Grant: Project Grant

Accessibility to psilocybin products in Canada is increasing, including due to rapidly changing illicit and licit drug market conditions. At this juncture, there are uncertainties about how evolving market conditions are impacting the patterns, contexts and motivations of psilocybin use among adolescents and young adults ages 15-24. For example, while a large body of clinical evidence indicates that psilocybin can have both positive and negative effects on mental health and illness, far less is known about how psilocybin features in the lives and mental health-related experiences of youth. Given the increasing and widespread availability of psilocybin within Canada, the proposed study features two urban settings (Vancouver and Montréal) with an overarching research question: How does psilocybin use feature in the mental health and illness experiences of youth ages 15-24 years in the context of increasingly accessible psilocybin drug markets? The objectives of this three-year study are to: 1.Document motivations and patterns of psilocybin use among a sample of youth and gather their perspectives on psilocybin use and associated mental health-related experiences. 2.Describe evolving contextual and population-specific factors that shape psilocybin use among youth and their associated mental health experiences. 3.Draw on participatory approaches to examine how information resources, public policy and health care delivery strategies can be optimized to meet the mental health needs of youth who use psilocybin.