On October 25th, Dr. Max Jones and Dr. Gale Bozzo, both professors from UG's Ontario Agricultural College (Department of Plant Agriculture), received a Health Canada “dealer's license”.
The license permits the legal cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms and makes UG one of the first universities in Canada with this ability.
"This approval is a big deal for us," Jones said. "It will allow us to study these psychedelic mushrooms in more depth, understand their biology and genetics better, see what other useful compounds they contain, and provide well-characterized material for preclinical and potentially clinical evaluation." This isn't the first time he's received a license to study a drug though – back in November 2018 he was approved to study cannabis too.
More than 200 species of mushrooms can produce psilocybin, as stated by Jones. He also went on to say that these species aren't closely related, which has led scientists to question what else these mushrooms might be able to produce. If there are that many mushroom species impacting the human brain in some way, it's likely they're each producing other compounds with interesting effects as well.
Dr. Melissa Perreault, Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Ontario Veterinary College, and other researchers are exploring psilocybin therapy as a possible treatment for conditions such as depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Perreault, it is not only the psilocybin in magic mushrooms that They are interested in studying for its potential biological activity, but also other compounds that could have therapeutic value when used alone or combined with psilcyobin.
Perreault plans to study how psilocybin might affect molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with medical conditions such as depression or autism spectrum disorders. “We would then bring them into some of the models I work with, such as those used to study specific aspects of depression or autism, to examine their therapeutic effects,” Perreault said.
To sum up, Jones stated that he thinks wider availability to mushrooms will permit more examinations to be performed. "There is an earnest need for a public stockpile of these mushrooms," Jones said. Our goal is to generate a supply of mushrooms to be utilized for laboratory and maybe even clinical trials in which the breeding and cultivation strategies will be entirely disclosedto scholars and the general public."
According to the press release, the researchers are hoping to develop a synthetic mushroom-growing method that can be easily reproduced. Typically, mushrooms are grown on grains or manure.
Back in January, an organization put forward evidence of therapeutic benefits to using psilocybin mushrooms and stated its goal of rescheduling the substance under the United Nations 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances Act.
A study published in JAMA Psychiatry showed how psilocybin has the potential to treat alcohol addiction and Obesity.
Last week, Johns Hopkins University announced a study that will examine how psilocybin can assist individuals in quitting smoking. The substance has even been an inspiration for numerous high-profile musicians, such as Björk, Ellie Goulding, Kid Cudi, and Lil Nas X.
By December 2022, Oregon will have completed its process to set psilocybin regulations, while a few other states ballot in November including measures for permitting psilocybin.