Ep. 387: The Magic Mushroom Breakthrough

Guest: Dr. Robert Hancock, University of British Columbia

Over the past couple of years, the legal use of psilocybin has been touted as an important and effective agent in the treatment of addiction, save one challenge – the cost is horrendous.

It is so far out of reach for the average person and the health care system. As a result, the idea (while tantalizing) is impractical.

Or at least it was, until Order of Canada recipient Dr Robert Hancock, a globally renowned UBC microbiologist and Canada Research Chair in Health and Genomics, who along with his team at Core One Labs created a new process that will bring the cost to under $100 per gram by the end of 2022. Dr Hancock says, “It’s a game changer that will allow rapid, stable and cost-effective psilocybin production to bring the price down and make this remarkable substance available to those in need.”

Dr Hancock says, “The new process his team has developed uses specially constructed, optimized DNA sequences that turn bacteria into biological factories for psilocybin production within a fermentation process. This process allows the substance to be created in a lab under controlled conditions.”

This breakthrough comes in the wake of Health Canada approving the Special Access Program use of psilocybin in psychedelic assisted therapy for mental illness, which afflicts 1 in 5 people in Canada every year.

Stuart McNish invited Dr Robert Hancock to join him for a Conversation that Matters about the life-saving benefits of making treatment accessible to millions of people in desperate need.