The British Columbia-based company Optimi Health gathered its first psilocybin mushroom cultivation at Health Canada-licensed facilities in Princeton, British Columbia, positioning itself as a major player in the thriving psychedelic sector.
The $ 14 million plant consists of two 10,000-square-foot facilities with a total of 10 growing rooms that can produce approximately 2,000 kilograms of dried psilocybin mushrooms a month, according to Optimi’s chief cultivator, Todd Henderson.
“[It’s] phenomenal scale … There is no one else in the world to do what [we’re] I’m doing it right now, “Henderson said.
“Thousands of years ago, the Chinese and the indigenous people used them to solve all kinds of problems on their own, and thousands of years later we are returning to it.”
Todd Henderson is responsible for growing psychedelic mushrooms for Optimi Health at a growing facility in Princeton, British Columbia. (Curtis Allen / CBC)
Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly referred to as magic mushrooms, are a controlled substance in Canada that makes it illegal to grow, possess or sell, unless authorized by Health Canada.
“It’s amazing to see what research shows.”
This month, the agency granted Optimi a license to produce mushrooms, as well as an exemption for research into the extraction of the psychedelic components of psilocybin and psilocin for use in clinical trials, according to the company.
Optimi says their facilities are built to meet Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, a quality assurance standard required by Health Canada for the production of psilocybin for clinical trials.
“We are the only GMP organic facility in the world that can deliver what we do. We have contacts around the world for people who would like to do research with psilocybin,” said Lee Grant, director of operations for Optimi Health.
The idea to build the facility came from a desire to explore the healing benefits of natural products, said Brian Safarik, chief operating officer.
Researchers are conducting clinical trials of psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. (Curtis Allen / CBC)
“It’s really amazing to see what research shows about medical benefits [of psilocybin mushrooms] and where can all this go, “Safarik said.
Canadian entrepreneur Chip Wilson, who founded Lululemon, is a consultant to the company, and his son JJ Wilson is chairman of the board of Optimi.
The company also grows unregulated varieties of fungi, including lion’s mane and chaga mushrooms, which are commonly found in health food stores.
Therapeutic benefits
The main product remains psychedelic mushrooms, of which Optimi hopes to position itself as a major supplier to the global market for medical-grade psilocybin.
In recent years, scientists have studied the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic mushrooms to treat everything from addiction to relieving end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill patients.
University of British Columbia psychology professor Zack Walsh has studied psilocybin over the past decade, including a recent study of a microdose of the compound in which people take multiple small doses of mushrooms to treat depression and anxiety.
“There is growing evidence that psilocybin may help address treatment-resistant depression in a way that is just as effective or perhaps even more effective than traditional antidepressants,” Walsh said.
“People have mystical experiences with psilocybin … Depression can be a loss of meaning in life and a loss of sense of purpose, and so having this kind of deep experience can really revive people.”
In January, Health Canada restored aspects of its Special Access Program – which was significantly modified by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2013 – by allowing doctors to request access to limited drugs such as psilocybin to treat patients with mental illness, such as after traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
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