Two new exhibits recently opened up in Denver, Colorado exploring themes surrounding magic mushrooms and cannabis.

The first exhibit is “Mycolandia,” which opened at the Dateline Gallery in Denver, Colorado on June 7 and will remain open through June 23. “MYCOLANDIA celebrates Mycology in general exploring the evolution of edible fungi and its symbiotic relationship with humanity. In otherwords, It’s a show about mushrooms. ,” the gallery said on social media.

The show features works from 13 different artists, such as Noah Travis Phillips. According to an interview with Westword, Phillips explained his thought process behind the theme. “I definitely thought of the diverse array of mushrooms,” Phillips said. “All the ways fungus and mushrooms exist in the world, the different ways that humans interface with them—whether as food, or an intoxicating substance, or all of the bio remediation people are doing with mushrooms.”

Attendees can view Phillips’ unique Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) AI images that he developed to represent mushrooms’ inherent psychedelic properties. “It’s much more colorful. They’re all rainbowy. They’re kind of melting. They’re kind of bulbous,” said Phillips. “I think they suggest interesting things about mushroom root networks—those mycorrhizae. Some of them look like they have spores drifting from them.”

He added that he’s been an artist for 25 years, and has spent about six years working with GAN. “My relationship to the GANs is like a poetic visual synthesizer for producing improvisatory material to collage with,” he explains. “I’m engaging in a dialogue with that kind of cutting edge of technology and seeing what its creative potential is.”

Phillips also cut out 45 images which are situated close to the floor, which forces viewers to look downward. “To me, setting them up that way makes it more reminiscent of mushroom foraging, or mushroom hunting, where people have to get low to go find them,” Phillips explained.

The second exhibit is inspired by the “Science-Informed Art Model,” called “Grow Up,” also debuted on June 7 and will stay open through July 7. The art show “empowers young student classes from various Denver institutions to explore the effects of high-concentration cannabis through their own creative lens,” according to a press release. Teachers were chosen from four middle and high schools in Colorado, who then attended workshops presented by scientists and researchers at the University of Colorado School of Public Health. Then those teachers developed workshops for their students who created their own art inspired by “high-concentration cannabis.”

The result is a varied selection of abstract art where students transformed scientific data into their own concepts. “The beautiful part about bringing science and art together is [figuring out] how we interpret information and communicate it with a community in ways that are much more relatable or understandable, or challenge people to question what they’re observing,” said PlatteForum Program Director Alejandra Calvo.

Shaunie Berry, the curator for “Grow Up,” explained that this exhibit was an opportunity to promote healthy decision making. We really created a space in which they could be open and vulnerable,” said Berry. “We were just giving them a lot of information about the mental health aspect of it because they are young and their brains aren’t fully formed yet; their decision-making skills aren’t completely formed yet.”

Both Calvo and Berry worked together to help students better comprehend cannabis and its effects from an artistic point of view. “I think kids just are naturally more creative,” said Berry. “The older you get, it becomes a little more stifled. And you have to pull more strings to get them to do it.”

Meanwhile the state’s cannabis industry is making new discoveries about its products. A recent study released in March shows that 70% of THC potency levels on cannabis products in Colorado are at least 15% higher than lab tests show. “Among the 23 flower samples analyzed, 18 displayed lower THC levels than reported—with 16 falling below 15% of the stated value, 13 falling below 30% of the reported THC and three samples falling below half of the reported THC,” said a report written by University of Colorado Boulder professor Anna Schwabe. “THC levels averaged 9.75% back in 2009, based on testing of DEA-seized cannabis flower. Today, levels reportedly surpass 35%, though they’re not as common as consumers have been led to believe,” Schwabe continued.

The Colorado cannabis industry is saturated with cannabis products and has seen a steady decline in sales recently. According to a report from Politico, Colorado cannabis sales reached a peak of $2.2 billion in 2020. Since legalization began in 2014, the state has generated more than $15 billion in total sales as well. However, data from 2022 shows that the state’s cannabis revenue decreased significantly ($1.7 billion), which also continued into 2023 ($1.5 billion).

Recent legislation in Colorado has targeted positive praise of drugs on social media. While the Senate approved the bill in April, SB24-158 was sent to the House in May and has not received any further discussion. If passed, it would prevent language on social media that pertains to any black market or illicit drugs, although cannabis would technically be a safe topic if mentioned in a legal capacity.

The post Two Exhibits in Colorado Feature Art Inspired by Mushrooms, Cannabis first appeared on High Times.

The post Two Exhibits in Colorado Feature Art Inspired by Mushrooms, Cannabis appeared first on Paradise Found.

A new study based on data collected by law enforcement agencies suggests the availability of illicit psilocybin mushrooms in the U.S. has risen significantly compared to prior years. This uptick in psilocybin seizures suggests that the mushrooms are now easier to find on the street.

Researchers at New York University (NYU) uncovered a rapidly growing trend suggesting more Americans have access to psilocybin mushrooms, as the list of potential medical benefits grows. Published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the study analyzed 4,526 psilocybin seizure reports from 2017 to 2022, and categorized the annual number of confiscations and weight of seized shrooms per state. The study shows that law enforcement seizures of psilocybin mushrooms in the U.S. skyrocketed from 402 seizures in 2017 to 1,396 in 2022. The total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized also increased by 2,749%, from 226 kilograms (498 pounds) in 2017 to 844 kilograms (1,860 pounds) in 2022.

Drug seizures by law enforcement are also what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration uses to determine drug availability. The researchers noted that this data does not paint a clear picture of the exact amount of psilocybin in America, given all of the people who elude the police or go undetected.

Confiscations of psilocybin are up in nearly every region of the country that was analyzed. Researchers found “significant increases” of psilocybin seizures in all four regions—the Northeast, West, South, and Midwest regions of the U.S., and shrooms are particularly growing in popularity on the West Coast.

“We found that the number of shroom seizures and the total weight of shrooms seized annually increased through 2022, and the greatest weight of shrooms seized was in the West,” Joseph J. Palamar told High Times in an email.

Palamar, a co-author of the study, is an associate professor at the Department of Population Health at NYU’s Langone Health in Manhattan. He explained that law enforcement data helps to explain how prevalent psilocybin is, but does not show the entire picture. It was impossible for the researchers, for instance, to determine if the shrooms were wet or dry, as police typically don’t make the distinction.

“We don’t treat drug seizures as an indicator of use but rather more of an indicator of availability,” Palamar said. “This might seem a bit counterintuitive at first because seizures literally remove drugs from the market, but we believe seizures only represent a small sample of drugs available. We believe the increase in shroom seizures indicates an increase in availability.  Seizures are far from being a perfect indicator of availability but it’s still an important focus.”

Self-reported data on psychedelic use is very limited, but earlier research indicates that psilocybin is the most consumed plant-based psychedelic in the U.S. (This of course excludes cannabis, which some consider to be a mild psychedelic.)

The prevalence of psilocybin use probably comes in waves, he said, with waves taking place in the 1960s and so on. This time around, psilocybin research is focusing on its potential medical benefits more than its harms, representing a sea change in the way psychedelic mushrooms are perceived.

Starting with Denver, Colorado in 2019, numerous cities and the District of Columbia decriminalized psilocybin. At the state level, Oregon voters decriminalized psilocybin in 2020, followed by the entire state of Colorado two years later.

Ketamine is another psychedelic that has recently risen in popularity in therapeutic settings, Palomar said. While it was restricted to Schedule III in 1999, a nasal spray was approved by the FDA in 2019, and now clinics in many states provide it.

“All drug trends seem to come in waves, and it’s unknown whether this recent increase is being driven by positive media coverage of psilocybin research, but I strongly believe it’s a factor,” he said. “I anticipate a similar situation with respect to ketamine.”

“Recent increases in use of hallucinogens, more broadly, may be associated with increased coverage of their perceived therapeutic benefits, based on a recent increase in clinical trials testing psilocybin, specifically, in treating psychiatric conditions,” researchers wrote. “Major trials suggest psilocybin’s efficacy in treating conditions such as major depressive disorder in particular, but also in treating conditions such as anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorder.”

The researchers in this study said that recreational users frequently take too much, causing dysphoria. Generally speaking, 3.5 grams of psilocybin is considered a large dose, and 5 or more grams is considered a heroic dose. Powerful, profound, and confusing effects can arise even when people consume even just a few grams. However researchers like Matthew W. Johnson, a professor of Psychedelics and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins, suggested that heroic doses are needed for certain conditions.

This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

The post Psilocybin Surge first appeared on High Times.

The post Psilocybin Surge appeared first on Paradise Found.

Massachusetts legislators held a joint legislative committee hearing last week to consider an initiative to legalize the therapeutic use of natural psychedelics. At the hearing, lawmakers heard from both supporters and opponents of the proposal, which can be approved by the legislature or referred to voters to decide the issue this November.

The proposed ballot measure is supported by Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO). The group is affiliated with New Approach, a political action committee that supported successful bids to legalize psychedelics in Oregon and Colorado. If passed, the proposed ballot measure would legalize “naturally occurring” psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote (mescaline), and ibogaine for consumption in “therapeutic settings through a regulated and taxed system.”

MMHO has already submitted nearly 100,000 signatures on petitions to support the ballot measure, sending it to the state legislature for consideration. If lawmakers do not approve the measure by May 1, supporters will be given until July 3 to collect an additional 12,429 valid signatures. If the signature drive is successful, the initiative will be placed on the ballot for the November general election.

Advocates Speak in Favor of Psychedelics Proposal

On March 26, the Massachusetts state legislature’s Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions held a hearing on the psychedelics therapy legalization ballot measure (Bill H.255). Emily Oneschuk, a military veteran and MMHO’s grassroots campaign director, told lawmakers about the mental health challenges she faced while serving in the U.S. Navy, including sexual assault, bullying and sexual harassment. After Oneschuk left the Navy, she took psilocybin at a retreat in Jamaica, where the psychedelic compound is legal.

“The whole of my psychedelic experience and the community associated with it has profoundly improved my quality of life,” Oneschuk told the committee, according to a report from the Commonwealth Beacon. “It brought me exactly where I needed to be to become a healthier and happier person.”

Dr. Franklin King, the director of training and education at the Mass General Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, researches the effects of psychedelics. He told the joint committee that there is substantial evidence showing that psychedelics have therapeutic value for mental health conditions. He also noted that studies have repeatedly shown that the drugs can be taken by patients safely and effectively.

“The current legal status of psychedelics as dangerous drugs…is egregiously incorrect,” said King. “[For this] class of psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, the medical risks are extremely minimal and potential for abuse is close to zero. Millions of patients who need access to the benefits of psychedelics likely do not require the strict controls of the medical model.”

Franklin continued by saying that the current prohibition of psychedelics is hindering research and denying people with mental health challenges an alternative to less effective drugs.

“The criminalization of psychedelics not only impedes scientific progress, but also denies individuals access to potentially life changing treatments,” King told lawmakers, according to a report from New England Public Media. “We must adopt a more rational approach, one that prioritizes evidence based policies over outdated stigmas and prohibitions.”

Massachusetts Psychiatrists Urge Caution

Not everyone at the hearing, however, was there to support the psychedelics therapy legalization proposal. Dr. Jerrold Rosenbaum, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told lawmakers “We really don’t know what are the potential harms.”

Rosenbaum agreed with testimony from supporters about the potential benefits of psychedelics. But he also warned about the potential for people to misuse the powerful compounds.

“Psychedelics are not something people can use casually at full doses,” he said in testimony cited by Boston’s NBC News affiliate. “They really require being in a safe place with support for most people.”

The psychiatrist acknowledged similarities between the campaign to legalize marijuana, which succeeded in Massachusetts in 2016 with the passage of a ballot measure that received more than 63% of the vote. But he added that reforming policy governing psychedelic drugs should be approached with more caution.

“The psychedelics are used very intermittently, not continually the way marijuana can be. The effects are much more profound,” he said.

Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center and the incoming president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, also testified before the committee. He told lawmakers that there has not been enough research on the public health outcomes of legalizing psychedelics.

Democratic Senator Paul Feeney, a member of the legislative committee, noted that psychedelics are already being used recreationally by many people and asked Ghaemi if it would be better if lawmakers adopted regulations governing their use. The witness agreed, but only if the ballot measure is approved in November. Otherwise, he said the legislature should wait until additional research has been completed.

The joint committee will now review the testimony given at the hearing before voting on whether to advance the proposal.

The post Massachusetts Lawmakers Consider Psychedelics Therapy Legalization Bill appeared first on High Times.

The post Massachusetts Lawmakers Consider Psychedelics Therapy Legalization Bill appeared first on Paradise Found.

A new technique has arrived that measures the potency of psilocybin and psilocin, great news for those medicated by mushrooms. 

Credit goes to teams at the University of Texas at Arlington, Scottsdale Research Institute in Phoenix, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments in Maryland, and Millipore-Sigma in Round Rock, Texas. They comprise the brilliant minds behind the method for quantifying the potency of psilocybin and psilocin in magic mushrooms, known in the medical and scientific community as Psilocybe Cubensis. “These legislative changes are expected to facilitate further research and potential clinical applications,” stated Kevin Schug, the Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Psilocybin is not a psychoactive compound. Psilocin, however, has a strong relationship to our 5-HT receptors, which are responsible for the infamous psychoactive effects. 

Schug and the team’s discovery was originally published in a recent issue of Analytica Chimica Acta, breaking down the experimentation and final results. It took ten authors to explain the results, including Sabrina Islam, Sue Sisly, and Arun Babu Kumar, among other significant team members behind the breakthrough in testing.

Here’s how they did it: utilizing liquid chromatography (LC) with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), they extracted and measured the potency of the mushrooms. For those without a scientific background in the audience, liquid chromatography separates molecules. As for tandem mass spectrometry, it dissects ions into fragments and reveals the chemical structure.

By combining these two techniques, the researchers studied five strains of dried, intact mushrooms: Blue Meanie, Creeper, B-Plus, Texas Yellow, and Thai Cubensis. (Familiar names to mushroom aficionados, no doubt.) The study found that the average total concentrations of psilocybin and psilocin for the Creeper, Blue Meanie, B+, Texas Yellow, and Thai Cubensis strains were 1.36, 1.221, 1.134, 1.103, and 0.879%. The entire process is surprisingly described as “relatively low-cost,” which inspires hope for present and future clinics and patients.

The revelatory results were cross-referenced in two separate labs, including a non-affiliated lab, to confirm accuracy. “As medical professionals identify more safe and effective treatments using mushrooms, it will be important to ensure product safety, identify regulatory benchmarks, and determine appropriate dosing,” Schug added about the discovery. “Established and reliable analytical methods like the one we describe will be essential to these efforts to use mushrooms in clinical settings.”

Now, time for a bit (or A LOT) of history.

Mushrooms grow in mundane substrates such as dung, mosses, soil, and wood. They can flourish in various conditions. Consider it a part of their magic. Among the hundreds of species in the Psilocybe genus, the popular kid is P. Cubensis. Growing kits for P. Cubensis are commercially available, even if they are sadly illegal in many states.

At their best, Psilocybe Cubensis and other magical mushrooms can induce perceptual distortions, mood alterations, mystical experiences, and euphoria. Under the right circumstances and perhaps with the right group of people, they not only provide a good time but an enlightening one that makes you and the world around you glow (aka a “serotonergic psychedelic”). For thousands of years, they’ve been ingested and appreciated, all the way back to indigenous tribes and civilizations. Of course, to this day, magical mushrooms are ingested in ceremonies for religious and spiritual purposes. Or, in most cases, just to have a damn good, mind-expanding time. 

In 1970, Uncle Sam attempted to kill the party and curb the mushroom fun, as well as the mushroom healing. The anti-hippie President Richard Nixon and his famously corrupt administration passed the Controlled Substances Act. Nixon, a devilish general of sorts in the war on drugs, made the possession of psilocybin and psilocin illegal. Mushrooms were classified as Schedule 1 substances. In the Act’s own, outdated words, a Schedule 1 drug is essentially one with “no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse.”

Due to government restrictions, research on shrooms slowed down significantly. Not much support was ever there for it; researching Schedule 1 drugs in the United States necessitates registration and licensure by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Not an easy task, basically. It was a topic of importance that went undiscussed in the ‘70s, but eventually, the truth came into the light: mushrooms are viable medical treatments. 

The beautiful drug’s legal status continues to evolve, albeit at a slower than desired pace. Oregon – which was the first state to decriminalize cannabis in 1973 – became the first U.S. state to legalize the federally illegal psilocybin-assisted therapy. Since then, Colorado has also decriminalized the possession of magic mushrooms. As a result, more research and potential clinical applications have been pursued and produced groundbreaking developments, such as the new technique to measure potency, that will continue to improve and even save lives, thanks to all the advocates and researchers involved. 

The post Researchers Find New Way To Measure Potency of Mushrooms appeared first on High Times.

The post Researchers Find New Way To Measure Potency of Mushrooms appeared first on Paradise Found.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a 34-year-old nonprofit research and educational organization “that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana,” announced in a press release on Monday that it “has partnered with the City and County of Denver to provide comprehensive training on psychedelic crisis assessment and intervention to the city’s first responders.” 

The Psychedelic Crisis Assessment and Intervention training was “commissioned by the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel (DPMPRP), a first-of-its-kind panel that was formed after the passage of Ordinance 301 in May 2019, which effectively decriminalized the personal use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms in Denver,” MAPS said in a statement. 

Per the press release, the training will cover topics including: “The history, usage, psychological and physiological response, and potential adverse effects of psilocybin ingestion”; “The legal considerations and implications of decriminalization and the role of first responders”; “The standards and protocols for effective psilocybin or psychedelic-related crisis response planning, training, and deployment”; and “The best practices and techniques for assessing, de-escalating, and managing psychedelic crises.”

According to the local publication Westworld,  the training program “became even more important in 2022, when Colorado became the second state (after Oregon) to legalize medical psilocybin use and the first state to decriminalize specific psychedelics, including psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline.”

“Created as part of the 2019 voter initiative decriminalizing psilocybin, the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel took a brief hiatus in 2023 after Prop 122 passed,” Westworld reported this week. “But the panel is meeting again and is expected to take a leading position in Denver’s approach to its medical psilocybin rules.”

After Prop 122 passed in 2022, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed the measure into law last year. The law directs “the department of revenue [to create] the natural medicine division for the purpose of regulating and licensing the cultivation, manufacturing, testing, storage, distribution, transport, transfer, and dispensation of natural medicine or natural medicine product between natural medicine licensees.”

The measure requires the natural medicine division to: “Regulate natural medicine, natural medicine product, and natural medicine businesses, including healing centers, cultivators, manufacturers, and testers, and issue licenses for such businesses; Promulgate rules necessary for the regulation of natural medicine, natural medicine product, and natural medicine businesses; and Perform duties necessary for the regulation of natural medicine, natural medicine product, and natural medicine businesses, including investigatory and disciplinary authority.”

Kevin Matthews, former President of the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, celebrated the launch of the training program.

“I’m proud of my hometown for stepping into a national leadership role with this training. It represents a giant leap forward for public health and safety with psilocybin and natural medicines in Denver and is a perfect example of what cities can do to better integrate emerging psychedelic policies into their existing infrastructures. I’m looking forward to the city continuing its collaboration with MAPS to monitor outcomes and educate Denver residents on this exciting new issue,” Matthews said in a statement.

Sara Gael, a former MAPS Harm Reduction Officer, said the group is “honored and excited to collaborate with the City and County of Denver to provide this groundbreaking training program on psychedelic crisis assessment and intervention.”

“We believe that this program will equip first responders with the necessary knowledge and skills to handle psilocybin and psychedelic related crises in a safe and compassionate manner and ultimately improve the health and well-being of the community. This program is also a testament to the progressive and visionary leadership of Denver, which has taken a bold step to decriminalize psilocybin and create a model for other cities to follow,” Gael said.

MAPS said in the press release on Monday that its “training aims to enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and skills of first responders to quickly recognize and effectively respond to emotional and behavioral crisis incidents involving psilocybin and other psychedelics.” The group also said that the “Denver Harm Reduction training initiative has been well received by the City of Denver leadership, who recognize the importance and value of providing first responders with the necessary tools and skills to handle psychedelic-related crises in a safe and compassionate manner.”

“The program also seeks to enhance responder safety and reduce risk and liability in situations where individuals are experiencing a psychedelic-induced crisis,” the group explained. “After three years, a team of over 20 MAPS and subcontracted professionals with backgrounds in law, medicine, psychiatry, mental health, neuropsychopharmacology, law enforcement, crisis response, quality improvement, and education developed the curriculum. The final training is customized for law enforcement, mental health, and emergency medical service personnel and will be delivered through asynchronous videos and corresponding assessments.”

The post Denver Begins Psychedelic Training For First Responders appeared first on High Times.

The post Denver Begins Psychedelic Training For First Responders appeared first on Paradise Found.

Psilocybin proposal Senate Memorial 12 (SM-12) was recently signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

SM-12 is referred to as memorial legislation, which is more of an official request for research, unlike other bill proposals. “A memorial requesting the Department of Health to study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments,” the legislation states.

The memorial legislation explains that mental illness in New Mexico is at an all-time high, and a majority of suicides in the state are committed by veterans or first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Drug overdoses are also high in the Land of Enchantment, and the state’s rate of alcohol-related deaths is “highest in the nation.”

The reasoning behind pushing SM-12 is because many reputable universities and institutions have found efficacy in the medical properties of psilocybin. The proposal concludes by requesting that the Department of Health and University of New Mexico Health Sciences work together “to study and evaluate the efficacy of psilocybin-based therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program allowing the use of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic medical treatments and the necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing such a program.”

SM-12 was sent to the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on Feb. 10 and unanimously with a 7-0 vote to pass. “This can help people very potentially, and so what we’re trying to do in a bipartisan way is ask the Department of Health to recognize that we want them to get going to start looking at this,” said Sen. Jeff Steinborn, one of the bill’s sponsors.

The New Mexico Senate unanimously approved SM-12 on Feb. 14 in a 37-0 vote. “It turns out that medical mushrooms, psilocybin, has proven to be medically efficacious for the use of major behavioral health issues,” Steinborn said on the day of the Senate vote. “It can help alleviate and be an alternative to major anti-depressant drugs and probably other drugs that have serious side effects and can bring real relief to New Mexicans.”

Senate Minority Whip Craig W. Brandt, who is also a sponsor of SM-12, explained that medicinal psilocybin is “not a treatment that you take on your own once a day or once a week or even once a month, but it can be a treatment that’s done about once every six months to every year, as needed.”

“And sometimes one treatment is all that’s needed to actually cure someone of a traumatic brain injury, or of PTSD,” Brandt continued. “And so this is actually a really exciting, cutting-edge technology… God seems to have provided a cure, and we just need to figure out how to use that cure.”

Previously, the last bill in New Mexico to attempt to pass psilocybin therapy was last spring with House Bill 393. It did not receive any further action after March 2023.

A steady stream of studies have been published on the topic of psilocybin in recent years. One in particular showed that psilocybin consumption not only contributed to enhanced sexual pleasure and satisfaction in participants, but that those effects lasted up to six months after consumption occurred. “It’s important to stress our work does not focus on what happens to sexual functioning while people are on psychedelics, and we are not talking about perceived ‘sexual performance,’ but it does indicate there may be a lasting positive impact on sexual functioning after their psychedelic experience, which could potentially have impacts on psychological wellbeing,” said lead author and Ph.D. student Tommaso Barba.

Psilocybin legislation in other states has continued to rise. In late January, companion bills Senate Bill 3019 and House Bill 2630 were proposed in Hawaii, which would establish therapeutic psilocybin regulations and also enact protections for patients. In Arizona, Senate Bill 1570 would legalize psilocybin treatment centers and establish regulations and training requirements for therapy center medical directors. Just last week, Senate Bill 3695 (also called the Compassionate Use and Research of Entheogens (CURE) Act was proposed in Illinois, which if passed would also legalize supervised use of psilocybin in a therapeutic setting.

Psilocybin and other substances are recognized for their medicinal value outside of the U.S. as well. Mexican Senator Alejandra Lagunes spoke out in October 2023 about suffering from depression and anxiety in her 20s. Her mindset changed after an Ayahuasca trip. “My perspective of my own life changed. My mind changed. All my negative thinking patterns shifted,” Lagunes told Vice in an interview. “It was as though there was a different light illuminating my mind and I saw things differently. I stopped taking medication. It changed my life.

Now Lagunes is proposing that psilocybin mushrooms, which are native to Mexico and have long been utilized by indigenous people, could be a huge benefit to people who are suffering from mental illness. “There isn’t a single meeting in the Senate that doesn’t mention the mental health crisis and the lack of medications to treat it,” Lagunes said. She explained her intention to propose psilocybin legalization and have it removed from Mexico’s list of scheduled drugs (currently on the same level as heroin, cocaine, and MDMA).

The post New Mexico Governor Signs Psilocybin Memorial Legislation appeared first on High Times.

The post New Mexico Governor Signs Psilocybin Memorial Legislation appeared first on Paradise Found.

We’re seeing a psychedelic renaissance today, especially when it comes to the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, and its potential applications in mental health treatments.

Many are well aware that this substance, along with other psychedelics, first saw modern popularity in the West back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. While magic mushrooms were utilized by a number of cultures throughout history, a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that their history may date back even further than we previously expected, to prehistoric times.

Researchers from the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) decided to take a closer look at the history of psilocybin mushrooms and their evolution over time, finding that mushrooms producing the psychedelic compound have been around for roughly 65 million years, or just around when dinosaurs became extinct.

Uncovering the History of Psilocybin Mushroom Evolution

Researchers note that the evolutionary history of this genus is “substantially incomplete.” This study is the largest genomic diversity study for the Psilocybe genus, or mushrooms that produce psilocybin. The analysis included 52 Psilocybe specimens, with 39 species that had previously never been sequenced.

The analysis found two distinct gene orders with the cluster that produces psilocybin. These patterns corresponded to an ancient split in the genus around 57 million years ago, which researchers said points toward two independent acquisitions of psilocybin in its evolutionary history. 

It’s also the first study to show this strong evolutionary pattern through gene sequences resulting in psychoactive protein synthesis.

NHMU curator of mycology and senior author of the study Bryn Dentinger pointed toward the potential future of psilocybin medicine in reference to the discoveries, noting that there will be a need to develop these therapeutics to improve efficacy over time. He implies that these processes could be further streamlined as we learn more about how psilocybin has gradually evolved in nature.

“There’s a wealth of diversity of these compounds out there,” Dentinger said. “To understand where they are and how they’re made, we need to do this kind of molecular work to use biodiversity to our advantage.”

Paving a New Path for Psilocybin Research and Innovation

University of Utah postdoctoral researcher and fellow study author Alexander Bradshaw said that the specimens used in the study represent “hundreds of years of thousands of scientists’ collective efforts” to document genus diversity.

“That’s the beauty of it—no one has really sequenced type specimens at this scale, and now we get to produce molecular and genomic data to the gold standard of Psilocybe types for people to compare against,” Bradshaw said.

Twenty-three of the 52 specimens were “type specimens,” which helps to designate a species in which all other samples are measured. While 17 specimens displayed the original order, 35 exhibited the new pattern. 

“We’ve shown here that there’s been a lot of change in gene order over time, and that provides some new tools for biotechnology,” Dentinger said. “If you’re looking for a way to express the genes to produce psilocybin and related compounds, you no longer have to rely on only one set of gene sequences to do that. Now there’s tremendous diversity that scientists can look at for lots of different properties or efficiencies.”

Understanding the Evolutionary Introduction of Psilocybin

Part of the hope behind uncovering the full story of psilocybin mushrooms and their evolutionary history is uncovering what specific benefit psilocybin has for mushrooms. 

Some have theorized it may be a defense mechanism to deter predators, through their psychoactive effects or effects on digestion. Though, psilocybin mushrooms tend to be fairly uncommon in the wild, so many question the validity of this theory. Others have suggested that psilocybin is a defense against insects, though these ideas have yet to be proven.

The study authors are looking to dive further into this question as well, moving forward to test a theory called the Gastropod Hypothesis, which would coincide with this newly discovered timeline surrounding psilocybin mushrooms.

Following the asteroid event that eliminated the dinosaurs and threw Earth into an ice age, fungi and terrestrial gastropods were two of the primary thriving lifeforms. Terrestrial slugs specifically are predators of mushrooms, so the theory suggests that psilocybin evolved as a slug deterrent.

“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of collections for doing studies like this,” Bradshaw said. “We are standing on the shoulders of giants, who spent thousands of people-power hours to create these collections, so that I can write an email and request access to rare specimens, many of which have only ever been collected once, and may never be collected again.”

The post Psilocybin Mushrooms Date Back 65 Million Years to Dinosaur Extinction appeared first on High Times.

The post Psilocybin Mushrooms Date Back 65 Million Years to Dinosaur Extinction appeared first on Paradise Found.

With fire cannabis, psilocybin, and a mix of health and lifestyle topics.

The post Read the most popular stories on Leafly in 2023 appeared first on Leafly.

The post Read the most popular stories on Leafly in 2023 appeared first on Paradise Found.

According to Willamette Weekly, nearly three years after voters in the state approved a ballot measure to legalize it, “Oregon Psilocybin Services is nowhere near paying its own way,” despite promises from its backers that “Oregonians would get access to a life-changing compound in a safe, legal setting, and, after a two-year startup period, it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime.”

The outlet noted that advocates of the 2020 ballot proposal, Measure 109, asserted that the licensing fees paid “by mushroom growers, testing labs, trip facilitators and service centers would cover the costs of a new bureaucracy within the Oregon Health Authority.”

That has been far from the case.

“Fee revenue is anemic because too few people are seeking the various licenses (“Stuffed Mushrooms,” WW, May 24). Just four manufacturers, two testing labs, and eight service centers have been licensed. All three types of entities pay a one-time fee of $500 and then $10,000 a year to operate. Many more facilitators have been approved (88), but they pay only $150 up front and then $2,000 annually,” Willamette Weekly reported in a story published on Wednesday. 

“So far this year, Psilocybin Services has raised just $318,419 in fees, OHA says. That’s in line with estimates by WW. Tallying the number of permits issued and multiplying by all the fees, we came up with a total of $342,425 since the program began licensing participants on Jan. 2.”

“Backers of Measure 109 said the program would cost far more—$3.1 million a year—to run. 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,” the outlet continued.

Measure 109 passed in 2020 by a fairly narrow vote, with 50% of Oregon voters approving and 44% voting against. It made Oregon the first state in the country to legalize psilocybin. 

In the spring, Oregon Psilocybin Services, a regulatory arm of the Oregon Health Authority, announced that it had awarded the state’s first license for a psilocybin service center in Eugene. 

Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) Section Manager Angie Allbee called it “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.” 

At the time of the announcement, Oregon Psilocybin Services offered a refresher on how the program will work.

“Under the statewide model, clients 21 years of age or older may access psilocybin services. While they won’t need prescriptions or referrals from healthcare providers, clients must first complete a preparation session with a licensed facilitator. If they meet the criteria to move forward, they may participate in an administration session at a licensed service center, where they may consume psilocybin products in the presence of a trained and licensed facilitator,” the agency explained. “Afterwards, clients may choose to join optional integration sessions, which offer opportunities to be connected to community resources and peer support networks for additional support. Once licensed, service centers can employ and/or contract with licensed facilitators who are trained in providing preparation, administration, and integration sessions to clients. Service centers will sell psilocybin products that were produced by licensed manufacturers and tested by licensed laboratories. To date, OPS has issued three manufacturer licenses, one laboratory license, five facilitator licenses, and 84 worker permits. OPS expects to issue more licenses and worker permits in the coming months.”

The state finalized the rules for the psilocybin program at the end of last year.

Albee and André Ourso, the administrator of the Center for Health Protection in Oregon, said at the time that Oregon Psilocybin Services “received over 200 written comments and six hours of comments shared in the public hearings during the November 2022 public comment period.”

“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,” they said.

In response to this week’s report by Willamette Weekly, Oregon Health Authority spokesman Afiq Hisham urged patience.

“It takes time to build a new section in state government and to become 100% fee-based, specifically because ORS 475A is the nation’s first regulatory framework for psilocybin services and required an intensive two-year development period,” Hisham told Willamette Weekly.

The post Report: Despite Promises, Oregon’s Psilocybin Program Not Paying For Itself appeared first on High Times.

The post Report: Despite Promises, Oregon’s Psilocybin Program Not Paying For Itself appeared first on Paradise Found.

The Hawaii Office of Wellness and Resilience recently announced that the Breakthrough Therapies Task Force held its first meeting on Aug. 29.

The task force consists of 11 individuals whose role is to research and explore the therapeutic potential of MDMA and psilocybin. “It comprises local physicians, psychiatrists, mental health professionals and government partners,” a press release from Hawaii Gov. Josh Green stated. “This first meeting represents a significant milestone in advancing the recognition and understanding of the potential benefits of therapeutic psychedelic access in Hawaii. Members include Hawaii-based mental health professionals, government agency representatives, legislators, physicians, therapists and more.”

The press release explained that “modern science is now catching up” to the benefits of specific psychedelic substances, despite the fact that many indigenous cultures have used those substances for thousands of years. Inspired by states such as Oregon, which passed a therapeutic psilocybin access program in 2020, and Colorado, which passed a similar program in 2022, Hawaii is dedicating an effort to also examine its benefits. “Research has shown that both psilocybin and MDMA have significant and unprecedented efficacy in the clinical treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, end-of-life anxiety in terminal patients, eating disorders, treatment-resistant depression and more,” the press release continued.

One of the task force members, Sean Munnelly, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and addiction specialist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, who prepared a statement about the importance of the task force. “We are now on the precipice of an exciting movement in health care and consciousness,” said Munnelly. “The FDA designation of MDMA and psilocybin as breakthrough therapies ushers in a potentially paradigm-shifting moment. For this to be done safely, it is crucial to create a multidisciplinary task force of experts. These individuals will be responsible for creating guidelines for safe and responsible practices here in Hawaii.”

The task force is required to submit a report on its findings by the end of 2023, which will include an analysis of both Oregon and Colorado’s currently existing psychedelic therapy programs. The report will also address other crucial questions about psilocybin supply, licensing in relation to both guides as well as integration coaches, administrative requirements, and discuss patient “safety, access, and affordability.”

Four members of the task force are involved in an organization called the Clarity Project, which strives to raise awareness regarding the therapeutic benefits of plant medicine. Through the Clarity Project, a public in-person event called “Breaking Through Trauma: The Case for Psilocybin & MDMA” is set to be held on Sept. 8 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“In line with Hawaii’s commitment to wellness, resilience and mental health care, the Breakthrough Therapies Task Force underscores the state’s dedication to exploring effective and innovative approaches to mental health treatment,” the press release concluded. “By embracing the potential of breakthrough therapies and creating a regulated psychedelic therapy program, Hawaii aims to provide its residents with comprehensive, compassionate and effective therapeutic care options.”

While the potential of psilocybin is still being researched, the case for cannabis in Hawaii is growing strong. The state began licensing medical cannabis dispensaries back in July 2015, 15 years after former Gov. Ben Cayetano signed the bill to legalize medical cannabis. Since the first dispensary began operating in 2017, a total of 22 dispensaries have opened up across the state (two on Kauai, five on Maui, nine on Oahu, and six on the big island of Hawaii). In 2018, the state implemented a new policy that allows those who hold medical cannabis cards in other states or U.S. territories to obtain a special permit to buy cannabis in Hawaii. 

As of July 2019, the state has decriminalized small amounts of cannabis, but legalizing adult-use cannabis is still a work in progress. The Hawaii Senate passed a legalization bill in March 2021 but did not proceed further.

Earlier this year in January, Hawaii Rep. Jeanné Kapela joined with members of Marijuana Policy Project, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, and ACLU Hawaii to announce new efforts to end cannabis prohibition in the state. “We all know, and Hawaii’s people know, that it is high time to legalize recreational cannabis use for adults in Hawaii. This year we stand on the precipice of history,” Kapela explained. “Following the recommendations of a task force devoted to addressing cannabis policy, we now have a roadmap for legalizing recreational cannabis in our islands,” she said in reference to a December 2022 report published by the Hawaii Department of Health.

In January, a legalization bill called SB669 SD2 was introduced and by March it was overwhelmingly passed in a Hawaii Senate vote. However, it failed to proceed in the House before an important legislative deadline.

If a cannabis legalization bill is able to fully pass in congress, there’s a good chance that adult-use cannabis is in Hawaii’s future. Gov. Green has previously said that he would consider signing legalization into law under certain conditions. “First of all, if marijuana is legalized, it should be very carefully monitored, and only done like cigarettes, or I’ve been very careful to regulate tobacco over the years,” Green said in November 2022. “We should take the $30 to $40 million of taxes we would get from that and invest in the development and recreation of our mental healthcare system for the good of all.”

The post First Meeting Held by Experts From the Hawaiian Psychedelic Task Force appeared first on High Times.

The post First Meeting Held by Experts From the Hawaiian Psychedelic Task Force appeared first on Paradise Found.