草莓污视频导航

Psychedelic art
Mathieu Potvin

Making Magic

Advancements in the field of psychedelic medicine have put magic mushrooms at the vanguard of a renaissance that could transform healthcare

Doctor Peter Facchini, PhD, got serious about science when he was 16 and bored of the experiments in his Sears Wish Book chemistry set. Instead, he started to conduct 鈥渕ore dramatic鈥 experiments out of his mother鈥檚 high school chemistry textbook which was published in the 1950s when, he says, 鈥渟afety and liability weren鈥檛 priorities in youth activities.鈥

In Grade 11, Facchini鈥檚 science teacher assigned him a project to test the effect of electricity on plants. The teacher considered Facchini鈥檚 experimental setup too dangerous for the regular lab and locked his equipment in a prep room. Facchini needed to ask for a key every time he wanted to check on his experiment. This wouldn鈥檛 do. 鈥淚 decided it was acceptable to 鈥榖orrow鈥 equipment for my chemistry experiments at home,鈥 Facchini says. He converted the kitchen in the basement of his family鈥檚 Toronto home into a chemistry lab. 鈥淚 was able to pull off some interesting results.鈥 (Even more interesting results came six years later, when Facchini was working on his post-doc and his mother called him in a panic. The hinges on the basement kitchen cupboard had completely rusted out and the doors had fallen off. She wanted to know what he鈥檇 left in the cupboard. 鈥淚t was probably sulphuric acid,鈥 Facchini told her.)听听听听

After high school, Facchini earned a Bachelor of Science in botany from the University of Toronto and then started postgraduate studies. Two months after he started his master鈥檚 degree, Facchini鈥檚 supervising professor resigned after the university discovered he鈥檇 never completed his doctorate. 鈥淚t just so happened the initials for his first and second name were DR,鈥 Facchini says. 鈥淪omeone started calling him 鈥榙octor鈥 and he just went with it.鈥 With his supervisor axed, Facchini continued with his collaborator. 鈥淭his guy happened to be working on medicinal plants,鈥 Facchini says.听听听

Facchini defended his PhD in 1991 before starting a postdoctoral fellowship at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al where he was involved in a project to reduce the glucosinolate content of canola to make the seeds tastier for picky pigs and cows. The idea was to insert a gene into the canola that would halt the production of glucosinolate in the seed. Facchini asked his supervisor if he could clone the gene from opium poppies 鈥 the enzyme catalyzes the first step in the pathway from poppy to morphine. His supervisor slouched back in his reclining office chair, sighed, then sprang forward and opened the side drawer of his desk. 鈥淚 just happen to have a jar of opium poppy seeds,鈥 he said.

In 1995, Facchini accepted a position at the 草莓污视频导航, where he has been conducting research in opiates, cannabis and psychedelics ever since. Facchini reigns as Alberta鈥檚 only researcher with a licence to grow opium poppies and has tended to a garden of poppies in the basement of 草莓污视频导航鈥檚 Science A building for 25 years. Elsewhere in Science A, Facchini maintains a greenhouse devoted to his cannabis plants and peyote cactus 鈥 the source of the psychedelic mescaline. He doesn鈥檛 grow 鈥渕agic鈥 psilocybin mushrooms, but this is only because he doesn鈥檛 need to. Facchini developed a way to synthesize doseable amounts of psilocybin, as well as other psychedelic compounds, in the cells of ordinary baker鈥檚 yeast and bacteria. 鈥淲hy bother with the mushroom?鈥 he says.听听听

Facchini co-founded Epimeron Inc., a private biotechnology firm, out of his 草莓污视频导航 lab in March 2014. For the first five years, Epimeron focused on producing opiate molecules in yeast rather than from poppies, just as he鈥檚 doing with psilocybin. In the spring of 2019, Epimeron merged with another Calgary biotech firm to form Willow Biosciences Inc. Under Facchini鈥檚 direction as chief scientific officer, Willow used the same yeast process to biosynthesize cannabinoids, including cannabigerol, considered 鈥渢he mother of all cannabinoids鈥 for its ability to naturally evolve into compounds like THC and CBD.听

In April 2020, in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, Willow decided to reduce its Calgary-based headcount, and Facchini and his team suddenly found themselves contemplating their futures.听听

Psychedelic research boasts a long history on the Canadian prairies. Indeed, it was a Saskatchewan-based psychiatrist named Dr. Humphry Osmond who first coined the term 鈥減sychedelic鈥 in 1953 in a poem he wrote for his friend, author Aldous Huxley (best known for his science-fiction novel, Brave New World), after guiding him through a mescaline trip:听

To fathom Hell or go angelic听
Just take a pinch of PSYCHEDELIC听

Peter Facchini in the lab

Facchini and his team at MagicMed are working at developing derivatives of psilocybin to create what he calls a 鈥減sy-brary鈥 of novel molecules.

Jason Stang

Two years earlier, Osmond had accepted a research position with his fellow psychiatrist and biochemist, Dr. Abram Hoffer, at the overcrowded Saskatchewan Mental Hospital in Weyburn, one of the largest asylums in North America. Hoffer secured grant funding from Premier Tommy Douglas鈥 government to examine the effectiveness of LSD and mescaline as drugs for treating schizophrenia and alcoholism.

Work by Hoffer, Osmond and colleagues in labs worldwide led to a revolution in brain science and psychiatry that lasted through the 1960s 鈥 but the party ended once the parties started. The drugs inevitably drifted out of the labs and into the counter-culture, and recreational use of psychedelics overshadowed their research potential. As the drugs became associated with anti-establishment movements 鈥 especially among anti-Vietnam War activists in the U.S. 鈥 governments began to regard psychedelics as more menace than medicine. The UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances banned psychedelics globally in 1971, and medical research effectively ceased for more than 30 years.听听

Psychedelic science was resurrected in 2006 when researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine showed a single high dose of psilocybin had long-lasting positive effects on a patient鈥檚 mood and sense of well-being. The study sparked an ongoing renaissance of psychedelic research, especially in the last decade.

By the end of January 2021, the U.S. National Library of Medicine鈥檚 ClinicalTrials.gov website showed 59 psilocybin drug trials had been registered worldwide. These studies pit psilocybin against a wide range of conditions including depression, anorexia nervosa, cluster and migraine headaches, PTSD, alcoholism, and disorders linked to cocaine and opioid use. If the outcomes of such tests prove positive, psilocybin could soon emerge as a licensed medication for multiple forms of mental illness.鈥赌

Perhaps it was no surprise, then, that Facchini and his locked-down colleagues didn鈥檛 stay unemployed for long. 鈥淚 sat in my backyard, drank a lot of beer, thought about psychedelics, had a lot of Zoom calls, and said, 鈥楾o hell with it, let's start another company!鈥欌 Facchini says. 鈥淥pportunity knocked.鈥

A Toronto-based investment banker familiar with Facchini鈥檚 work wanted to launch a new biotech firm focusing on psychedelics. The investor had confidence in the team鈥檚 broad experience, Facchini says, 鈥渘ot just in the science with the things we鈥檇 done before, but also in our business savvy.鈥 What had started out as a thought experiment by Facchini and his crew at the beginning of April 2020 was incorporated as MagicMed Industries by the end of May and had secured $30 million in commitments from investors by the end of the year. In February 2021, Business Insider magazine ranked MagicMed the fifth highest money-raising psychedelic startup in the world.

Facchini confesses to not understanding the psychology of venture capitalists. 鈥淚 became a scientist to avoid dealing with lawyers and businesspeople,鈥 he says. Still, he wonders if the pandemic-stalled economy inspired investors. 鈥淚nvestors need an active economy; they need money to be moving to do what they do. And so, they were looking for these opportunities.鈥 Especially, as it turns out, in the medical psychedelic space. Investors are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the sector. 鈥淲e鈥檙e capitalizing on it,鈥 Facchini says. 鈥淲e have business savvy, but it鈥檚 also a pretty easy sell. And we鈥檙e one of the few companies that actually has hardcore science behind it.鈥

Facchini says MagicMed鈥檚 approach of responding to market demand differs from the usual academic model 鈥渨hich is, 鈥業f you build it, they will come.鈥 They usually don鈥檛. 鈥淭here are still people who feel academia should be this pure, ivory-tower endeavour. If you are trying to make money from your research, then it鈥檚 dirty.鈥

But, in order for universities to remain relevant to the world off-campus, they have to emerge as economic engines. Facchini says he believes the kind of market-focused research MagicMed engages in could drive the post-pandemic recovery in Alberta 鈥 especially in the wake of a collapsing energy industry. The province may turn to academia to create new jobs in new sectors. 鈥淭he university is saying we should lead,鈥 Facchini says. 鈥淵ou have to start by being supportive of the trailblazers.鈥

草莓污视频导航鈥檚 new听Parker听Psychedelic Research Chair, established earlier this year听by alumnus Jim Parker (BA 鈥90), demonstrates the university鈥檚 commitment to innovation in the psychedelic field. The Chair will launch a psychadelic听 research program within the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research & Education at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) to consider initiatives targeted toward improving mental health. Under this program, 草莓污视频导航 could emerge as world a leader in psychedelic research.

That said, market enthusiasm for psychedelics will eventually abate; investors showed similar excitement for cannabinoids only a few years ago, but then the bubble burst. 鈥淐annabinoids are mostly yesterday鈥檚 news,鈥 Facchini says.

The 鈥渕ushroom boom鈥 won鈥檛 last forever, either, and many of the new psychedelic startups won鈥檛 be around in a few years. 鈥淚 have no delusions about what to expect,鈥 Facchini says. MagicMed needs to raise as much capital as quickly as possible and position itself in terms of partnerships and acquisitions. 鈥淵ou want to be one of the survivors as opposed to some of these companies that aren鈥檛 going to be here a year from now.鈥

In the meantime, important science needs to be done. Researchers remain uncertain how psilocybin and other psychedelics function. A U.K.-based scientist has been using MRI scans to observe what parts of the brain light up with psilocybin and determine the mechanism of action. Evidence suggests that psilocybin and other 鈥渃lassic鈥 psychedelics like LSD and mescaline bind to particular serotonin receptors. The drugs likely disrupt brain circuits and systems that encode rumination 鈥 the sort of repetitive thoughts and behaviours that characterize a range of mental illness, from depression and addiction to anorexia.

Facchini and his team at MagicMed are working at developing derivatives of psilocybin to create what he calls a 鈥減sy-brary鈥 of novel molecules that can be patented and tested for their clinical effectiveness.听

HBI director Dr. David Park, PhD, is keen for members of the institute to work with鈥疢agicMed and the psilocybin derivatives they eventually isolate. 鈥淲e can act as matchmakers to see what researchers within HBI would be interested in some of the novel compounds generated by MagicMed,鈥 Park says.

The Mathison Centre, HBI鈥檚 mental-health research arm, can facilitate both animal studies as well as clinical trials important to understand how psilocybin and/or its derivatives may affect mental health.

HBI is excited about collaborating with a startup as local as MagicMed 鈥 whose labs are literally up the street 鈥 and the psychedelics鈥 potential as a treatment for a variety of mental-health conditions. But, despite the anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of whole-plant psychedelics, their long history as recreational drugs, and the enthusiasm for MagicMed鈥檚 novel compounds, Park cautions against moving too quickly. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 shortcut science,鈥 he says.

Business Insider magazine ranked MagicMed the fifth highest money-raising psychedelic startup in the world.

If Facchini, Park and their scientist collaborators occupy one end of the medical psychedelic chain, palliative-care physician Dr. Lyle Galloway, MD, a clinical lecturer in the Department of Oncology, stands at the other. Galloway first encountered psychedelic mushrooms when he was in his early 20s, while travelling abroad. 鈥淚t was a profound experience,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淚 had a big-dose experience right off the bat that gave me a considerable amount of respect for what these medicines can do.鈥 Galloway bought some books on how to cultivate mushrooms and ordered himself some mail-order spores. 鈥淚 got reasonably good at growing psilocybin mushrooms,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淎nd then I got married and had kids and then life went on.鈥

After decades of dormancy, psychedelic mushrooms have bloomed in Galloway鈥檚 professional life over the past few years. Research started to emerge suggesting psilocybin can have a role in alleviating what palliative-care physicians refer to as 鈥渆xistential distress鈥 鈥 one of the most difficult forms of suffering to treat. 鈥淪upportive counselling helps to some extent, but talk therapy only goes so far,鈥 Galloway says. Two simultaneous studies published in 2016 from New York University and Johns Hopkins showed patients with end-of-life depression and anxiety responded dramatically and rapidly to a single treatment with psilocybin.听

The studies hardly surprised the many therapists who鈥檝e long been working outside the law with psilocybin and other psychedelics. 听鈥淭here is a wealth of experience out there with underground therapists who鈥檝e been working for years 鈥 decades, in some cases 鈥 with these medicines,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not really acknowledged.鈥澨

Galloway, though, sought more official training. In 2019, he enrolled in the year-long Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research certificate program offered by the California Institute of Integral Studies. The program's faculty included scientists who performed much of the original research on therapeutic psychedelics in the 1960s and 1970s.

Galloway, a clinician-scientist who is currently collecting data to inform future practice and research, has had a number of patients ask him about possible use of psilocybin in their own cases, often having heard about it in the news or through support groups. Galloway makes sure these patients understand that the science of medical psychedelics is relatively new, and that while he believes the treatment is safe for most patients, careful screening is necessary and there may be side effects the medical community doesn鈥檛 yet know about. If patients are interested in pursuing this option, Galloway will discuss the evolving process by which they can apply for an exemption, and ensure they are connected with appropriate medical and psychotherapeutic supports to proceed safely.

Once granted an exemption, the patient must seek out his or her own supply of psilocybin mushrooms. Unlike cannabis products that can now be legally purchased in specialty shops in nearly every neighbourhood, psychedelics remain illegal. Still, patients have little trouble sourcing them. Even those with no street contacts or any experience with recreational psychedelics easily manage to score mail-order 鈥檚hrooms online. 鈥淚 have patients in their 60s who went online and, without substantial Internet knowledge, ended up with therapeutic quantities of mushrooms in their mailbox,鈥 Galloway says.

Galloway then encourages his patients to bring their newly acquired mushrooms into the office for a formal, supervised therapy session. However, psychedelic-inspired healing does not rely on the presence of a therapist. 鈥淓ssentially, the real healing comes from the patient 鈥斕齣t comes from inside,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淗owever, a trained therapist can function as a guide for the experience. Someone familiar with the territory [who] can help make sense of what happens.鈥

Unlike drugs that serve to blunt consciousness, psychedelics can bust down all the doors. 鈥淭hese medicines need to be approached with a certain amount of respect, or even reverence,鈥 Galloway says. Trips are rarely pleasure cruises to a patient鈥檚 happy place. 鈥淎 psychedelic experience can be extremely scattered and extremely scary,鈥 Galloway says. While patients can enjoy some fun and levity during their psychedelic session, the experience is often agonizing. Long-buried grief and unprocessed guilt can erupt unexpectedly.

One of Galloway鈥檚 palliative colleagues observed one patient endure such agony during her psilocybin treatment that the therapists who witnessed the experience also suffered distress. 鈥淭hey even arranged a debriefing for all the staff on the unit,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淪ometimes it goes this way.鈥 The patient, though, woke the next day needing half of the pain medication and none of the sedatives she鈥檇 been using before the session. After meeting the therapist for one post-psychedelic 鈥渋ntegration work鈥 appointment, the patient 鈥渨ent on with her life,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淪he was able to address her end-of-life issues in a straightforward way that she never was able to before.鈥

Chemicals in the lab

Jason Stang

Despite such anecdotal successes and hours-long therapist-led sessions, Facchini questions their practicality. 鈥淚magine if every time you needed to take an antibiotic, you had to sit for four hours in the doctor鈥檚 office,鈥 he says. 鈥淵ou need medicines that are going to be prescribable.鈥 This is what MagicMed aims to produce in its labs. Clinical trials will eventually show whether or not the psilocybin derivatives MagicMed isolates can still function as effective medicine 鈥 if they bind to the appropriate receptors, say 鈥 without inducing psychedelic effects. In other words, will his novel compounds allow a patient to reach their therapeutic destination without taking the trip?

Galloway, while admiring Facchini鈥檚 lab work, suspects the trip is necessary. 鈥淢ost people in my field are not that excited about the discussion of receptors,鈥 Galloway says. Questions about biochemical pathways, dosing and other such factors appear less important in psychedelic-based therapy than what Galloway calls the mystical experience. 鈥淲hat seems to be linked to a positive outcome is having a transcendent sort of experience,鈥 he says. 鈥淭here is something about the experience of leaving your ordinary consciousness for a period of time, then returning, that taps into a profound healing potential.鈥 He says the psychedelic trip grants patients suffering from end-of-life distress a 鈥50,000-foot view鈥 on their 鈥渟mall self.鈥 From that height, they can tap into something larger, whatever that might be.

Mystical, though, doesn鈥檛 mean religious. A psilocybin trip is not necessarily a commute with God. Avowed atheists benefit from these therapies without emerging as believers at the other side. Still, the experience does touch patients at the spiritual dimension of their existence in the same way meditation, chanting and devotional dance has for the followers of traditional faiths. All these experiences can help someone access elevated states of consciousness, Galloway says. 鈥淏ut the ability to go so far away from your ordinary state of consciousness and return within a number of hours is unique to psychedelics.鈥

The idea that Facchini鈥檚 molecules might allow patients to bypass these sessions fascinates Galloway: 鈥淲ould it be possible to develop a molecule that rewires patterns in the brain and allows insight? One that drops you back into your life without any therapy involved? Maybe. I don鈥檛 know.鈥 Clinical testing of Facchini鈥檚 novel compounds may eventually answer these questions.听

In the meantime, Galloway and his colleagues in the field weigh the actual therapy component heavily. 鈥淲e look at the psychedelic as the catalyst for the therapy,鈥 Galloway says. An introspective patient who is a disciplined meditator, say, might be able to make some progress with psilocybin on a solo trip. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 something about having an objective third party in the room who gives a good perspective and can guide things in a helpful direction.鈥澨

The emergence of psychedelic medicine may do more than treat existential distress in patients; it might cure a sense of disillusionment among the palliative-care professionals themselves. Galloway figures half of the palliative-care physicians he knows have grown cynical about the work. 鈥淵ou can say we鈥檙e treating depression and anxiety, and we do that, or at least pretend to do that, with existing medications and therapies,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淏ut we were worried that we weren鈥檛 doing much good.鈥 Galloway had grown so disheartened with the work, he contemplated quitting psychiatry altogether. 鈥淭hen [psychedelic medicine] came along and revolutionized things. The reason why I got into psychiatry was because I wanted to help people in the way I am seeing this help people.鈥

As psychedelic medicine inches gradually into the mainstream, Galloway hopes his fellow practitioners talk openly about their own experiences with psilocybin. 鈥淎 year ago, I wouldn鈥檛 have admitted I was good at growing mushrooms when I was in my 20s,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淣ow, I am more comfortable. The fact is that these medicines have been used by responsible people in the real world for decades, if not millennia, and are not causing damage all over the place.鈥 He says he believes more open conversation about use of these medicines by both patients and therapists will be beneficial.听

In addition to assisting patients access therapeutic psychedelics, the non-profit coalition TheraPsil has been working on obtaining psilocybin exemptions for their physicians and therapists. Health Canada granted at least 19 such exemptions for health-care professionals in December 2020, and more are forthcoming. 鈥淚 hope this becomes the norm in order to qualify to be a psychedelic therapist,鈥 Galloway says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe you can do a good job without having some personal experience."

Trips are rarely pleasure cruises to a patient鈥檚 happy place.

For his part, Facchini cares little about the approval of mainstream science. He鈥檚 built a career out of researching compounds many consider illicit. 鈥淚鈥檝e never been concerned about what someone else is going to think,鈥 Facchini says. Tut-tutting conservative academics who would shy away from such research baffles him. 鈥淭he whole idea of tenure is you鈥檙e supposed to be able to push the boundaries, as long as you鈥檙e not breaking the law or harassing anybody,鈥 Facchini says. 鈥淵ou should be taking risks, and those risks are what pay off.鈥

Many of Facchini鈥檚 medical psychedelic colleagues were first drawn to the field by their own experimentation. 鈥淚鈥檝e heard from others in the sector say, 鈥業 went somewhere in South America and did ayahuasca and it changed my life,鈥欌 Facchini says.

This is the sort of origin story many people expect Facchini to tell. Facchini, though, resembles the 16-year-old kid in his kitchen chem lab more than a retired drug-tourist in a lab coat. He is no more fervent about psychedelics than he is about morphine or E. coli. 鈥淚 am not passionate about psychedelics 鈥 I am passionate about the science,鈥 he admits. 鈥淚鈥檓 passionate about how the applications of the science can impact people in a positive way.

鈥淚 want to be Elon Musk and make rockets that actually take off and land. I want to make these things work.鈥

Trippy Roots

The earth abounds with chemical compounds intended to deter herbivores, protect against pathogens and other clever tricks of nature 鈥 for humans, however, such psychoactive plants can have mind-altering effects

Mushrooms

Mathieu Potvin

Mushaboom

What makes a mushroom magic? Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound occurring naturally in more than 200 species of fungi. In humans, psilocybin has hallucinogenic effects similar to LSD and mescaline including a sense of euphoria, changes in perception and a distorted sense of time (think Alice in Wonderland).听

Peyote

Mathieu Potvin

Wile E. Peyote

Used for thousands of years by Indigenous tribes for healing and religious purposes, peyote is a small cactus that grows in the American southwest, Mexico and Peru. Effects of its hallucinogenic substance, mescaline, include a loss of ability to think rationally and a feeling that time is passing more slowly than it is.

Ergot

Mathieu Potvin

Cogito, Ergot Sum

Not the sexiest of backstories, ergot is a parasitic fungus that grows on rye. Discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in the 1940s, ergot contains a compound from which lysergic acid diethylamide (a.k.a. LSD) can be derived. 鈥淏icycle Day鈥 (April 19) marks Hoffman鈥檚 legendarily trippy bike ride home after trying the drug for the first time.

Morning Glory

Mathieu Potvin

Mornin鈥, Glory

The common name for more than 1,000 species of flowering plants, morning glory seeds contain ergoline alkaloids that can produce a similar effect to LSD when taken in large doses. Their use dates back to ancient Aztec and Mayan tribes whose high priests would consume the seeds to trigger vision quests.听

Ayahuasca

Mathieu Potvin

Potent Brew

A brew made from various ingredients including caapi vine, which grows in the Amazon region, ayahuasca has long been used by traditional healers in several South American countries, and it plays an important role in some religious ceremonies. According to current research, its psychedelic properties may protect brain cells and stimulate neural cell growth.

Iboga

Mathieu Potvin

Big Chew

A perennial rainforest shrub growing in Central Africa, iboga鈥檚 roots and bark contain a psychoactive alkaloid that induces a profound psychedelic trance state when consumed in large doses. Its taste has been described as 鈥渓ike sawdust laced听with battery acid.鈥

Salvia

Mathieu Potvin

Salviation

A member of the mint family, salvia is a psychedelic herb whose leaves contain opioid-like compounds. It鈥檚 fast-acting and, anecdotally, when chewed, smoked or imbibed in tea, can produce a particularly unpleasant experience.听 鈥擩惭