David Wood Email & Phone Number

Broadening regulated access to psychedelics is my top professional priority and my top personal priority outside of my family. I am grateful and fortunate to be in a position to focus my career on advancing this priority. Health Canada’s decisions to allow access to psilocybin through exemptions, expansion of the special access program to include restricted drugs, and diminished enforcement priority on simple possession of all controlled substance by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada – in the context of a federally-regulated adult use market for cannabis – are evidence of a maturation in Canadian policies around controlled substances. Participating in advancing this trend is a tremendous experience that I am thankful for every day.In my role as Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel to Psygen Industries Ltd., I am privileged to work as part of a team of effective and motivated professionals. Through Psygen’s contract manufacturing services and research, we are motivated to bring back LSD, advance understanding of the therapeutic possibilities presented by psychedelics and contribute to the global supply chain for these powerful compounds.In my role as principal of R-Group Legal, my solo legal practice, I work with a small number of operators in the cannabis industry and in the psychedelics space. I also support efforts by Therapsil and a handful of other non-profits on a pro-bono basis.My understanding of intellectual property, controlled substance regulations and drug product commercialization dovetails with my understanding of organic chemistry and biochemistry to bring significant value in work with psychedelics and cannabis. Twelve years of experience working at Canada’s largest national law firm, including four years of co-chairing a psychedelics and cannabis focus group, have provided me with the experience and perspective to provide high-impact and effective legal advice in this specialized and dynamic space alone or as part of a team alongside my clients’ other legal counsel.As a husband, father, member of the business community and tax-payer, I strongly support Canada’s regulation of cannabis rather than prohibition and am happy to see the continuing global arc of this social and economic shift. A similar rationale supports policy change and expanded access to psilocybin and other psychedelics as an alternative to prohibition. I am excited to play my role in expanding access to psychedelics, and helping regulated cannabis outpace the illicit market and grow into a fixture of the economy. We are on the right side of history.

Listed skills include Intellectual Property, Patent Prosecution, Patent Litigation, and Medical Cannabis Regulatory Law.