'Psyched': Canada Makes Psilocybin History, Usona Publishes New Method for Psilocybin Synthesis

Canadian Government Allows Psilocybin Treatment to 4 Terminally-Ill Patients

In a landmark decision, the Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu allowed four terminally-ill cancer patients to legally use psilocybin as part of a palliative care treatment for end-of-life distress.

This is the first time in history that Canadian patients have received a legal exemption from the Canadian Drugs and Substances Act to use any kind of psychedelic therapy, marking a precedent in the country’s path to legalization and decriminalization of entheogenic substances. Psilocybin was made illegal in Canada in 1974.

Minister Hajdu’s decision came after over 100 days since the requests had been made, stated TheraPsil, an NGO that advocates for legal access to psilocybin therapy for palliative Canadians.

TheraPsil accompanied the patients in the process of receiving approval.

Executive Director Spencer Hawkswell told Benzinga that if psilocybin continues to be a treatment option demanded by Canadian patients and doctors, that would warrant some form of regulation so that the compound can continue to be accessed, and hopefully prescribed to patients by doctors.

“Health Canada has mentioned that they will continue to look at each application on a case by case basis, but regardless we expect that future applications will not take 100 days. We would hope it takes no more than a week,” said Hawkswell.

The organization is also working towards achieving medical legalization of the compound.

“To get to medical legalization it will take a few more applications being granted which should warrant formalized regulations, at which point patients would hopefully seek prescriptions and approval from doctors, not bureaucrats,” concluded Hawkswell.

Usona Institute Publishes New Method for Psilocybin Synthesis

The Usona Institute, a non-profit medical research institution based in Madison, Wisconsin, published a new development in the production of large quantities of Psilocybin.

The technique was published and made publicly available in the open-access journal ACS Omega. This work is available to current GMP manufacturing labs.

The 1.2 kilograms of psilocybin per batch produced by this method can provide nearly fifty thousand 25-milligram doses of psilocybin.

In a press release, the institution also said that it’s currently providing psilocybin to qualified researchers at no cost, through its Investigational Drug Supply Program, with the aim of advancing scientific and medical understanding of the compound. 

The Yield Growth Raises 1.4 million, Files Research Application

The Yield Growth Corp. BOSS BOSQF announced Thursday that its majority-owned subsidiary NeonMind Biosciences has submitted an application with Health Canada to receive permission to launch preclinical trials for the use of psilocybin as a treatment for weight loss and food cravings.

The company expects to receive the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption to start the study within several months.

The Yield Growth Corp. also announced recently it has closed financings totalling $1.4 million. The proceeds came from a non-brokered private placement of $700.000 and a shelf prospectus supplement for another $700.000.