An official with Health Canada is working to schedule a meeting in June with MAPS-sponsored researcher and Principle Investigator Ingrid Pacey M.D., to discuss the remaining issues in the authorization process for our MDMA/PTSD study. Frustratingly, our research project in Vancouver, with co-therapists Pacey and Andrew Feldmar, M.A., has been on hold since March 2009, when Dr. Pacey filed for her authorization to administer the MDMA. We had been under the impression that our application to import the MDMA for the study was ready to be approved since we had obtained approval of the protocol from a Canadian Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Health Canada. However, Dr. Pacey heard nothing for many months and then, in November 2009, was informed that before she could be authorized to administer the MDMA and before we could apply for a permit to import MDMA, we needed to obtain affiliation with a Canadian institution. In February 2010, Dr. Pacey obtained institutional affiliation, and in March 2010, she notified Health Canada of this affiliation, again hearing nothing for several months. We are hoping this upcoming meeting with Health Canada will clearly outline the remaining steps we must take before the MDMA can be imported and the study can begin. While it has been discouraging to have waited over a year since the protocol itself was fully approved, we are hopeful that Health Canada will move forward with our effort to start the first psychedelic research project in Canada in over 35 years.
