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PSYCHEDELIC TORONTO · PART 3

Ottawa comes to listen.

The alien sitting among wooden folding chairs in a wood-panelled 1969 hearing room, beside a long table with a chrome microphone and a water jug.

In the autumn of 1969, Canada’s federal drug inquiry came to Toronto. It heard from people at St. Lawrence Hall, at both universities, and in a Yorkville coffee house. This is what it heard, and what it found.

The commission

On 29 May 1969, on the recommendation of Health Minister John Munro, Ottawa appointed the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs. It became known by its chair’s name, Gerald Le Dain. The other members were Ian L. Campbell, Heinz E. Lehmann, J. Peter Stein and Marie-Andrée Bertrand.

An empty committee room with a long polished table, rows of chairs, a water carafe and tall windows with heavy curtains.
Ottawa appointed the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs on 29 May 1969. Illustration by Shroomverse, AI-generated.

The law at the time

Ottawa had controlled LSD’s medical and scientific use since 1963. In August 1969, a new category of “restricted drugs” was created, and possessing LSD without authorization became a criminal offence.

The Toronto hearings

  • 16–18 October 1969: St. Lawrence Hall
  • 16 October 1969: York University
  • 17 October 1969: the University of Toronto
  • 17 October 1969: the Penny Farthing Coffee House, Yorkville
  • 29 October 1970: a second round at St. Lawrence Market, afternoon and evening

Across Canada, the commission spent 46 days in public hearings and received 639 submissions. Toronto’s free university is in the record too: the report’s appendices list the “Rochdale Klinic (Toronto)” among Canada’s street clinics and a Rochdale College group, the Thirteenth Floor Cooperative, among those that presented submissions.

A small coffee house arranged for a public hearing: rows of wooden folding chairs facing a table with a desk microphone.
On 17 October 1969 the commission held a hearing at the Penny Farthing Coffee House in Yorkville. Illustration by Shroomverse, AI-generated.

Four reports

  • the Interim Report (1970)
  • Treatment (1972)
  • Cannabis (1972)
  • the Final Report, sent in December 1973
A closed bound report with a plain grey cover on an office desk beside a desk lamp and a fountain pen.
The Final Report was sent in December 1973. Illustration by Shroomverse, AI-generated.

What it found

  • Psilocybin was “not included in any Canadian schedules” in 1973. Magic mushrooms, the report said, had been eaten by “only a few exceptional experimenters” in Canada. Of 32 street samples sold as psilocybin, the drug was tentatively found in just one, and 15 were actually LSD.
  • LSD as therapy: despite “numerous impressive reports”, recent controlled studies had not shown that LSD added to the effectiveness of conventional psychotherapy.
  • A Toronto survey: the report cites a survey of Toronto high-school students in which 60% of LSD users reported flashbacks of some kind. We couldn’t open the underlying survey, so treat this as limited evidence.
  • Convictions across Canada for simple possession of LSD were 956 in 1970, 1,065 in 1971 and 830 in 1972.
  • What was really on the street: the commission reported Toronto’s Addiction Research Foundation analysis of street drugs collected in Ontario in 1969–70. None of 58 samples sold as mescaline contained mescaline; about half were LSD.
A brass laboratory balance with small paper envelopes and brass weights on a bench, glass flasks behind it, in daylight.
Of 32 street samples sold as psilocybin, the report says the drug was tentatively found in just one. Illustration by Shroomverse, AI-generated.

Afterwards

  • 1974: psilocybin and psilocin were added to Canada’s restricted drugs. Limited evidence: two secondary sources agree, but we couldn’t open the regulation itself.
  • 1982: in R. v. Dunn, a case from British Columbia, the Supreme Court of Canada held that knowingly possessing mushrooms containing psilocybin was unlawful.
  • 1997: the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act came into force, listing LSD, psilocin and psilocybin in Schedule III.
An empty courtroom with wooden benches, a raised judge’s bench and wood panelling lit by high windows.
In 1982, in R. v. Dunn, the Supreme Court of Canada held that knowingly possessing mushrooms containing psilocybin was unlawful. Illustration by Shroomverse, AI-generated.

Read the reports

The commission’s reports are on the Government of Canada’s publications site.

SOURCES

Walk it: the self-guided Psychedelic Toronto walking tour, with a route map and nine stops.

Keep reading.

This is a history page. It isn’t medical or legal advice. Last checked .