Kingston, Ont. psychedelic wellness company partners with St. Lawrence College on program

Research into drug use has come a long way since the ‘Just Say No’ campaigns of the 1980’s.

Now the focus is shifting to the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics treating mental illnesses like anxiety, depression and PTSD. St. Lawrence College in Kingston is looking to lead the way in the psychedelic wellness movement.

“Over 60 per cent of our academic programming relates to health and wellbeing,” says Dr. John Conrad, director of Innovation and Business Engagement at St. Lawrence College.

“So those students that are in those programs, these are new skills and new competencies that they’re going to need to have.”

The college is partnering with local psychedelic wellness company Neuma to launch a five-week course providing students with an understanding of the history, science, principles, and philosophy of psychedelics in therapeutic care.

Neuma cofounder Cory Firth says renewed interest in psychedelics is coming from the current mental health crisis.

“What we’re really trying to do with this program is to show people that they have more control over their mental health and they have tools,” Firth says. “Psychedelics are just a tool and a vehicle to sort of help them understand themselves better.”

The course will provide an interactive learning platform for live and self-guided content, lectures and hundreds of hours of additional resources.

They will also have the option to participate in two group psychedelic experiences using cannabis, which is currently the only legalized psychedelic — the benefits of which, Firth says, can be complex.

“There is something called the default mode network, which is sort of the frontal part of our brain in the frontal lobe, and that’s really where our identity is stored and where our ego is stored,” says Firth.

“So what psychedelics actually do is they help us to downregulate our default mode network and allow us to move into other parts of the brain and other parts of our body to understand things at a more truth level, in terms of what the emotions really mean.”

The program officially launches June 28th with the potential for it to expand into the future.