Category Archives: Psychedelics

Last month, I persuaded another journalist to join me on a midweek mushroom trip. The occasion was a press preview for Immersive Van Gogh, a half-hour long show at SVN that uses musically scored digital projections to animate the Impressionist painters more famous works.

We did it out of winking respect for the twin traditions of gonzo journalism and taking in art while under the influence. And we did it knowing full well that while Hunter S. Thompson and Vincent Van Gogh were geniuses, each has been romanticized and commodified in ways that often obscure their depressing final chapters.

We were high and the experience was intense. The exhibits deliberately glitchy intro was a millimeter shy of overwhelming, but once we settled into the projected circle of light with the best acoustics, we watched the show straight through twice more. Like Hans Zimmers score for Blade Runner 2049, these sorts of spectacles are meant to engulf rather than please, and its easy to nitpick historical inaccuracies and take umbrage on behalf of actual museums. But tripping helps suspend your disbelief and silence that inner critic. And consciously choosing to go along with it all is much more fun. So we went with it, hard.

Ive done two things more in the 12 months of this pandemic than I did cumulatively in my entire life: ride a bike and trip out on mushrooms. Part of me thinks theyre both beneficial, stabilizing my early-middle-aged body and chatter-prone mind, while another part thinks of one as justification for the other. (If Ive biked 1,500 miles and climbed 100,000 feet in 2021 alone, then I can have a damn mushroom on a Tuesday night in March.) In all, Ive tripped maybe 10 or 12 times over the last year. Each instance was enjoyable, often involved plenty of Tame Impala, and left me feeling residually upbeat for days afterward. COVID restrictions aside, though, this is a curious time to dive into mushrooms. As the War on Drugs recedes out to sea, it appears psilocybin may be the next bit of beach exposed to the general public.

Ours is a planet of fungi. What we call mushrooms are only the tip of the iceberg, as it were. The familiar toadstool, also known as the fruiting body, is only the most visible and often the most temporary component, with most of the fungus existing as mycelium strands beneath the surface. The worlds single largest organism is a honey fungus in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon that measures several miles across and may be 2,000 years old.

Even though taxonomy drives our understanding of the natural world, nature always defies easy categorization. Just as viruses which dont eat, excrete, or even grow make us question what it means for something to be fully alive, fungi problematize the idea of what an individual organism actually is. Theyre almost a mindless collective intelligence, ecological go-betweens whose job is essentially humdrum necromancy, facilitating the creation of life from death. Ubiquitous in the soils, they act as pathways to conduct nutrients out of dead matter and back into the ground to replenish other organisms. This is more like the quasi-sentient ecosystem on Pandora in Avatar than simply a terrestrial kingdom on equal footing with animals or plants. Even if the thought of your eventually lifeless body decomposing makes you queasy, its impossible not to marvel at their work. Its fascinating enough that baby spiders know how to spin webs. But fungi seem possessed of an uncanny consciousness.

Occasional news items about how a strain of fungus can digest plastic or neutralize toxic heavy metals a process known as mycoremediation come with flashes of hope for the salvation of our depleted biosphere. Then theres the ongoing effort to grow black Prigord truffles in the root systems of oaks in Napa. For all their trendiness, though, mushrooms-as-metaphor infiltrated our culture long ago. Alice in Wonderland, Super Mario Bros, and a Nutcracker dance in Disneys Fantasia either anthropomorphize them or nod at their abilities. Sylvia Plath saw them as symbols of womens quiet tenacity. Svampen (mushroom) is the famous meeting point in Stockholms most upscale neighborhood. If youve ever browsed the fossils at Paxton Gate on Valencia Street, youve no doubt been transfixed by the cover of All That the Rain Promises and More, which depicts a demented-looking man wearing a tuxedo under a tree and holding both a very large mushroom and a trumpet.

So-called magic mushrooms which is to say, the more than 100 or so species that produce psilocybin are found all over the world, but chiefly in temperate Europe and the Americas. They show up in Pre-Columbian artifacts, and starting in the 1950s they became popular in the United States as a hallmark of the burgeoning counterculture. People repulsed by postwar Americas vacuousness began to ingest them in quasi-religious rites, with effects that range from giggling and pareidolia (seeing faces where none exist) to wearing a really unfortunate shade of purple-gray and falling in love with ones own pompous, Zen-lite drivel.

A couple years ago, cities like Denver and Oakland began to decriminalize plant-derived entheogens like mushrooms, partly because theyre seen as medically beneficial and socially harmless, and partly out of the increased awareness of indigenous cultural practices. (An entheogen is any substance that induces changes in perception or mood that many people perceive as spiritual or sacred.) Four years after California passed Proposition 64, ushering in a consumer wonderland of edibles and CBD tinctures, everybody and their dad started using cannabis. Mushroom chocolates and teas have been around a long time. Might they pop up on dispensary shelves, too?

Oakland is on the cutting edge, having decriminalized psilocybin and other plant-based drugs in June 2019. As of 2021, the decrim movement has typically clustered in left-leaning areas with large universities: Cambridge and Northampton, Mass., Washtenaw County, Mich. (home to Ann Arbor), and Santa Cruz, along with Washington, D.C. Denver voters narrowly passed an initiative that prohibits the city from spending any money to prosecute people for possession, which remains illegal under Colorado law.

Oregon is the only jurisdiction to have fully legalized mushrooms for therapeutic use in supervised settings, after voters approved Measure 109 last November. Here in California, State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a bill (S.B. 519) that would decriminalize the use and personal possession of mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, ketamine, DMT, and other drugs. While the bill goes a lot further than Oregons, it managed to pass through the Senate Health Committee by a vote of 6-1 in mid-April. Still, were a long way from branded mushroom-chocolate collabs at Cookies (although Berners ubiquitous legal weed brand does have a new line of non-psychedelic mushroom-and-CBD capsules).

The commodification of psychedelics is one of those things that people dont fully understand, according to Dave Hide, the minister of Zide Door, Oaklands Church of Entheogenic Plants, the first house of worship in America dedicated to magic mushrooms which Hide refers to as sacrament.

Although people want it, and there are people moving forward thinking this is something thats going to be the next cannabis, its far from that. Extremely far, he says. Theres a big difference between decriminalization and being able to walk around with a pound of mushrooms.

Oakland has categorized psilocybin as the lowest priority for local law enforcement, but the sale and consumption of it is still a crime in the state, as well as federally. This is not terribly dissimilar from cannabis quasi-legality, though. When California voters approved Proposition 215 in 1996, they established a medical marijuana program that has flourished for 25 years in spite of cannabis remaining a Schedule I drug, which the federal government defines as substances having no accepted medical application and a high potential for abuse. (The other Schedule I drugs are, somewhat bafflingly, ecstasy, heroin, LSD, methaqualone, and peyote. Cocaine, methamphetamine, and oxycodone are Schedule II.)

In theory, Prop. 64 built on Prop. 215. But Hide doesnt see it that way. He calls that 2016 ballot measure the Fuel the Black Market Act, because the combination of onerous regulations on dispensaries with high taxes has rendered state-sanctioned cannabis so expensive that its effectively only for tourists and sporadic cannabis consumers. Everybody else gets it the same way they always did from a pot dealer.

Further, he says that with respect to mushrooms, were basically in 1994 or 95. What were doing in the Church is different because its for a religious basis. Theres something called the Restoration of Religious Freedom Act, which has successfully been used to defend churches that use plant medicines from the federal government.

That 1993 piece of legislation is far from settled, however. Over the years, the Supreme Court has upheld parts of it and struck down others in cases that dealt with circumstances as wide-ranging as whether a Social Security Number constitutes a Mark of the Beast, whether you can declare yourself religiously exempt from paying taxes, or whether recycling sewage water to generate artificial snow in northern Arizona infringed on Navajo sovereignty.

But it wasnt federal marshals who raided Zide Door last summer, demanding access to its safes; it was the Oakland Police Department. In an episode of the podcast Psychedelic Timeshare, Hide recounted the experience, noting that being first means youre the first to have problems.

Prior to the raid, the Church had grown solely by word-of-mouth, and typically had a cooperative relationship with OPD. The cops even used its surveillance cameras to help solve other crimes. But on Aug. 13, 2020, some 20 officers cleared the streets and entered with their guns drawn, immediately outmatching the churchs single armed guard.

They cleared it like a cartel, Hide said.

No one was arrested, but the officers called in a contingent of firefighters to gain access to safes that each required a significant amount of time to break into. This in turn led to a curious bureaucratic standoff in which Hide persuaded the skeptical officer in charge to let him run to the city attorneys office to get a document attesting that Hide would happily open the safes as long as doing so merely expedited what would otherwise be a 14-hour process without admitting to anything or signing away his rights. Hide also claimed that one firefighter sustained moderate injuries from shrapnel that the safecracking ejected. As Vice reported at the time, officers eventually made off with $200,000 in cash, some cannabis, and some mushrooms, in a quasi-military asset forfeiture operation thats clearly at odds with Oaklands stated policy that mushrooms represent the bottom-ranking priority for the police.

The church simply got too big, Hide believes. (He claims almost 30,000 adherents, from around the Bay Area and out of state.) No sacrament was ever consumed on-site, though. Rather, he would preside over services held Sundays at 4:20 p.m., natch wherein he would sermonize about the origins of religion and his own experiences on extremely high doses, while members of his congregation smoked joints and planned their next shroom-fueled journeys of spiritual self-discovery.

The core of what we believe is that the mushrooms are the origins of all religions. They are what let us first understand that theres something more to this existence, Hide says. This is not commercialization. Psilocybin will not be the next cannabis.

He knows because in 2009, he helped create the first cannabis club in San Jose. He made a commitment to show people that cannabis was neither lethal nor a gateway drug, so he never even experimented with mushrooms until his late 30s.

Zide Door started as a cannabis church to fight the federal government in January 2019, but when Oaklands City Council voted to decriminalize all entheogenic plants five months later, he took it as a sign. Of all the other plant-derived substances that measure covered ayahuasca, ibogaine, peyote only mushrooms seemed safe enough for most people. Approximately one out of every 400 people die on ibogaine, often because of interactions with other substances. Peyote shows potential to eliminate heroin addiction, but trips can last for a week or even two. Ayahuasca needs a trained shaman, and its arguably a closed practice plus tourism to the Amazon is environmentally destructive. And substances synthesized in factories or derived from toads were not covered under Oaklands new law.

So mushrooms it was. Hide began experimenting with higher and higher doses. Famed mushroom enthusiast, philosopher, and psychonaut Terence McKenna had talked about five grams as a heroic dose. Hide got to 10 grams, and eventually 30, which he calls a God dose. (Objectively speaking, this is a humongous quantity, although Hide believes a lethal amount to be somewhere around 2,000 grams.)

His own experiences aside, Hides belief that mushrooms will never be the new cannabis seems pretty indisputable because a person can consume a lot more marijuana.

At my height, I was smoking two ounces per day, which is an insane amount of cannabis, but you can do that and function, Hide says. With the mushrooms, Im one of the people who does some of the most mushrooms and these are for truly religious experiences, to try to understand where religion comes from. Thats between 15 and 30 grams in a single dose.

That level, he says, is where you see visions and encounter entities who possess knowledge they wish to impart. Its also more than many people ingest in a lifetime. But even for Hide, its hard to do that more than once a month, typically in a tea after fasting for 24 to 48 hours.

So when it comes to commodification, its not the dream that people hope it is, Hide says. Its a very important thing for people to connect with God and the divine, but its not a large commercial market. If you do the math on microdosing which does help some people spiritually, but it mostly has a lot of medical potential even then youre talking about 0.2 grams, five times a week. Thats potentially four to five grams, max, in a month.

Thats probably not enough to sustain a boom, notwithstanding billionaire Peter Thiels $125 million investment ATAI Life Sciences, a German startup hoping to treat mental health disorders through psychedelics.

Even if psilocybin were regulated, standardized, and packaged, a dose isnt necessarily the only salient measurement. What you bring to the experience counts, too. Hide shared an anecdote about someone who ate a quarter of a mushroom chocolate that a friend made, and it ended with him swinging a baseball bat at his wife after she did everything she could to get him not to play in traffic. People whove only microdosed in the past may be particularly vulnerable to the allure of, well, macrodosing.

These can be really dangerous if not done in the right context knowing what youre going to experience, Hide says. If youre going to consume an eighth or more, you need to understand whats going to happen to you. Youre going to lie in bed and dive into your head. Theres going to be no chance youre going to have fun. A gram or two can be a recreational experience, but if youve got bad thoughts in your head or something thats really been eating at you, theyre going to bring it up. One of the examples Ive given in my sermons was from one of the first times I did two grams. I was thinking I should brush my teeth first, and during the whole trip I was tripping out over brushing my teeth. In that scenario, nobody got hurt, my teeth didnt fall out, but the whole trip was a repeat of that.

This is a different risk to the mind than the moderately incapacitating paranoia that can happen if you go full Maureen Dowd and ingest too much THC, in other words. I have never had what I understand to be a bad trip although I know theyre real although once or twice this year, a mushroom hit me with such fervor that I was certain I would vomit in public. (I didnt, but 20 minutes of rolling nausea is still uncomfortable.)

Nor have I ever gazed upon the face of God. The impossibly saturated colors, the arresting sight of wind through the trees, the feeling of close connection with a friend, a hunger that isnt as compulsive as the munchies but which spurs me to eat with great zest these are why I enjoy mushrooms. But what characterizes the best trips is a sense of overarching peace, a conviction that everything is going to be OK which is powerful enough to overcome my awareness that Im also really high. So I decided to ask the guy who sells me mushrooms what he thought.

Ive interviewed politicians under cloud of scandal and undocumented refugees, but few subjects are as reticent as a drug dealer. He agreed to speak with me in person with no recording device and as long as I referred to him as Rolando and revealed nothing else about him.

Rolando is bearish about the idea of psilocybin-as-consumer-product in a different way than Hide is. He thinks it will rapidly become the province of pill companies, his derogatory term for Big Pharma. That decriminalization is even a topic strikes him as faintly sinister.

I hate to steal a hipster phrase, but theyre manufacturing consent, he says of the pill companies. People have been eating sacraments and dancing under the moon with the tribe and having these experiences for eons.

In his view, it was the Grateful Dead or, more specifically, the traveling city of misfits and controlled chaos that sprouted up around their shows for decades that operated as the delivery mechanism for psychedelics in America. If Jerry Garcia and company had to compete with pill companies, the fertile matrix of art and culture that gave rise to that endlessly romanticized version of San Francisco would not have happened. There simply would have been no counterculture, broadly defined.

Proposition 215, to Rolando, was written by people who toiled in the dirt to grow weed to make sure they got a return on that labor. Proposition 64 was the opposite, giving rise to an investor class thats superficially savvy about the counterculture but whose intervention will necessarily lead to Roche and GlaxoSmithKline owning everything.

It almost seems like they were being used to put this friendly face on whatever The Man wants to do with this business in a few years, he says. If we see each other as an extension of the largest thing on earth mycelium, where no piece of it is bigger than any other piece of it the message is for people to keep it small. But Ive got bros coming to me saying Weve got investors! We need the poundage! I need somebody to grow this for me!

Central to his viewpoint is the belief that the media only talks about mushrooms now because the media is only allowed to talk about mushrooms now. Consequently, more and more people expressing an interest in hallucinogenic substances are indifferent as to whether they originated in a plant (in the sense of a fungus) or in a plant (in the sense of a factory).

Its the undoing of the magic of Prop 215, that allowed common people to work hard under the hot sun, Rolando says. Prop 215 was magical because whoever wrote it seemed to have an idea of how to keep it out of Corporate Americas hands. Were not legalizing these things. Were colonial-izing these things. Ive been caged twice for pot, and suddenly they want a cut, and its like, What?

Rolando sees mushrooms during COVID as a big chunk of cheese for the rat race. He cites the phenomenon of affluent parents working from home while their kids are learning from home, so mom and dad start microdosing to handle the stress. Its accessing mushrooms power without making any connection to the primal ritual of drum circles around the campfire (or a noodling, 25-minute guitar solo).

They didnt run their brain into the ground in 1990 or 91 on shitty acid in the parking lot, he says. Music and psychedelics will break the human psyche down to a state where theyre ready for more, or where theyre kind of looking for something thats not in a textbook.

Indeed, psychedelics may have already left the dusty Shoreline Amphitheatre parking lot and badged into the adjacent corporate campus. A YouTube clip announcing life-sciences company Cybins partnership with the VC-backed firm Kernel on a non-invasive wearable brain imaging device seems designed to repackage psychedelics without any trace of psychedelia. Its Rolandos living nightmare, basically.

The clip, which features a voiceover that doesnt quite make it across the Uncanny Valley and is chock-full gosh-wow Silicon Valley spirituality (quantifying what was previously impossible), its light on sacrament and heavy on promises of disruption:

Molecules like psilocybin, LSD, and DMT, that have shown promise in treating psychiatric disorders, are being revisited and researched, the female narrator explains, pitching her voice in a manner reminiscent of a mid-reverie Dolores Abernathy. Only, this time, instead of leading her fellow Westworld hosts to The Valley Beyond, shes heading up a lobbying firm and filing for intellectual property rights. This resurgence is leading to a paradigm shift in public policy. Cybin is at the forefront of this revolution.

The specifics of the Cybin-Kernel partnership are also a bit vague, but it seems to have something to do with donning the chandelier hat that Doc Brown is wearing when Marty McFly meets him in 1955 and then getting dosed. But hey, if new technologies like these help, say, veterans with PTSD, maybe its worth it.

Dena Justice, an executive life coach and the founder of Ecstatic Collective, comes down somewhere between Rolandos never trust the man cynicism and Cybins bright-eyed (and wide-pupiled) optimism.

They agree that you cant just bypass everything for instant results. You need to put in the work first. Through what Justice calls neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), she focuses on non-ordinary states of consciousness, obtained through movement, breathwork, orgasms, and psychedelics. For her, this is about giving clients the tools to recognize patterns they might be stuck in, and how to break through them and achieve fulfillment.

Some of our strongest language is held in modal operators, words like necessity involves or I have to, she says. But if we can get into possibility language, like I decide to, or I choose to, it changes the way they relate to the world.

Justice is selective about who she takes on and mainly keeps to a supportive role, but otherwise shes reluctant to delve into the specifics of how she guides her clients use of psychedelic medicines. It almost doesnt matter what someones specific difficulty is, she explains, because our problems are always held in language and in the way we communicate. A three-hour intake session may lead to a medicine session whose usefulness is essentially measured in terms of how a person can interrupt their own neural-network highways, whether to achieve financial success or simply figure out what they ought to do in life.

The medicine works, she says. I help people get the fuck out of their [own] way.

To put it succinctly, Justice who named her program Get the F* Out of Your Way is primarily concerned with getting her clients past mental roadblocks. But she is also worried about regulatory roadblocks.

The way Justice sees it, the FDAs bureaucratic process could very well stand in the way of meaningful progress in the field of psychedelic medicine even in a future America where mushrooms have been decriminalized and legalized. Calling herself anti-extreme regulation, Justice is opposed to a standardized process for plant-derived medicines like psilocybin, because unlike pharmaceuticals, theyre not prescriptive in nature.

Oh, youre going to have four sessions with your therapist and then youre going to have a journey and then another four sessions and then another trip? I dont believe thats the way it should be done, she says. Im here to support you as an individual in the time you need. Some people will feel totally safe with you and dont need four sessions to build rapport and trust. Others will need a year.

Well, weve had a year. Now that were hopefully within sight of the end of the pandemic, the present is starting to feel almost like the future again. There were already tardigrades on the moon and lesbians in the U.S. Senate; now were flying helicopters on Mars and theres a trans woman in the Cabinet. And for $50, you can melt your brain a little bit, staring at Van Goghs Sunflowers, Starry Night, and The Potato Eaters while tripping.

Californians have been accustomed to slickly packaged cannabis edibles on dispensary shelves, but something about the idea of mushroom teas next to them feels fundamentally different somehow. Theres something about the idea that feels like a betrayal of countercultural ideals, like when a gay, Black, right-wing, Gen Zer amasses a huge following on TikTok, or someone says Mike Love is their favorite Beach Boy.

It seems inevitable that decriminalization will spread to other states and cities. Granted, the Biden administration fired a bunch of staffers for smoking pot on their own time, so there may not be a linear path to common sense public policy around entheogens. But if the sea change in attitudes about plant-derived substances and the carceral state causes the War on Drugs to wind down further, well capitalism is what it is, and well probably be seeing packets of trippy tea on Eaze sooner or later.

And who knows? Perhaps this was the fungus plan all along.

Peter-Astrid Kane is a former SF Weekly editor. Twitter @peterastridkane

Read the original post:

The Commodification of Psychedelics - SF Weekly

TORONTO, April 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Silo Wellness Inc. (Silo Wellness or the Company) (CSE: SILO) (FRA:3K70), a wellness company in the psychedelics and functional mushroom marketplaces announced today that through its wholly-owned subsidiary, it has signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) for a multi-year patent licensing agreement with Jungle Med Inc. (Jungle Med), a human health and wellness company with operations in Latin America, to exclusively manufacture, promote, advertise, distribute and sell the patent-pending, metered-dosing psilocybin nasal spray in the countries of Colombia and Brasil. This marks the Companys first commercial transaction of its new-to-world intellectual property.

Silo Wellness was created to enhance wellness through psychedelics and functional foods. The Companys patent-pending nasal spray makes psilocybin easier to access, administer and ingest. One of the inherent challenges with ingesting psilocybin mushrooms orally is the discomfort it can cause to ones digestive system; however, our nasal spray solves this problem through bypassing the digestive system and entering the bloodstream through the nasal membranes, stated Douglas K. Gordon, Chief Executive Officer of Silo Wellness. The precise metered-dosing format allows for a measured amount of psilocybin to be administered, ensuring a higher degree of safety and consistency. Entering into this exclusive strategic licensing agreement with Jungle Med takes our intellectual property beyond Jamaica and marks our expansion to Latin America.

Jungle Med believes in unlocking the therapeutic power of plants, fungi and psychedelics so partnering with Silo Wellness, a leader in the global psychedelics category, was a natural decision, stated Dr. Beverly Richardson, Chief Executive Officer of Jungle Med. This breakthrough opportunity to become the first company to license the novel psilocybin metered-dosing nasal spray and introduce an effective psilocybin experience in both Colombia and Brasil is an amazing opportunity for consumers of these two Latin American countries to realizing a more natural and fulfilling approach to self-healing and well-being.

Metered-dosing ingestion alternatives with faster uptake speed are important to prevent accidental high-dosage experiences (also known as stacking, when the consumer takes a second dose before the first dose takes effect). Smaller sub-psychedelic, sub-perceptual to perceptual doses of psychedelic mushrooms may give the consumer spiritual, medical and therapeutic benefits without sending the user into a psychedelic trip as with high doses of mushroom biomass.

The exclusive LOI stipulates an upfront licensing fee of USD $250,000, five-year term with automatic renewal provisions, providing sales, distribution and marketing expectations are delivered upon and/or exceeded and royalty provisions. The parties will work expeditiously towards entering a definitive licensing agreement to reflect the terms of the LOI. Todays LOI disclosure with Jungle Med follows the global announcement made mid-March in which Silo Wellness announced it had acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to collaborate with the Family of Bob Marley to brand, market and sell a distinct line of functional and psychedelic mushrooms.

About Silo WellnessThe mission of Silo Wellness is to improve health and wellness by developing and introducing psychedelic medicine to reduce trauma and increase performance by destigmatizing the active compounds in psychedelics and innovating ease of administration and ingestion. Silo Wellness intends to introduce new, safe and affordable alternatives to current medicines by facilitating entry into new and emerging markets where psychedelics are legal by conducting ketamine and psilocybin wellness retreats and elsewhere by manufacturing and distributing functional mushrooms.

Since its inception, Silo Wellness activities have focused on: (1) development of psilocybin-free functional mushroom tinctures; (2) the development of the formulation of a psilocybin nasal spray in Jamaica; and (3) offering of Jamaican and Oregon psychedelic wellness retreats as well as the cultivation of psychedelic mushrooms in Jamaica. None of Silo Wellness products claim to cure or mitigate any physical or mental disease, symptoms, disorders or abnormalities.

For further information, please contact: http://www.SiloWellness.com

About Jungle MedJungle Med is a Canadian-based company focused on unlocking the therapeutic power of plants, for the benefit of human health and wellness. Jungle Med consists of two main plant-inspired businesses with operations in Colombia and Brasil including clinical development of medicines and treatments based on alternative compounds derived from powerful sources such as psychedelics and cannabinoids; and ancestral indigenous knowledge from the Amazonian rainforest. The company is developing innovative and cutting edge health and wellness products including cosmetics, skincare and nutraceuticals, inspired by the unique biodiversity of Colombia and Brasil, based upon mushrooms, moringa and cannabis, formulated by a world class team of doctors and Pharmaceutical chemists.

Media Relations:Stuart Kirby, VP of Marketing & Communications press@silowellness.com

Silo Wellness Investor Relations:(604) 343-2724IR@empiregroupir.com

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. Other than statements of historical fact, all statements are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates, and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: the LOI and the definitive licensing agreement with Jungle Med and the business plans of Silo Wellness. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and the potential impact of COVID-19. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Silo Wellness assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Read the original here:

Silo Wellness Announces Intellectual Property Licensing Agreement of Psilocybin Nasal Spray in Colombia and Brasil - GlobeNewswire

(J. the Jewish News of Northern CaliforniaviaJTA) Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, while some people were dabbling with new hobbies, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz was going all in on a lifelong fantasy.

Kamenetz has a vision. He dreams of a world in which the trauma of the Jewish past can be healed through psychedelic experiences, a world in which chemically assisted mystical encounters are a normative part of Jewish spirituality.

Someday I see a space, maybe in the East Bay, where people can have safe and supported psychedelic experiences individually, and then integrate those experiences in a community that is invested in the application of mystical experiences with other people, hetoldJ. the Jewish News of Northern California, in 2019. This is total science fiction because it doesnt exist.

Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

It does now. After losing his job as the director of Jewish learning and living at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco during a round of pandemic layoffs, Kamenetz decided to go for it. He foundedShefa, which means flow in Hebrew; the organizations tagline is Connect With Divine Flow.

In less than a year, Kamenetz has secured funding from Jewish donors, as well as Dr. Bronners Family Foundation (as in Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps, the earthy brand with fine print all over the bottle) and the Riverstyx Foundation,which funds a number of psycho-spiritual projects.

He also has begun to hold regular integration circles, support group-like gatherings in which fellow travelers discuss and come to terms with their psychedelic experiences.

Later this spring Kamenetz is staging a two-day event that promises to put Shefa on the map the first-everJewish Psychedelic Summit. Its a collaboration among Kamenetz; Madison Margolin, editor of the psychedelics magazineDoubleBlind;and Natalie Lyla Ginsberg, director of policy and advocacy at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Ginsbergs group, MAPS, has deep Jewish roots. Its founder, Rick Doblin,was inspired by a dream about surviving the Nazisto devote his life to promoting psychedelics as a cure for human ills and an insurance policy against another Holocaust. The organization has supported research and policy to advance psychedelics as a therapeutic tool.

Shefas summit will zoom in on uniquely Jewish questions related to psychedelics. To be held virtually with four sessions each on May 2-3, the summit will bring together dozens of rabbis, scholars, artists and more for panels with topics such as Did Psychedelics Play a Role in Ancient Jewish Practice? What Draws so Many Jews to India? and Jewish Trauma and Psychedelic Therapy: What Is Culturally Informed Care?

Psychedelic substances whether organic, such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) or synthetic (such as LSD) are illegal virtually everywhere in the country, although some have been decriminalized to varying degrees in Oakland and Santa Cruz, California; Denver, Colorado; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and the state of Oregon. But that hasnt stopped researchers and other practitioners some funded by MAPS from beginning to delve into themedical applicationsof these substances, such as treating PTSD, anxiety, depression and other conditions.

Kamenetz has had two experiences with psilocybin, and both were done legally as part of a Johns Hopkins University study of psychedelic experiences in clergy of various religions.

Those experiences were among the most powerful of his life, he said, and convinced him of the need for psychedelic-assisted healing in the Jewish community.

Im one of the very few people who can say theyve had a legal experience with psychedelics in this country, Kamenetz said. To be able to speak freely about it without the stigma because its not just people talking about doing illegal things its allowed people to start having a more open conversation about it. When theres the opportunity to hear from someone who did this in a legal environment, people will listen more.

And for Jews who have already been working with or using psychedelics, Kamenetz is proud to be creating a platform where they can talk about it more openly.

I think weve gotten ahead of the market, he said. If it wasnt me, it wouldve been someone else.

Ben, a 34-year-old graduate student who didnt want to use his full name, is one of the many Jews who have used psychedelic substances. Hes attended two Shefa integration circles, 90-minute affairs that can include some Jewish chanting, brief text study and discussion of personal psychedelic experiences.

He appreciates the open, nonhierarchical vibe.

People are encouraged to share about their experiences, ask questions, receive feedback, Ben said.

I have a significant and long-standing psychedelic background. I have had a lot of conversations about it with similarly inclined Jews.

Ben first heard about Shefawhen Kamenetz was interviewed on the Judaism Unbound podcast.

I knew right away this is a conversation I want to be part of, he said. And I sort of got the same sense from a lot of other people, a shared sense that it was important to talk about and do and explore this, to create spaces where we can talk about it.

When the Jewish Psychedelic Summit was announced, Ben didnt even bother looking at the list of speakers.

I just saw the name [of the conference] and said sign me up, he said, though he admits hes excited about hearing from Rodger Kamenetz, the poet and author of The Jew in The Lotus.

RabbiKamenetz (no relation) is excited, too.

Weve got this big Jewish family of psychedelic enthusiasts who are coming and contributing to making this thing happen, he said. Thats why it feels so significant to me. Ive never been part of something that really felt like a movement.

See the article here:

First Jewish psychedelics conference looks to put spiritual drug use on the map - The Jewish Standard

After Joe Biden, drugsspecifically psychedelicswere the biggest winner of the 2020 election: Oregon legalized psilocybin mushrooms for mental health treatment; Washington D.C. decriminalized them; and New Jersey introduced a reform bill to drastically reduces penalties for the possession of psychedelics, which later passed.

The changes in these laws follow what Anderson Cooper coined a psychedelic renaissance, during a 60 Minutes episode in 2019. Nowadays, everyone from Gwyneths Goop gals to the worlds greatest lab partner Michael Pollan is experimenting with drugs that most of us used to only be able to find at a Phish festival. This widened acceptance is generally considered a step in the right direction. After all, studies testing whether psychedelic compounds like MDMA and psilocybin can reduce depression, anxiety, and PTSD have repeatedly shown promising results.

But as attitudes about psychedelics change and access to them inevitably increases, some members of the psychedelic community are pausing to ask themselves an important question: What kind of movement do we want to be? One organization with a vision in mind is Fireside Project, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has engineered the worlds first psychedelic peer-support line.

Think of a psychedelic peer-support line as a hybrid of a mental health warmline that people can call or text to receive emotional support during a time of need, and a Reddit thread about peyote-induced visuals. Its essentially a digital tripsitter that anyone with the wits and wherewithal to use a phone while blitzed can access. Firesides mission is simple but surreal: Help all people minimize the risks and fulfill the potential of their psychedelic experiences.

Elaine Chung + Fireside Project

According to Fireside co-founder Joshua White, that all people bit is an important detail. When we think about psychedelics, often there's a certain person that comes to mind, he said when we spoke earlier this spring. Were very intentional about saying all communities, all people. In other words, Fireside isnt just for your friend from college who smells like a head shop; nor is it only for burners and yogis, or the new age, attention-hacking microdosers of Silicon Valley. Those folks are free to call in, of course, but they arent who White had in mind when he set out to build Fireside. Rather, he was hoping to help individuals who might not have the means to safely access and consume psychedelics within the very expensive, burgeoning medical model. (If and when the FDA approves MDMA for the treatment of depression and anxiety, it could cost anywhere from $12,000 to $20,000, by one estimate.)

"How to Change Your Mind"

What White wants to do is create a low-threshold alternative to the walled-off medical model that looms over the psychedelic community. His hope is that Fireside will be one part of a mycelial network that includes multiple free psychedelic therapeutic services, which can step in and provide assistance to the many people who studies have shown are increasingly using psychedelics to self-medicate. To help ensure that Firesides services are highly accessible, White solicited donations from members of his community. He also received funding from David Bronner, CEO of the organic soap company Dr. Bronners. Thanks to that money, the Fireside line is free and open to any individual within the United States. (For its first year, Fireside will operate during select hours five days a week. If things go well and additional funding comes through, it will operate 24/7.)

Starting April 14, anyone who is having a psychedelic experience can key in Firesides number and text, chat, or speak live with one of Firesides 30 trained volunteers. That includes people who are in the midst of a trip, looking to process a past trip, or currently supporting someone through an experience (for instance, a tripsitter who is unsure of how to create a calm environment for a friend). The callers can remain anonymous if they like and will not be asked what substance they are on. (If someone calls for reasons unrelated to a psychedelic experience, Fireside will refer them to other resources.)

For those who have had the humbling experience of tripping without a safety net, the essentialness of a service like Fireside is all too obvious. Put simply, things can get intense fast. Someone who can reassure you that, yes, your hands look normal, and, no, your houseplant isnt giving you side-eye, is often what prevents a trip from going sideways. And in case things do go sidewayspsychedelics can surface powerful, sometimes painful memories or visionsFiresides volunteers are prepared to help with tips, perspective, and strategies aimed at rowing an individual back to shore and grounding them in the moment. But you dont have to be having a bad trip to access Firesides services. You can also call in to riff on what you are seeing and share the joy that you may find is bubbling inside you.

Crucially, the volunteers are a well-trained and diverse bunch. They represent 14 countries, 11 languages, 16 ethnicities, and a range of gender and sexual identities. Each one of them has undergone 36 hours of training with Firesides Support Line Director, Adam Rubin, and its co-founder and Cultivator of Beloved Community, Hanifa Nayo Washington. The sessions Rubin and Washington lead focus on practical skills like reflective listening, and sociocultural topics like systematic racism, oppression, and equity, so that the volunteers are prepared to meet people where they are at, said Washington.

Having an inclusive class of volunteers that represented the entire United States was Washingtons top priority for Fireside, one born from personal experience. There are so many things that come up in a psychedelic session, she explained, before describing the many times she has revisited the pain and trauma of being a Black woman in this country while on psychedelics and surrounded by white men. Those experiences, while meaningful, led her to conclude that when it came to creating a welcoming and safe environment for callers, relatability and affinity mattered.

Her understanding mirrors a growing, community-wide realization. Recently, the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicine launched a Racial Equity and Access Committee, which seeks to ensure that historically marginalized communities have access to and are included in psychedelic research. The field has its work cut out for it; a 2018 analysis of past psychedelic studies revealed that 82 percent of participants were non-Hispanic white and only 2.5 percent were Black.

After a psychedelic experience, I feel like there's a light inside of me, and the more I talk to people about my experience, the longer that light stays lit.

White and Washington have invested so heavily in their volunteers because they are the heart of the Fireside Project. They give callers the opportunity to enrich their psychedelic encounters through connection and integration, the practice of exploring and synthesizing the insights that arise from a psychedelic experience for everyday life. White described this integration as a muscle that in a lot of ways has not been flexed before. Despite being a fundamental element of communing with plant-based medicines in indigenous ceremonies, in American popular culture, the practice of integration rarely occurs outside of wellness circles. As a result, its a privilege that few people can access or afford.

White views this as a missed opportunity to make the most out of a trip. After a psychedelic experience, I feel like there's a light inside of me, and the more I talk to people about my experience, the longer that light stays lit, he said. The Fireside Project will attempt to expand integration by offering weekly follow-up calls, texts, or live chats to anyone who originally called in during a psychedelic experience. To have a person who you don't know call you and check in on you every single week to ask about how your integration process is going, will, in our view, revolutionize how integration occurs, said White.

Now its time to put that vision to the test. The stakes are high for Firesides two co-founders, who met at Burning Man in 2019 and have since devoted most of their time and energy into creating Fireside. White in particular has a lot on the line. In a leap of faith that he credits ayahuasca and therapy for helping him make, he quit his job as a lawyer to devote himself full-time to the psychedelic community. But as Washington reminded him when the three of us spoke, the cause couldnt be more worthwhile. [Psychedelics] have the potential to heal a lot of trauma," she said. "Not having barriers to wellness is super important. It's our birthright to heal.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read the original post:

Fireside Project Is a New Psychedelic Support Line Working to Ensure You Have a Good Trip - Esquire

As interest in psychedelics continues, one company is taking the experience a step further with an app that helps users reach wellness goals.

The frontier of psychedelics-based treatments is expanding as these substances continue to gain credibility in the eyes of the medical community.

More and more novel psychedelic medicine companies are pitching the potential of improved mental health treatments through the use of psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin.

Alongside these groundbreaking medical options, theres been an uptick in devices and phone applications related to the psychedelics lifestyle.

For example, microdosing has gained popularity among tech workers, and now theres an app for the practise, which involves consuming psychedelics in small doses as a way to improve day-to-day life.

The psychedelics apps available vary in scope and rigor, but one app in particular offers users the ability to interact one-on-one with experts who will guide them through psychedelics-based experiences.

Mindleap is an app where users can book video appointments with specialists and get help with their psychedelics journey. Appointments go for just under an hour, with prices set by the expert at hand.

Users can also employ wearable devices like an Apple Watch to share and monitor information about their day-to-day lives, particularly their experience and relationship with psychedelic substances. They can also set wellness goals for their state of mind and lifestyle.

You can use that information for yourself, you can choose to share it with your mental health specialists so then the actual therapy that youre receiving is more data driven, Nikolai Vassev, founder and CEO at Mindleap Health, told the Investing News Network (INN).

Vassev spoke at length about what he sees as the benefits of the entire psychedelics revolution and the role his companys app can play within that shift.

He said that while the potential held within the most advanced clinical trials for psychedelic substances is staggering, their results and any changes they may bring will take time. What people can use now is guidance in the therapeutic use of the psychedelic substances they have available.

Mindleap is an app for people that are curious about psychedelics, wanting to either microdose, prepare for an experience or integrate an experience into actual changes in their life, Vassev said.

The tech executive told INN the inspiration for Mindleap came to him after visiting a psychedelics retreat in the Netherlands. His goal was for the app to reach 50,000 users by the end of 2020, alongside 100 specialists available for users.

Thanks to his background with a data analytics firm, Vassev put two and two together once he realized that the vast amount of interest in this lifestyle would then create vast amounts of data.

I saw this kind of missing piece of lack of access to psychedelic integration specialists and psychedelic experts, and I wanted to build this platform for it, he told INN.

While wellness apps and the connection between healthier lifestyles and everyday technologies are nothing new, the idea of marrying the use of psychedelics with tech options is in the early stages.

Earlier this year, psychedelics firm Mind Cure Health (CSE:MCUR,OTCQB:MCURF) launched its own digital solutionfor wellness optimization and support resources.

Dubbed iSTRYM, this app allows users to monitor their experiences with psychedelics and will eventually help feed into the treatment they receive, according to the firm.

Mind Cure confirmed the app will collect a variety of data points from its patient users after a therapy session has taken place, such as weather, location, mood and heart rate.

Mind Cure Chief Technology Officer Geoff Belair said the app will implement artificial intelligence to hone how the app works for users.

One of the key differentiators in our proprietary tech piece is the implementation of artificial intelligence, working in the background, to taxonify the uncategorized daily inputs from patients into tangible assets that will then inform treatments, Belair said in a statement.

The app will build out its database of information based on patients, clinicians and therapists.

The adoption of psychedelics and the recognition of their benefits appear to be driving the introduction of new technology to the psychedelics space.

While the potential of these apps remains to be seen, its clear that excitement for the entire psychedelics revolution is beginning to bleed over into different sectors.

Dont forget to follow us @INN_LifeSciencefor real-time news updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Bryan Mc Govern, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.

Go here to see the original:

How This App Can Play a Role in the Psychedelics Industry | INN - Investing News Network

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, while some people were starting new hobbies, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz was starting a groundbreaking new organization, one he has long fantasized about.

Kamenetz has a vision. He dreams of a world in which the trauma of the Jewish past can be healed through psychedelic experiences, a world in which chemically assisted mystical encounters are a normative part of Jewish spirituality.

Describing it to J. in 2019, he said, Someday, I see a space, maybe in the East Bay, where people can have safe and supported psychedelic experiences individually, and then integrate those experiences in a community that is invested in the application of mystical experiences with other people. This is total science fiction because it doesnt exist.

It does now. After losing his job at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco during a round of pandemic layoffs, Kamenetz decided to go for it. He founded Shefa, which means flow in Hebrew; the organizations tagline is Connect With Divine Flow.

In less than a year, Kamenetz has secured funding from Jewish donors, as well as Dr. Bronners Family Foundation (as in Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps, the earthy brand with fine print all over the bottle) and the Riverstyx Foundation, which funds a number of psycho-spiritual projects.

He also has begun to hold regular integration circles, support group-like gatherings in which fellow travelers discuss and come to terms with their psychedelic experiences.

On March 26, Kamenetz announced a two-day event this spring that promises to put Shefa on the map the first ever Jewish Psychedelic Summit. Its a collaboration between Kamenetz; Natalie Lyla Ginsberg, director of policy and advocacy at the preeminent Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies; and Madison Margolin, editor of the psychedelics magazine DoubleBlind.

To be held virtually with four sessions on May 2 and four more on May 3, the summit will bring together dozens of rabbis, scholars, artists and more for panels with topics such as Did Psychedelics Play a Role in Ancient Jewish Practice? What Draws so Many Jews to India? and Jewish Trauma and Psychedelic Therapy: What Is Culturally Informed Care?

Psychedelic substances whether organic, such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) or synthetic (such as LSD) are illegal virtually everywhere in the country, although some have been decriminalized to varying degrees in Oakland, Santa Cruz, Denver, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the state of Oregon. But that hasnt stopped researchers and other practitioners from beginning to delve into the medical applications of these substances, such as treating PTSD, anxiety, depression and other conditions.

Kamenetz has had two experiences with psilocybin, and both were done legally as part of a Johns Hopkins University study of psychedelic experiences in clergy of various religions.

Those experiences were among the most powerful of his life, he said, and convinced him of the need for psychedelic-assisted healing in the Jewish community.

Im one of the very few people who can say theyve had a legal experience with psychedelics in this country, Kamenetz said. To be able to speak freely about it without the stigma because its not just people talking about doing illegal things its allowed people to start having a more open conversation about it. When theres the opportunity to hear from someone who did this in a legal environment, people will listen more.

And for Jews who have already been working with or using psychedelics, Kamenetz is proud to be creating a platform where they can talk about it more openly.

I think weve gotten ahead of the market, he said. If it wasnt me, it wouldve been someone else.

Ben, a 34-year-old graduate student who didnt want to use his full name, is one of the many Jews who have used psychedelic substances. Hes attended two Shefa integration circles, 90-minute affairs that can include some Jewish chanting, brief text study and discussion of personal psychedelic experiences.

He appreciates the open, nonhierarchical vibe. People are encouraged to share about their experiences, ask questions, receive feedback, Ben said.

I have a significant and long-standing psychedelic background, he added. I have had a lot of conversations about it with similarly inclined Jews.

Ben first heard about Shefa when Kamenetz was interviewed on the Judaism Unbound podcast. I knew right away this is a conversation I want to be part of, he said. And I sort of got the same sense from a lot of other people, a shared sense that it was important to talk about and do and explore this, to create spaces where we can talk about it.

When the Jewish Psychedelic Summit was announced, Ben didnt even bother looking at the list of speakers. I just saw the name [of the conference] and said sign me up, he said though he admits hes excited about hearing from Rodger Kamenetz, the poet and author of The Jew in The Lotus.

Rabbi Kamenetz (no relation) is excited, too. Weve got this big Jewish family of psychedelic enthusiasts who are coming and contributing to making this thing happen, he said. Thats why it feels so significant to me. Ive never been part of something that really felt like a movement.

Read the original post:

The Jewish psychedelic movement takes flight J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Get instant alerts when news breaks on your stocks. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here.

Women havecontributed greatly to the psychedelics industry, accomplishing incredible research and work in the field, despite being maligned in serious ways for just being involved. Given that International Womens Month has just ended, the timing seems ideal to shine a spotlight on women pioneers of psychedelics, along with a focus on what exactly held them back.

Women have had to jump through hurdles that did not exist for their male counterparts as well as bypass barriers in various industries and fields, including the field of psychedelic research. Knowledge of history or sometimes just personal experience has shown that the presence of women has been discouraged&

Read More >>

NOTE TO INVESTORS:The latest news and updates relating to XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY) (OTCQB: XPHYF) (FSE: 4XT) are available in the companys newsroom athttps://ibn.fm/XPHYF

About PsychedelicNewsWire

PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW) is a specialized content distribution company that (1) aggregates and distributes news and information on the latest developments in all aspects and advances of psychedelics and their use, (2) createsPsychedelicNewsBreaksdesigned to quickly update investors on important industry news, (3) leverages a team of expert editors to enhance press releases for maximum impact, (4) assists companies with the management and optimization of social media across a range of platforms, and (5) delivers unparalleled corporate communication solutions. PNW stays abreast of the latest information and has established a reputation as the go to source for coverage of psychedelics, therapeutics and emerging market opportunities. Our team of seasoned journalists has a proven track record of helping both public and private companies gain traction with a wide audience of investors, consumers, media outlets and the general public by leveraging our expansive dissemination network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets. PNW is committed to delivering improved visibility and brand recognition to companies operating in the emerging markets of psychedelics.

To receive instant SMS alerts, text Groovy to 21000 (U.S. Mobile Phones Only)

For more information please visithttps://www.PsychedelicNewsWire.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the PsychedelicNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by PNW, wherever published or re-published:https://www.PsychedelicNewsWire.com/Disclaimer

Do you have questions or are you interested in working with PNW?Ask our Editor

PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW)San Francisco, Californiawww.PsychedelicNewsWire.com415.949.5050 OfficeEditor@PsychedelicWire.com

PsychedelicNewsWire is part of theInvestorBrandNetwork.

Go here to see the original:

Women in the Psychedelic Field and the Barriers That Held Them Back - StreetInsider.com

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., April 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Recover, a national news provider for mental health and substance abuse, recently began releasing news about psilocybin and their potential health benefits.

Psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms have long-lasting medical and spiritual benefits, according to a new study. Magic Mushroom Landscape has established a company to evaluate new treatments related to psychedelics and mental health.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the hallucinogenic active ingredient psilocybin, which is known to strengthen the mind of magic mushrooms - and thus alter their powers. In November, the FDA issued the first psychedelic drug ever approved by the FDA, a hallucinogenic drug in the form of prilocaine, one of two types of psychedelic drugs, and the second - the most common form, LSD - because of its impact on mental health. A controlled study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found the substance is safe for human consumption, bringing researchers closer to developing a psilocybin-based treatment for depression, the study said.

Although psilocybin is illegal at the federal level in the US, it is still considered legal in New Mexico to possess and grow mushrooms as long as they are not dried, and only licensed therapists and manufacturers will be allowed to grow, extract from, synthesize the drug, set up psilocybin therapy centers, or offer therapies. Such uses will be strictly regulated, however; only those licensed as therapists or manufacturers can grow and extract the fungus, but only to the extent that they can produce and synthesize it. However, because the spores do not contain any chemicals specifically regulated by federal law, their spores are perfectly legal for possession in the United States.

Psilocybin fungi are administered to humans by researchers who test the efficacy of the substance and administering them in a medically controlled environment with a trusted therapist could be very helpful.

The team found that people who had recently taken psilocybin, better known as magic mushrooms, were more likely to report having a transformative experience. In fact, several studies have so far found evidence of the benefits of using psilocin fungi to treat depression in combination with supportive therapy. Other studies have shown that the psychedelic psilocybin in the mushrooms help to change the way information travels through the brain. While regulators have fought against the use of psychedelic drugs such as MDMA (ecstasy) and LSD (LSD), researchers have found that patients can provide psychological support through the use of these psychedelics, especially for people with mental health problems.

In short, magic mushrooms can get your brain back to where it was before the feelings of depression set in. If you have legitimate access to psilocybin mushrooms, it gives you access to a whole new world of possibilities for treating mental illness.

Meanwhile, psilocybin, the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms, has been shown to be helpful in psychotherapy, and research suggests that it can be as effective in combination with psychotherapy as traditional treatments for depression and other mental illnesses. There is debate as to whether psychologists can use psilocin and similar hallucinogens to treat depression or not.

The experience with magic mushrooms can be traumatic for users who experience a bad trip, and those with these diseases suffer more if they do not use magic mushrooms for a long time. Those who try psilocybin mushrooms for the first time will inevitably worry at some point that they have a "bad journey" that can happen. Knowing that you have a controlled substance can also increase unpleasant emotions such as paranoia during the experience with magic mushrooms. Without a trained mental health worker to help process the event, the outcome could be bad.

There is no evidence that the fungi cause stomach bleeding, but there is no research on what happens after taking psilocybin fungi at all. However, these findings are supported by growing evidence supporting the mental health benefits of psilocin, such as reducing anxiety and depression.

If someone has psychedelic problems in the family after using, they may need to avoid taking psychedelics. Due to the high content of compounds found in psychedelic magic mushrooms, cancer patients may exhibit symptoms similar to those of people without cancer, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and vomiting.

Scientists at leading institutions have acknowledged that psilocybin fungi, in small quantities under medical supervision, have the potential to treat severe mental disorders. Disbelief is widespread among those who have learned that it can cause a sustained remission of depression that lasts for months or years. The fast-acting nature of psychedelic magic mushrooms and their effects are attractive because antidepressant drugs and therapies can take weeks before patients feel the benefits.

Dr Robin Carhart-Harris led the first study to test how psilocybin mushroom therapies work compared to leading antidepressants. The study, completed in 2016, is the first modern study to specifically address treatment for resistant depression with psychedelics, which naturally occur in about 200 types of fungi. There it is still a mystery why fungi developed these psychedelic chemicals in the first place. Psilocin mushrooms are eaten in dried form, and most people agree that they do not taste good.

The Recover offers information about possible treatment options for those who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. For information regarding addiction treatment centers, visit their website or contact their 24hr helpline.

Contact Info:

Author: McKenzie Santa Maria

Organization:https://therecover.com/

Address: Orange County, CA 92648

Phone: (888) 510-3898

Read more here:

Psilocybin Mushrooms Use For Mental Health Research By The Recover - GlobeNewswire

Utilizing Speak Ai's technology, iSTRYM will provide Ai-driven intelligence to help therapists identify the most efficient and efficacious outcomes for patients of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy

VANCOUVER, BC, April 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -Mind Cure Health Inc. (CSE: MCUR) (OTCQB: MCURF) (FRA: 6MH) ("MINDCURE" or the "Company") a leader in advanced proprietary technology for psychedelic therapy, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a partnership with Speak Ai Inc. ("Speak Ai"). The Canadian-based technology company helps individuals and organizations analyze media, language, and metadata to automatically generate valuable insights through machine learning. MINDCURE will be integrating the platform's capabilities into iSTRYM, and will also work with Speak Ai to develop proprietary, technology-based mental health solutions.

By combining audio, video, and text analysis with metadata in a single platform, Speak Ai has developed a comprehensive solution for generating personalized insights to improve research and personal wellbeing. Their technology has been honed over several years of development, research, and experience, and the organization has built a strong reputation within the psychedelic community.

"We are proud to partner with MINDCURE today to help build iSTRYM into a powerful solution for therapists and patients around the world," said Tyler Bryden, Speak Ai Founder. "I have had the privilege to witness the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies in my own life and in the lives of amazing people around me who are healing from anxiety, depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and more."

This partnership will result in driving data for iSTRYM, taking unstructured data, and creating structure and metrics for the platform integration. Natural language processing with machine learning allows MINDCURE to drive insights for the therapist and patient. This information is often difficult to capture using traditional methods during the course of therapy.

"By developing solutions with empathy, we can improve the level of care to help people avoid, navigate through and recover from crises. We share the belief with MINDCURE that technology can play a major role in enabling these potentially life-changing and individual therapies to succeed at scale," continued Bryden.

"We are excited to work with Tyler and the team at Speak Ai because of their intimate knowledge of the value of technology in the therapeutic and integration process within psychedelics and the traditional therapeutic model," said MINDCURE CEO and President Kelsey Ramsden. "We will be building custom integrations with Speak Ai for the iSTRYM platform that allow us to marry sentiment with biometric data, location, weather, and a variety of other variables to help optimize our integration protocols and provide individuals with quantified care at scale globally, all with the stated goal of advancing Mental Wealth, rooted in data."

About Speak Ai Inc.

Speak Aiis a technology company harnessing the power of AI to help individuals and organizations transform their media into incredible assets for growth. By combining audio, video, and text analysis with metadata in a single platform, the Speak Ai team has developed a comprehensive solution for generating personalized insights that improves research and wellbeing.

Speak Ai works with well-established organizations like the London Health Sciences Centre and Ryerson University to improve recording systems, create transcripts, analyze audio and video quicker and less expensively, and provide an interactive media interface to easily navigate through long recordings. One of the researchers from LHSC said: "This is a complete paradigm shift for how we do research."

About Mind Cure Health (MINDCURE) Inc.

MINDCURE exists as a response to the current mental health crisis and urgent calls for effective treatments. MINDCURE believes in the need to reinvent the mental health care model for patients and practitioners to allow psychedelics to advance into common and accepted care.

MINDCURE is focused on identifying and developing pathways and products that ease suffering, increase productivity, and enhance mental health. MINDCURE is interested in exploring diverse therapeutic areas beyond psychiatry, including digital therapeutics, neuro-supports, and psychedelics, all to improve mental health.

On Behalf of the Board of DirectorsKelsey Ramsden, President & CEOPhone: 1-888-593-8995

Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (also known as forward-looking statements). Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements or industry results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information generally can be identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "anticipate", "believe", "could", "estimate", "expect", "feel", "intend", "may", "plan", "predict", "project", "subject to", "will", "would", and similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions. Some of the specific forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: Speak Ai developing proprietary mental health technology-based solutions for MINDCURE; iSTRYM becoming a must-have solution for therapists and patients around the world; this partnership driving data for iSTRYM; MINDCURE significantly improving the level of care, help people avoid and recover from crises and enable them to reach their fullest potential; and MINDCURE advancing Mental Wealth, rooted in data.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions made by MINDCURE, including, without limitation: the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the Canadian economy and MINDCURE's business, and the extent and duration of such impact; no change to laws or regulations that negatively affect MINDCURE's business; there will be a demand for MINDCURE's products in the future; no unanticipated expenses or costs arise; MINDCURE will be able to continue to identify products that make them ideal candidates for providing solutions for treating mental health; that the functional mushroom industry will continue to grow; Speak Ai will develop proprietary mental health technology-based solutions for MINDCURE; iSTRYM will become a must-have solution for therapists and patients around the world; and MINDCURE will be able to operate its business as planned. Although the forward-looking information contained in this news release is based upon what MINDCURE believes to be reasonable assumptions, it cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such information.

Forward-looking information is provided for the purpose of presenting information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking information involves significant risks and uncertainties and should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results as actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking information. Those risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risks related to: the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian economy, MINDCURE's industry and MINDCURE's business, which may negatively impact, and may continue to negatively impact, MINDCURE and may materially adversely affect MINDCURE's investments, results of operations, financial condition, and MINDCURE's ability to obtain additional equity or debt financing, and satisfy its financial obligations; general economic conditions; future growth potential; competition for mental health and wellness investments; Speak Ai may not develop proprietary mental health technology-based solutions for MINDCURE; iSTRYM may not become a must-have solution for therapists and patients around the world; and changes in legislation or regulations. Management believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information contained herein are based upon reasonable assumptions and information currently available; however, management can give no assurance that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking information. Additional information on the risk factors that could affect MINDCURE can be found under "Risk Factors" in MINDCURE's final prospectus which is available on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking information contained herein is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to MINDCURE. The forward-looking information is stated as of the date of this news release and MINDCURE assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release and the CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Mind Cure Health Inc.

View post:

MINDCURE Announces Partnership with Speak Ai to Enhance iSTRYM, the Company's Psychedelic Digital Therapeutics Technology Platform - PRNewswire

News and research before you hear about it on CNBC and others. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here.

A third city in Massachusetts, Northampton, haspassed an initiativeto make the distribution, use and possession of various psychedelics, such as ayahuasca and psilocybin, one of the lowest priorities of law enforcement in the area. Prior to this, the cities ofCambridgeand Somerville had also approved measures to effectively decriminalize psychedelics.

The Northampton City Council approved the measure, which also stipulates that no police or government funds should be utilized in enforcing laws that criminalize individuals for the possession or use of entheogenic fungi and plants. The city council voted on the resolution&

Read More >>

NOTE TO INVESTORS:The latest news and updates relating to Pure Extracts Technologies Corp. (CSE: PULL) (OTC: PRXTF) are available in the companys newsroom athttps://ibn.fm/PULL

About PsychedelicNewsWire

PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW) is a specialized content distribution company that (1) aggregates and distributes news and information on the latest developments in all aspects and advances of psychedelics and their use, (2) createsPsychedelicNewsBreaksdesigned to quickly update investors on important industry news, (3) leverages a team of expert editors to enhance press releases for maximum impact, (4) assists companies with the management and optimization of social media across a range of platforms, and (5) delivers unparalleled corporate communication solutions. PNW stays abreast of the latest information and has established a reputation as the go to source for coverage of psychedelics, therapeutics and emerging market opportunities. Our team of seasoned journalists has a proven track record of helping both public and private companies gain traction with a wide audience of investors, consumers, media outlets and the general public by leveraging our expansive dissemination network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets. PNW is committed to delivering improved visibility and brand recognition to companies operating in the emerging markets of psychedelics.

To receive instant SMS alerts, text Groovy to 21000 (U.S. Mobile Phones Only)

For more information please visithttps://www.PsychedelicNewsWire.com

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the PsychedelicNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by PNW, wherever published or re-published:https://www.PsychedelicNewsWire.com/Disclaimer

Do you have questions or are you interested in working with PNW?Ask our Editor

PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW)San Francisco, Californiawww.PsychedelicNewsWire.com415.949.5050 OfficeEditor@PsychedelicWire.com

PsychedelicNewsWire is part of theInvestorBrandNetwork.

Read more:

Another City in Massachusetts Approves Measure to Decriminalize Psychedelics - StreetInsider.com