An estimated 3,000 people are now on a waitlist for Oregon’s first legal and operating psilocybin service center. EPIC Healing Eugene opened in June but is one of many psilocybin service centers that are still working on beginning operation.

“Our services focus on deep healing work, mindfulness, empowerment, spirituality, and transformation through psilocybin facilitation and integration,” EPIC Healing Eugene states on its website. “We teach self-help strategies that support self-directed personal development and brain change. We help you prepare for a healing shift that will help you get the most out of your experiential journeys. Our skilled and supportive staff offer preparation sessions, followed by integration sessions to help you better recognize and incorporate the gems of insight from your psychedelic experiences into your daily life.”

While patients don’t need a prescription or referral in order to take advantage of EPIC Healing Eugene’s services, their insurance also won’t cover such an experience. AP News stated that the price to try this new experience can exceed more than $2,000, which covers the business cost of the service center, as well as facilitators who assist participants through their experience, and lab-tested psilocybin. However, group pricing reduces the overall price.

According to Angela Allbee, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager, patients appear to be enjoying their experiences since EPIC opened. “So far, what we’re hearing is that clients have had positive experiences,” she told AP News. Allbee also mentioned that they’ve received inquiries from across the world.

In November 2020, Oregon voters pass Measure 110 officially became the first state to decriminalize hard drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine, and also legalized the use of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic use. By December 2022, the state was training facilitators to care for participants experiencing their psilocybin journey.

It took until May 2023 to approve the first license, which belonged to EPIC Healing Eugene. “We want to congratulate Cathy Jonas of EPIC Healing Eugene on being the first licensed service center in the state,” Allbee said at the time. “This is such a historic moment as psilocybin services will soon become available in Oregon, and we appreciate the strong commitment to client safety and access as service center doors prepare to open.”

As of September, there are 10 licensed service centers (a few of which are not yet operational), four growers, two testing laboratories, and “dozens of facilitators,” according to AP News. 

EPIC Healing Eugene states on its website that it specifically offers macrodosing, ranging between 10 mg to 35 mg (although the state allows these service centers to offer up to 50 mg). However, the service center hopes to include microdosing in the future. Once it has been verified if participants are ready for such an experience, they must undergo two one-hour sessions (or one two-hour session) for preparation. A single psilocybin administration session takes approximately six hours. Once the session has completed, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) requires that all forms and documentation be kept for five years. 

According to EPIC Healing Eugene owner Cathy Jonas, she’s not expecting to turn a profit anytime soon. Instead, it’s more of a calling to help others. “The plant medicines have communicated to me that I’m supposed to be doing this thing,” she told AP News. 

One of Jonas’ first clients took a 35 mg dose, which they described as “… kind of infinite-dimension fractal that just kept turning and twisting.” “It was kind of mesmerizing to watch, but it got so intense,” explained the unnamed individual. “I started to have this experience of dying and being reborn. And then I would kind of see large portions of my life going by in a very rapid way.”

Additionally, another psilocybin service center called Omnia Group Ashland opened in September in southern Oregon as well. So far, it has approximately 150 people on its waitlist. Another center in Bend, Oregon, called Lucid Cradle, is already booked through December 2023, but plans to serve one client per week.

Mushroom cultivation differs quite a bit from cannabis cultivation. One of Oregon’s licensed mushroom growers, Gared Hansen of Uptown Fungus, is the sole person cultivating psilocybin for his business. He grows mushroom varieties such as Golden Teacher, Blue Meanies, and Pink Buffalo, with an average cost of $125 for a 25 mg dose.

Hansen emphasizes the importance of purchasing mushrooms for legal sources, because mushrooms often look similar, and some may be an incorrect and poisonous variety to the untrained eye. “Sometimes part of the healing could be a negative experience someone has to go through, to kind of flush negative emotions out or reexperience some trauma in a healthier way,” said Hansen. “I’d hate to have someone that’s never tried it before take it home, have a bad trip and hurt themselves.”

According to a recent report from Willamette Weekly, Oregon Psilocybin Services have not yet yielded a groundbreaking amount of money from fees, noting that it currently costs more to run the program. “Backers of Measure 109 said the program would cost far more—$3.1 million a year—to run,” the outlet stated. “To fill at least part of that gap, Oregon lawmakers appropriated $3.1 million from the taxpayer-supported general fund for the two-year period that started July 1. OHA is betting that shroom fee revenue will pick up as the biennium proceeds, making up the rest of the shortfall,”

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The ancient use of mushrooms to improve physical and mental well-being is coming back full-swing. On Monday, Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. unveiled Mindful, a functional Amanita mushroom-based product line that is now available at multiple retailers. 

British Columbia, Canada-based Lucy Scientific Discovery is a psychedelics manufacturing company focused primarily on emerging psychotropics-based medicines, the latest being its new microdose product line. 

Mindful by Lucy is designed to enhance well-being and promote a mindful approach through the power of microdoses. Each capsule is carefully crafted, incorporating quality natural ingredients. Mindful by Lucy comes in jars of 60 capsules containing a microdose of Amanita muscaria-based compounds.

“We are thrilled that Mindful will be available to consumers, and are excited about the revenue potential,” said Chris McElvany, CEO of Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. “Our goal is to offer Mindful to consumers directly through our platform and a variety of 3rd party platforms and traditional retail channels. Mindful by Lucy is a testament to our dedication to providing exceptional quality and a mindful approach to wellness.”

A recent renewed interest in the potential improvements in cognitive function and memory with the help of mushrooms is sweeping the industry, using them as adaptogens. Dividing up doses into capsules makes it easier to titrate. Mindful by Lucy contains ingredients, some mushroom-based, including the following:

• Lion’s Mane Mushroom: Ignite cognitive function, memory, and nerve growth factor production.
• Reishi Mushroom: Adapt to stress and bolster well-being with adaptogenic properties.
• Cordyceps: Elevate energy levels and amplify physical performance.
• Bacopa Monnieri: Boost memory and learning with traditional Ayurvedic wisdom.
• Rhodiola Rosea: Combat stress, fatigue, and sharpen mental performance.
• Ginkgo Biloba: Enhance memory and focus through optimal brain circulation.

Mindful by Lucy can be purchased on the company’s online store and through Hightimes.com. High Times has an ownership stake in Lucy Scientific Discovery.

Lucy Scientific Discovery and Psychotropic Products

Lucy Scientific Discovery has explored a number of psychotropic substances including controlled substances. How is this possible? The company holds a Controlled Drugs and Substances Dealer’s License granted by Health Canada’s Office of Controlled Substances. Lucy Scientific Discovery and its subsidiary, LSDI Manufacturing Inc., operate under Part J of the Food and Drug Regulations promulgated under the Food and Drugs Act in Canada. This specialized license enables the company to develop, sell, deliver, and manufacture pharmaceutical-grade active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in controlled substances as well as their raw material precursors. 

The Amanita muscaria mushroom has been used medicinally for hundreds of years, and it is not a controlled substance in the U.S. Proponents of Amanita microdosing believe that it can improve creativity, focus, productivity, anxiety and overall well-being. 

The company is exploring other types of fungi as well, including mind-altering varieties that are commonly known. Work at Lucy is underway to develop psilocybin mushroom-based products which are believed to be invaluable in psychotherapy. Lucy Scientific Discovery announced a partnership with TheraPsil to advance medical psilocybin access and research.

Opportunities to discover these new products are approaching. Lucy Scientific Discovery also announced that it will be a sponsor at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Psychedelic Science Conference taking place June 19-25 in Denver, Colorado. 

The conference is expected to attract 10,000 attendees, and will feature five days of panels, workshops, and lectures from leaders in psychedelic research, education, policy, business, culture, and communities. It will also feature athletes such as Aaron Rodgers as well as musicians including Melissa Etheridge.

Lucy is a Nasdaq-listed (LSDI) licensed producer of compounds for medicinal products. Check out Lucy Scientific Discovery’s website to learn more about the company and its products.

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Flowers, dabs, and edibles to stay Cali Sober in 2023.

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The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) approved its final rules for the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act on Dec. 27. The Act was originally created through the passing of Ballot Measure 109 in November 2020, which was later codified into law as ORS 475A.

The OHA’s final rules were created through recommendations from the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board, the Rules Advisory Committee, and public comments. Initially the OHA released its first subset of rules in May 2022, and with the final rules now in place, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) will begin accepting applications for four license types starting on Jan. 2, 2023.

According to a letter co-written by André Ourso, Administrator of the Center for Health Protection, and Angie Allbee, Section Manager for OPS:

“OPS received over 200 written comments and six hours of comments shared in the public hearings during the November 2022 public comment period,” wrote Ourso and Allbee. “These comments helped to further refine and improve the rules, which have now been adopted as final. The final rules are a starting place for the nation’s first regulatory framework for psilocybin services, and we will continue to evaluate and evolve this work as we move into the future.”

These new rules include an option for microdosing with the hope that it will “increase access, equity, and affordability while ensuring public safety.” “The final rules on duration of administrative sessions have been revised to create a new tier for subperceptual doses. These doses are defined as products containing less than 2.5 mg of psilocybin analyte. After a client’s initial session, the minimum duration for a subperceptual dose of 2.5 mg of psilocybin analyte or less is 30 minutes.”

The OPS also established rules to create translated materials in English, Spanish, along with interpretation materials to best serve a wide variety of potential patients. The agency also created numerous rules to address confidentiality of client data, improvements to the application form, and certain limitations for applicants if they have recently had thoughts about causing harm to themselves, or are pregnant or breastfeeding.

As for fees, the OPS will offer less expensive options to those who qualify, with the opportunity to consider making the service more affordable in the future. “The final rules include reduced license fees for applicants who are veterans, receiving social security income, receiving food stamp benefits, or are enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan,” the OPS letter states. “Creating a more complicated tiered license fee structure is not feasible due to the work required to identify appropriate tiers and evaluate license applications and supporting documentation. This work would require more staff capacity, which would result in higher license fees overall.”

With applications opening in less than a week, the OPS letter signs off with a hopeful statement. “OPS will strive to support applicants in navigating license application requirements and will continue to provide technical assistance as we launch the nation’s first regulatory and licensing framework for psilocybin services,” the letter concludes.

Meanwhile in cannabis, end-of-year analysis discuss the past year’s oversupply issues. The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) released a forecast in December covering a wide variety of businesses in Oregon, including cannabis. “Now, this is great news for consumers who can enjoy widely available products at low prices,” OEA economists wrote about the cannabis industry. “This is bad news for firms trying to operate a profitable business. One challenge there is even as businesses do leave the market, to date there has always been another willing to step in and take their place.”

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The purported positive effects of microdosing psilocybin could be driven by the expectations of those taking the drug, according to the results of a recently published double-blind study conducted by researchers affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires.

The authors of the study, which was published last month by the journal Translational Psychiatry, note that microdosing psilocybin has gained popularity in recent years. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the practice, which entails taking small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, has several benefits. Those who microdose psilocybin often say that the drug can improve concentration, mood, creativity and cognitive function. However, there has been little scientific research conducted on the benefits of microdosing psilocybin or other psychedelic drugs.

“Ample anecdotal evidence suggests that microdosing can improve mood, well-being, creativity, and cognition, and recent uncontrolled, open-label observational studies have provided some empirical support for these claims,” the authors wrote. “While encouraging, these studies are vulnerable to experimental biases, including confirmation bias and placebo effects. This is especially problematic in the case of microdosing, since users make up a self-selected sample with optimistic expectations about the outcome of the practice.”

To conduct the study, researchers recruited 34 participants who already had plans to begin a psilocybin microdosing regimen using their own mushrooms. Study participants agreed to adapt their dose and schedule to the protocol designed by the researchers.

Participants were studied over a two-week period. During one week, they were given two half-gram doses of dried psilocybin mushrooms in a capsule. During the other week, participants were given a placebo of the same preparation and weight. The study was double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the researchers knew which dose contained psilocybin and which was the placebo.

Participants completed questionnaires in which they self-reported any acute effects they experienced with each dose, such as distortions in time or space, and completed psychological measures including anxiety, positive and negative affect, well-being and stress. They also completed several tasks to measure creativity, perception, and cognition and were given EEGs to measure their brain activity. Additionally, participants reported their expectations for how their mental state might change in various areas including positive emotion and anxiety.

Effects Higher Among Those Who Knew They Were Taking Shrooms

The results of the self-reported questionnaires revealed significantly higher acute effects from psilocybin compared to the placebo. However, the effect was only significant among participants who had correctly identified whether they were taking psilocybin or the placebo, suggesting that the subjective effects of the drug were influenced by their expectations.

Although the results of the EEG tests showed altered brain wave rhythms, the research did not find any positive effect of psilocybin on creativity, cognition or self-reported mental well-being. In fact, a trend identified in the data suggested that taking psilocybin may have hampered the participants’ performance on certain cognitive tasks. The authors noted the trend is consistent with previous research that found that high doses of serotonergic psychedelic drugs can hinder some cognitive functions such as attention and decision-making.

In their discussion of the research, the authors of the study noted that popular perceptions of the benefits of microdosing might be influencing the experiences of those who try a low-dose psilocybin regimen.

“The reported acute effects were significantly more intense for the active dose compared to the placebo, but only for participants who correctly identified their experimental condition,” they wrote.

Overall, the findings did not support the anecdotal evidence that microdosing psilocybin improves well-being, creativity, or cognitive function. The researchers identified several limitations of the study, however, including the short-term length of the two-week dosing regimen. They also noted that the study cohort was made up of healthy subjects and that microdosing might have the strongest effect on those with mental health issues. The authors recommended further research to determine if microdosing psilocybin has mental health benefits, including the effect a longer microdosing schedule may have on participants.

The study, “Microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms: a double-blind placebo-controlled study”, was published in July by the peer-reviewed journal Translational Psychiatry.

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A study published in Scientific Reports on June 30 has presented evidence that psilocybin mushrooms have a noticeable effect on the mood and mental health of participants.

The study, called “Psilocybin microdosers demonstrate greater observed improvements in mood and mental health at one month relative to non-microdosing controls,” analyzed 1,133 subjects between November 2019 to May 2021. Baseline assessment was conducted at the beginning of the study, and then again between 22-35 days later.

Researchers analyzed the results of psilocybin microdosing combined with either lion’s mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus, or abbreviated as HE) or niacin (vitamin-B3) to identify “small- to medium-sized improvements in mood and mental health that were generally consistent across gender, age and presence of mental health concerns … improvements in psychomotor performance that were specific to older adults.” The study refers to these combinations as “stacking.”

The study abstract notes that combining psilocybin with HE or B3 “did not impact changes in mood and mental health,” however, older participants did experience psychomotor improvements through either just psilocybin, or psilocybin and HE.

The research was written by numerous authors including Paul Stamets, as well as Joseph M. Rootman of University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology. According to an interview with Forbes, Rootman is certain that the work being conducted now will help lead to more revelations in the future. “This study is an extension of our earlier manuscript published in the same journal, and we have further publications in preparation that are based on this same study,” said Rootman. “Our team has also been working hard to develop the next version of the study which will be used to generate findings related to psychedelic microdosing for years to come.”

Rootman also clarified that the study did not require just one type of mushroom variety. Rather, researchers simply observed the patient’s recorded experiences, which ranged between low, medium, or high microdosed amounts of mushrooms (0.1 grams, 0.1-0.3 grams, or more than 0.3 grams, respectively). “We found that about 10% of our microdosing sample in this study reported high dosages, 72.6% reported medium dosages, and 16.8% reported low dosages,” Rootman added.

The study description shares the authors’ collective belief that this is one of the first studies of its kind, but requires more research in order to build up a foundation to showcase how psilocybin can benefit human participants. “Further research with control groups and large samples that allow for the examination of potential moderators such as mental health status, age, and gender are required to better appreciate the health consequences of this emerging phenomenon,” the authors concluded. “In the present study, we aim to extend this literature by examining prospective changes associated with microdosing psilocybin as compared to a non-microdosing control group on domains of mental health, mood, and cognitive and psychomotor functioning. To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective study to date of microdosing psilocybin, the first to distinguish between microdosing admixtures (i.e., stacking), and among the few prospective studies to systematically disaggregate analyses according to age and mental health concerns.”

Gradually, more evidence is being collected in studies such as this one. However it is not yet enough to convince those who oppose the use of medical psilocybin. At the end of June, Linn County, Oregon announced the approval of a voter’s initiative to ban psilocybin therapy and treatment centers (even though the rest of the state will embrace the voter-approved psilocybin therapy program that is slated to begin in 2023).

Earlier last month, a South Africa-based study found that psilocybin can help treat women with HIV and depression. Another study from April also discovered that psilocybin has potential as a treatment for depression. In May, activists from Right to Try organization recently protested outside of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s headquarters in Virginia to bring attention to patients who could use psilocybin to improve their quality of life.

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Edibles containing just 1 mg of THC can punch way above their weight and deliver amazing effects. Don’t listen to the haters.

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Microdosing is an effective way to introduce small amounts of cannabis into your lifestyle. Work from home is the perfect time to do it.

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