise that then allowed for our informative evening.
One where basically there was a little introduction. And then a bunch of questions asked from the moderator and then opening it up to the actual public who was attending both virtually and then in person. So always nice to see people in person. And it’s a very the the audience there, the group there that gathered was a very, you know, interesting group of people. Very research focused, very academic, focused. There was some work and sort of specific sessions on business and industry, but overall it felt very academic. It felt very scientific and I think that is actually a really valuable thing when you open up events like this. So as I sort of you know.
That in the room and sort of talk to people after a lot of talk about PHD’s and theses and placebo effects and controls. And all these things that I mean personally. Obviously I care about. First of all, I’m glad if there are people who are working on this stuff because I don’t think I have the capacity to do it. And with that then the credibility then moves forward to make progress in other areas. So sometimes that progress is, I mean mostly that progress is positive. It allows for adoption from organizations like Cam H and more legitimacy and credibility throughout countries around the world. Canada is a leader in this space.
And then the the other part is that it opens up opportunities for more of a mainstream effect and people you know who I would identify myself as trying to figure out ways to bring this to application in in legitimate ways. For more awareness for more knowledge for more adoption. And I think this is still a challenge. I think this is something that’s been really difficult for organizations trying to operate in this space because there’s nonprofits maps which I think is raised about 173 million. And then there’s.
The sort of healthcare in academia and research which a lot of that is grant driven and even donation funded. Government funded. And then you’ve obviously had this rise in the for profit model of this, which I think is really still trying to figure out how this works, and so some have looked at clinic model. Some have looked at pharma models, some have looked at patents, lots of different ways that they’re trying, but that final frontier. A lot of times, which for good or bad drives more mainstream.
Adoption and as Rick Doblin pointed out in in the. And the panel has raised already 2 + 2 plus billion for this work. They’re the ones who often then push the adoption or bring this in into even more mainstream application and knowledge. So there’s definitely. What what also was sort of a gather just from again a small small session so I can’t speak for the entire conference. Is optimism still more work to do and then also a little bit more?
Openness to for profit businesses to drive this forward and accelerate it more, but with those checks in in mind, and sometimes those checks in mind are hard when you know what we’ve seen with cannabis, what we’ve seen with psychedelics, or what we see with venture capital, where if you take on that kind of money the returns need to be so outsized that sometimes or often it then creates a bias towards the decisions you make, and then the decisions you have to make for profit that then can have detriments to the actual quality of healthcare. Quality of treatment. Et cetera, et cetera. So really, that was my a little bit of my take away from it. A couple things or that were thoughts around this I guess are it was at the Hilton Hotel. Personally when I think of psychedelics, I think of people who obviously they’re you know everyone. Great group of people who are there.
I think of more sort of nature infused environments at the conferences, and so that’s one thing that I would like to see, like Hilton creates this energy. It was, you know, this Conference Center energy and I think practically it makes a lot of sense because everyone can. Then you know go down to the sessions and then stay in the hotel so there’s at ease. There’s a. Lessening of friction when you do something like this, but overall what I found is by the time people got to 9:00 PM on Saturday night, they had already done that. This was the 2nd day, the comments and they were tired and I felt because it was in the Hilton. The lack of light, lack of being infused with nature, which many of these people are in touch with. It sort of is tiring and especially you know, you’re in Toronto. All these people come to the city. Beautiful weather all weekend. I just wonder if there’s more opportunity to sort of host these. Obviously like in practical.
Locations but with more access to windows and sunlight and stuff, and I think that would maybe create more energy in the room and also just more connection with the city that they had actually come with because Canada is a leader within that. Toronto is a leader and we would like to sort of, I think cement and continue to add to that credibility. So that’s my small critique of that. And then one thing I’ve railed against several times already is like this is a been personal. It’s like when I went to the event.
Fantastic panel, but the event that the Western University alumni did that I went to a few few weeks ago had a really nice structured networking portion of it and I would find I think a lot of the people from the general public they enjoyed going to listen to the panel, but generally that information was readily available. Questions that I heard were somewhat redundant ones that both the panel had given answers to. Probably before many times like what is a psychedelic. You know what are the risks of taking psychedelics? Things like that baseline sort of knowledge. Questions that a lot of people, even though it was a general public, probably had some understanding of because they were there, and I think where a lot of value comes out from these conferences. Sort of the in between of the panels and in between of the events that then allows for the networking and the connections. I would rather see that fostered throughout the entire event, so maybe the panel is shorter and then there was an opportunity where you rotate tables with one of the panel.
Speakers and you all get to sit there and have an actual conversation, so I think there’s. A lot more opportunity, especially after the pandemic, especially all of this, to weave in structured networking and more organic connection opportunities outside of actual sort of panel events. And that’s just again a general feedback. Something that I’ve seen, so I’ll shut up. That’s it. That was the research to reality event. Great to see psychedelic event to Toronto. Great to see it in person. Awesome to chat and connect with some friends that I’ve only met virtually before. That’s always a wonderful thing. And then lastly, I will touch in on another thing.
Toronto psychedelic community. This this this Saturday, June 4th. Hopefully we got some good weather. They’re hosting an event. It’s a picnic at Centennial Park and I believe in a tobico sort of Mississauga, yeah?
And that was nice. They reached out to me personally just because I had have, you know, one of the creators of the psychedelic meet up in London ON. So I shared this in the in the meet up in Toronto, in in our group and hopefully get some people from London actually make the trip down. But it was nice to see some sponsors, maps Canada, Faisel, a bunch of mapping the Mind, psychedelic association, Mikey and cyclic psychotherapy, Research Center, all supporting this event. I’m personally I’m very excited for this. I think you put a bunch of psychedelic people in. Who are, you know?
Focused on this work, doing awesome stuff. Put them in a park in the afternoon and hopefully some good weather then. I think that’s a recipe for a lot of fun and they’ve got live music. They’ve got lunch. Great way to meet some people. They’ve got some breathwork sessions. There’s going to be a little bit of.
I think sort of like sponsors where they can host their table and great way to connect. And you know, I hope it to me at that. It might start out fun a little bit. Not professional, but more of that more not again, not rigid. These are all very open people and then I’m guessing as the afternoon progresses it might might to turn into a little bit more fun slide, even maybe a rave. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens, but if you’re in Toronto, if you’re in the Tobico Mississauga area and you’re looking for an event on June 4th on Saturday.
Where it should be a ton of fun. A lot of good people. There’s some food I really do recommend checking this out if you’re interested in academics, I think this would be one of the best and easiest ways to get connected. Make it very natural and easy, and then some. Meet some people who are contributing in all different ways. So my partner and I are going and looking forward to this a lot. Praying for some some good weather and even if there’s not good weather, we’ll figure it out. We’ll still have some fun, and if you’re going let me know. Look forward to connecting with you there and you know if there’s anything else I can do to sort of help.
Promote this or contribute please please let me know so that’s it to kick off the week. It should be a good one. Lots of more. I think tactical things this week and some updates that I’ll be sharing, but this one I just wanted to get out of the way and you know, sort of reflect on one thing, but then also look forward on another and as more events come out, I do hope to share them through these videos so that the awareness is there and maybe give some people to be able to attend something that they didn’t even know was there. So I’ll share these links. If you have any thoughts, always feel encouraged to send me message and I hope you have a great week.
The great rest of the day. Thank you so much for checking this out. This has been Tyler Braden so the daily stand up so I appreciate you joining bye bye.
