A Brave New World | high times

When Oregon voters passed Proposition 109 in 2020, they paved the way for greater access to the therapeutic uses of psilocybin mushrooms and products containing their active compounds. The voting measure, passed by more than 55% of the vote, authorized the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to create a program that would allow licensed service providers to manufacture and administer psilocybin-producing mushroom products to adults 21 and older.

Prop. 109, a model for progressive drug policy reform, also laid the groundwork for a new industry in Oregon. The Psilocybin Services Section of the OHA is charged with drafting rules for licensing and regulating the manufacture, transportation, supply, sale and purchase of psilocybin products and the provision of psilocybin services, with a mandate to operate the program in the to be put into operation in 2023. The agency is already accepting applications for psilocybin business licenses, and savvy entrepreneurs are forming new companies to service a burgeoning industry.

A new business is born

George Sellhorn, founder and chief scientist at Flourish Labs in Portland, is one of the business owners preparing to launch legal psilocybin in Oregon. He has had a personal relationship with psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms, since he was young, and acknowledges that psychedelics have had a “huge impact” on his life. He is also an avid cannabis enthusiast and has been growing his own plants since 1993 with advice and encouragement from High Times. His interest in and passion for cannabis inspired his academic pursuits, with Sellhorn earning a Ph.D. in Plant Biochemistry from the University of Washington in 2006.

At the time, the legal cannabis industry in the US was still in its infancy, and professional positions were few and far between. Sellhorn turned to biotechnology early in his career, working intermittently on cancer therapeutics and an HIV vaccine. Soon, however, friends from companies in the burgeoning industry encouraged him to open a cannabis testing lab. Desperate to see where his chosen path would take him, he decided against starting his own business, although he dabbled in the industry and helped a few friends set up labs. It seemed right for Sellhorn at the time, but it wasn’t long before he wished he’d made a different choice.

“A few years later, I kind of kicked myself and said, ‘I probably should have opened a lab, and I’d probably be a lot happier than I am now,'” he tells me in a phone interview.

After Prop. 109 was passed, things came full circle. Once again, friends from a burgeoning legal industry encouraged him to open a lab. The voting measure includes provisions governing the OHA regulations on testing psilocybin products for contamination. Additionally, therapists want to know the dosage of the drugs they are administering, leading to a need for potency data throughout the supply chain.

Sellhorn recalls thinking, “I’ve walked this path before,” and decided that this time he wouldn’t leave it for later regrets. He began ordering the laboratory equipment and materials he would need to start operations in September 2021, and by early 2022 Flourish Labs was ready to begin collecting samples and conducting testing.

Sellhorn says that fungal testing is quite similar to lab analysis of cannabis, but with one key difference. Like many cannabis labs, Sellhorn uses high performance liquid chromatography with integrated ultraviolet spectroscopy (HPLC-UV) to separate the molecules of a given sample and determine its composition. However, unlike cannabinoids, which are fat-soluble (hydrophobic), the alkaloids in mushrooms are water-soluble (hydrophilic), which requires a change in approach to make it work. “So the same methods as cannabis, but the exact opposite chemistry,” summarizes Sellhorn.

Lab tests for psilocybin and more

Much of the time Sellhorn spends testing is determining the amount of psychoactive alkaloids, or the potency, that a given sample contains. More than 50 species of mushrooms produce psilocybin, which is expressed at varying levels determined by factors such as genetics and growing practices.

“The most potent mushroom I’ve seen in different people is an albino penis envy, or APE,” says Sellhorn. “Eve tested anywhere from 0.1% alkaloids up to 2.3%, which was the highest I have tested to date. So there’s quite a wide range. The average I would say is around 0.5% to 0.7% alkaloids [by dry weight].”

Originally, Sellhorn’s business plan primarily involved the analysis of mushrooms containing psilocybin and related alkaloids, including psilocin, psilocybin, norpsilocin, baeocystine, and norbaeocystine. Since opening Flourish Labs, he has also developed testing protocols for other products made with psilocybin mushrooms that are likely to be part of Oregon’s upcoming regulated market.

“I can also make fruit bodies and fruit gums, pralines and extracts, be it liquid extract or dry extract,” he explains. “So I have a protocol for all the possible products that could be made that I know of up until now.”

High Times Magazine, February 2023

The dosage is the key

Sellhorn notes that renewed interest in the reported health and wellness benefits of psilocybin has fostered a new culture of microdosing, which Sellhorn has been practicing for more than four years. For microdosing, only a tiny fraction of a psychedelic psilocybin dose is taken, perhaps 0.1 to 0.2 milligrams, suggests Sellhorn. For mushrooms of average potency (rounded up to 1% total alkaloids), this equates to about one-tenth to two-tenths of a gram of fungal biomass. “It’s like a really nice microdose that you can adjust based on your body weight,” he says. “A microdose should be enough to lift your spirits without feeling the psychedelic effects, like you’re about to trip.”

At the other end of the spectrum is macro-dosing, which is the ingestion of enough psilocybin to produce a powerful psychedelic effect that can be either a hell of a fun trip or a space for life-changing spiritual or psychological breakthroughs, depending on the intent of the drug. As for macrodosing, Sellhorn says that a dosage of 30 milligrams to 50 milligrams of psilocybin (about 5 grams of mushroom biomass) should be about right for an intense trip. And within the extremes of micro and macro dosing, “there are doses in between for whatever you’re looking for.”

In addition to potency, Sellhorn notes that the form of psilocybin ingested can also affect the drug’s effects. While consuming dried mushrooms is the classic method of consumption, extracted psilocybin and products made from it can alter the effects of the drug.

“It is now fully clear to me that the fungal biomass itself acts as a sustained-release capsule. So if you take a mushroom that has, for example, five milligrams of psilocybin and you eat that, you get a certain effect,” he explains. “And it will take time to meet you. But if you take five milligrams in a gummy bear or a piece of chocolate, it hits you a lot quicker, it’s a lot more intense and it goes by quicker.”

Sellhorn’s work in the lab has also given him the opportunity to expand his knowledge of other psilocybin best practices. He states that proper storage is very effective in maintaining the potency of psilocybin mushrooms. When a customer was looking for data on potency degradation, an in-house study found that shrooms stored in a vacuum-sealed bag and in dark conditions at 60 degrees Fahrenheit retained 98% of their potency after four months.

An expanding scientific field

While he sees a strong market coming to Oregon for the analysis of psilocybin-rich mushrooms, Sellhorn recognized that demand for lab testing could be limited until the industry is more established and generates revenue. Although state regulations will likely eventually include requirements for testing for microbial contamination or the presence of heavy metals in addition to potency, such testing is not yet in high demand. To complement its business plan, Flourish Labs has also begun lab testing so-called functional mushrooms, including Cordyceps, Reishi, and Amanita Muscaria (famous in folklore and pop culture) for compounds that may have health and wellness benefits. Other species that will be tested by the lab in the coming months include lion’s mane, chaga, maitake, tremella, and turkey tail.

When regulated production and administration of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes begins in Oregon later this year, it will create a new industry in the state and become a milestone in the continued evolution of drug policy reform. Leading the way will be a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, including Sellhorn and Flourish Labs.

This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

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