Airdrie cancer patient first Albertan to undergo legal magic mushroom therapy

Tony White called his therapy session powered by magic mushrooms “a good trip.”

The New Year’s Day session at a southeast Calgary home is also the first such federally sanctioned intervention with the still-illicit active ingredient — psilocybin — in Alberta, said the therapy facilitator.

But for White, who’s battling terminal bladder cancer, and his wife, Rebecca, that dose of magic mushrooms sweetened with chocolate chiefly represents an abrupt lightening of a physical and emotional burden.

“I was in a dark place, I’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer at the beginning of COVID-19, I’m tired, I’m upset and I’m tired of being isolated,” said the 46-year-old Airdrie man, who’s been undergoing immuno and radiation therapy.