Bill C-286 Food and Controlled Drugs

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C-286 An Act to Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Food and Drugs Act

Short Title: An Act to Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Food and Drugs Act

Bill Type: Private Member’s Bill

Bill Sponsor: Corey Tochor (Saskatoon—University)

Status: Outside the Order of Precedence — Introduced June 16, 2026. This Bill has not passed yet.

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What is this Bill For?

Bill C-286 does two things.

First, it moves psilocin and psilocybin — the active compounds in psychedelic mushrooms — out of the restricted drug category and into the narcotic category under the Narcotic Control Regulations.

That change allows doctors, nurse practitioners, midwives and podiatrists to prescribe them for medical treatment under existing rules, without requiring a special exemption each time.

Second, it creates an automatic approval mechanism for priority review requests. When a drug company or researcher submits a request for priority review of a new drug submission involving psilocin, psilocybin or any chemically similar substance, that request is automatically deemed granted the moment the Department receives it — without any review, assessment or decision by Health Canada.

The Bill states its purpose is to improve access "without circumventing existing approval processes."

Section 15.1 automatically deems priority review requests granted on receipt — removing Health Canada's ability to assess or reject them, effectively circumventing the existing approval processes.

WHO GAINS POWER

  • Licensed prescribers — doctors, nurse practitioners, midwives and podiatrists — gain the authority to prescribe psilocin and psilocybin for medical treatment under existing narcotic regulations without seeking individual exemptions
  • Drug companies and researchers gain automatic priority review status for psilocybin-related new drug submissions — removing Health Canada's discretion to assess whether priority review is warranted

WHO LOSES POWER

  • Health Canada loses the authority to evaluate whether a priority review request for psilocybin-related drugs actually meets the criteria for priority status — approval becomes automatic by law
  • "Substantially similar" is undefined — The automatic approval applies not just to psilocin and psilocybin but to any substance with a "chemical structure substantially similar" to either. Health Canada loses discretion over an open-ended category of substances that Parliament has not defined

WHO GAINS MONEY

  • Pharmaceutical companies developing psilocybin-based treatments gain a faster regulatory pathway — automatic priority review accelerates the timeline to market
  • Patients currently paying out of pocket for unregulated psychedelic-assisted therapy may gain access to a regulated, prescribable alternative
  • Researchers and clinical trial operators gain reduced regulatory friction for psilocybin drug submissions

WHO LOSES MONEY

  • Health Canada absorbs the cost of processing automatically approved priority reviews regardless of merit — no cost estimate is provided in the Bill
  • Competing drug companies whose submissions go through standard review may face a disadvantage if psilocybin-adjacent submissions automatically jump the queue

THE CATCH

⚠️ Automatic approval removes expert judgment — Priority review status is currently granted based on whether a drug addresses a serious condition with no adequate existing therapy. This Bill makes approval automatic for psilocybin submissions regardless of whether those criteria are met. Health Canada cannot say no.

⚠️ "Substantially similar" is undefined — The automatic priority review applies to any substance chemically similar to psilocin or psilocybin. That boundary is not defined in the Bill and is not left to Health Canada to determine — it is deemed approved automatically. Parliament is creating an open category with no defined edges.

⚠️Pharmaceutical analog risk— The automatic priority review applies to any substance "substantially similar" in chemical structure to psilocybin. A company could engineer a novel synthetic analog, submit a priority review request and receive automatic fast-track approval before Health Canada can assess whether the substance has ever been clinically evaluated. The Bill provides no mechanism to pause, assess or reject that request.

⚠️ Podiatrists can prescribe psychedelics — The Bill includes podiatrists in the list of practitioners who may prescribe psilocin and psilocybin. Podiatrists treat feet. The inclusion is a function of how the Narcotic Control Regulations define practitioners — but it is not explained or justified in the Bill.

⚠️ Purpose clause vs. Bill text conflict — The stated purpose of the Bill is to improve access "without circumventing existing approval processes." The automatic deemed-approval mechanism in Section 15.1 does exactly that — it removes the approval process entirely for priority review requests. The purpose clause and the operative text are in direct conflict.

⚠️ Outside the Order of Precedence — This Bill is unlikely to be debated unless drawn in the Private Members' Bill lottery.

Source: Bill C-286 — House of Commons of Canada