Asia altering its mind on psychedelic drug treatments

By Mata Press Service

Countries across Asia, struggling with rising rates of suicides are warming up to the idea that psychedelic drugs could help address a range of mental health issues in the region.

“Despite overarching negative perception towards illegal drugs in the region, efforts to increase research into the medicinal potential of psychedelics are emerging,” reported PSYCH in an examination of the Asian psychedelic space.

Recent research has found psilocybin the active ingredient in magic mushrooms is effective in the treatment of alcohol and opiate addiction, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Research into other potential applications is ongoing.

The Psychedelic Research Institute, a partnership between Psychedelic Science Corp., and Rangsit University in Thailand has a study focused on psychoactive cacti and mushrooms. The work will examine the efficacy of these compounds on mental disorders as well as on appetite suppression.

Attitudes toward medicinal ketamine are also warming. Several (currently inactive) clinical trials originated in China studying ketamine’s efficacy on a variety of ailments, including postpartum depression, major depressive disorder (MDD), and autism symptoms, as reported in The Psychedelics as Medicine Report: Second Edition.

Government officials in Singapore, a country known for its hard-line stance on mind-altering substances, recently approved the use of a ketamine nasal spray made by Johnson & Johnson for people suffering from MDD. These small victories for psychedelic therapies could indicate a potential paradigm shift in the Asian continent in coming years, PSYCH reported.

One key issue facing researchers everywhere studying the use of psychedelic drugs is the cost of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

According to scientists at John Hopkins University the current cost of $7,000 - $10,000 per gram of psilocybin, makes it a prohibitively expensive ingredient in medical regimens and academic research.

To address this, a team out of Vancouver’s Core One Labs led by Dr. Robert Hancock, a globally renowned University of British Columbia (UBC) microbiologist and Canada Research Chair Holder in Health and Genomics, has created a new process they expect will bring that cost under $100 a gram by the end of 2022.

“It’s a game changer that allows for rapid, stable and cost-effective psilocybin production to bring the price down of the psychedelic compound that is showing enormous promise in treating addiction, depression and PTSD,” said Dr. Hancock, an Order of Canada recipient.

Psilocybin, Dr Hancock said, has been trialled, tested, legalised and decriminalised in many parts of the world and its “exceptional properties” could transform the mental-health care field.

The new process the team developed uses specially constructed, optimised DNA sequences making bacteria into biological factories for psilocybin production via a fermentation process, allowing the substance to be created in a lab under controlled conditions.

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

“There is a global paradigm shift surrounding the medicinal potential of psychedelics, and we know it is global, because we are witnessing changes in regions, such as Asia, where drug policies are some of the strictest in the World,” said Joel Shacker, CEO of Vancouver-based Core One Labs Inc.

This not only underscore the growing recognition that status quo in the treatment of mental health disorders is not working, it also indicates the increasing acceptance of the emerging field of psychedelics as alternative medicines, he said.

“Psychotherapists around the world are reporting psilocybin treatment, is showing some of the best results compared to any therapy in addressing addiction, anxiety, depression and PTSD, said Shacker.

“The science and engineering by our scientists is playing a significant role in furthering mental health research with cost-effective psychedelic compounds,” he said.

Data from the World Health Organisation shows that across Asia, there is a growing percentage of the adult population experiencing a diagnosable mental illness.

For example, a cross-sectional study on major depressive disorder showed a prevalence of

20.0% in Thailand; 19.9% in Taiwan; 19.4% in South Korea ; 17.5% in Malaysia; and 16.5%

in China.

In Asia, problems arising from poor mental health are the second largest contributor to years

lost because of disability, said WHO.

Without factoring in suicide, mental health issues are projected to reduce economic growth in both India and China by more than $9 trillion between 2016 and 2030.

Lower middle-income countries, such as India, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Indonesia, and

Pakistan, face many challenges, including little available medical treatment, inadequate

investment (typically only 1% or less of meagre health care budgets) and critically low numbers of mental health professionals.

“For example, in India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, there are 0.3 or fewer psychiatrists per 100,000 population. In Chine, there are approximately 20,000 psychiatrists for a population of 1.4 billion,” WHO said.

McMillan LLP research recently reported that psychedelics have come a long way since the 1970s, at which time they faced a negative backlash as a result of the “war on drugs” in the United States, and corresponding restrictions in countries such as Canada.

“With a growing body of research, shifting demographics and a general openness to evaluate non-conventional ways to deal with existing challenges, the public has become more receptive to psychedelics for medical and therapeutic purposes,” said the business law firm.

The Canadian Psychedelic Association has also revealed survey findings from Nanos Research which demonstrated that 82% of Canadians approve the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy, and 78% would support a government that legalized the same.