Denver-based company Sträva Craft Coffee has revealed it has begun developing tea and coffee products infused with microdoses of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. Following the recent psilocybin decriminalization measure passed in the city of Denver, Sträva believes it could reach the market with psilocybin coffee within two years.
Research into the clinical uses of psilocybin is one of the most exciting sectors in the modern renaissance of psychedelic science. In 2018 the FDA granted psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression a Breakthrough Therapy designation, expediting subsequent development and review processes.
Back in May a public referendum in Denver, Colorado, passed an extraordinary ballot measure essentially decriminalizing personal use and possession of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The measure was inspired by the growing medical evidence pointing to the benefits of psilocybin.
Sträva CEO Andrew Aamot suggests this initial local Denver initiative is just the beginning of a broader wave of psilocybin acceptance, with the controversial psychedelic traveling the same path marijuana has recently moved along, through decriminalization and toward legalization.
"Just as cannabis has been misunderstood and controversial for decades, psilocybin from mushrooms has been equally polarizing, yet proponents of both suggest they each can contribute meaningfully to the human experience," Aamot says. "As research is proving, with measured consumption, cannabis and psilocybin can both promote physiological, mental and spiritual health."
Sträva of course is not suggesting it will infuse tea and coffee with psychoactive levels of psilocybin. Instead it is exploring using microdoses of the drug, a long-standing method of consuming psychedelics whereby tiny imperceptible volumes are taken for a variety of perceived benefits.
Despite Sträva's press release citing a number of studies into the medical benefits of psilocybin, the science is inarguably still in its infancy, and the science of microdosing is virtually nonexistent. Researchers are only just beginning to explore whether the phenomenon of microdosing is real or simply an elaborate placebo. And there have been literally no safety studies conducted evaluating whether long-term, tiny daily doses of psilocybin have permanent physiological effects.
Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling psychedelic science book How To Change Your Mind, penned an op-ed in the New York Times following the Denver decriminalization initiative, expressing concern over the push to legalize psychedelics in a way similar to that of marijuana.
"As much as the supporters of legal psilocybin hope to follow the political playbook that has rapidly changed the status of cannabis in recent years, they need to bear in mind that psilocybin is a very different drug, and it is not for everyone," Pollan wrote back in May.
At a subsequent talk in Melbourne, Australia, Pollan clarified his concerns, suggesting the issue he identifies is that legalization leads to capitalist promotion of these drugs that we are only just beginning to scientifically understand. It may be one thing to try to slip CBD into every product imaginable, turning it into a miracle cure-all drug, but psilocybin is most definitely not the same thing.
"I see cannabis being promoted and pushed to people, as capitalism will do," Pollan said recently at his Melbourne event. "When I come home from this trip on Monday and I cross through Bay Ridge from the airport to Berkeley, I'll see three or four billboards for companies that can deliver cannabis to my home in two hours, and I just don't think we know enough to legalize these [psychedelic] drugs. We should decriminalize them."
Sträva claims its prospective psilocybin micro-dosed tea and coffee is intended, "to empower consumers with access to natural compounds which may offer life-changing benefits." Sträva has also been working for several years on CBD coffee blends as part of a line of products it collects under the umbrella of "Peace & Wellness."
Source: Strava Craft Coffee
