University of Guelph obtain license to study psychedelic compounds in ‘magic mushrooms’

The University of Guelph is getting a government license to study ‘magic mushrooms’ and the psychedelic compounds they contain.

The license comes amid growing interest in the potential benefits of magic mushrooms, to treat a wide range of medical issues.

Burlington resident Alison Myrden has been using magic mushrooms to treat her physical pain for more than three decades. Myrden has primary progressive multiple sclerosis,
and trigeminal neuralgia which causes painful shocks on her face.

“I consume it in tea and then I eat the raw mushrooms, my pain is gone, my partner, Gary Lynch has timed it, within six minutes,” Myrden said.

In 2017 Myrden says she became the first authorized patient in Canada to be treated with mushrooms, with the support of her neurologist.

The production, sale, and possession of magic mushrooms remain illegal in Canada, but Myrden says she is authorized by her doctor to possess and consume them.

There are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin, the psychedelic compound within the mushrooms so even though Myrden says she is allowed to use them, she cannot purchase them from a legal source.

Currently, there is renewed interest in studying how mushrooms could be used therapeutically, but until you have the dosage uniform and the type of material standardized you can’t conduct proper clinical trials.

University of Guelph Ph.D. student Marco Pepe and professor Max Jones got a government license to cultivate any of the more than 200 varieties of magic mushrooms containing psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds.

The University of Guelph is one of the first schools in Canada to get a license like this.

The federal government says clinical trials on their use for mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and substance abuse have shown promising results.

Currently, there are nine ongoing clinical trials to test psilocybin’s efficacy, one for physical pain and the rest for mental health disorders.