Jamaica’s mountainous peaks and emerald water beaches aren’t the only reason people call this Caribbean Island nation paradise. It’s also home to numerous psychedelic retreats. Psilocybin mushrooms are legal there, and Havn Life Sciences is using this opportunity to launch a psilocybin cultivation facility on the island.
“Growing regulated psilocybin mushrooms for medical research is a very complex process. Our Jamaican collaborations are expected to allow us to optimize and refine our processes faster than we could elsewhere,” says Dr. Ivan Casselman, chief psychedelic officer of the psychedelic biotech company Havn Life Sciences. “Most importantly, they’re expected to better facilitate Havn Life’s commitment to helping patients, specifically those participating in observational studies in Jamaica.”
Havn Life entered into a partnership with Hypha Wellness Jamaica Psilocybin (HWJP) to research and develop a supply chain for the regulated production of psilocybin medicine for therapeutic use. The companies are slated to develop standardized powdered, homogenized, psilocybin mushroom products for academic research around the world before the end of 2021. Havn Life is focused on supporting future clinical trials using psilocybin to address post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related disorders.
Headquartered in Kingston, the HWJP facility is dedicated to the cultivation, extraction, and manufacturing of nutraceuticals, and is positioned to explore and optimize the therapeutic and commercial potentials of psilocybin and other fungi for local and international markets.
“Havn Life’s work in Jamaica is aimed at furthering our mandate of supplying safe, quality controlled, psilocybin medicine to researchers and patients around the globe,” Dr. Casselman says. “We want to supply as many researchers as we can with naturally derived compounds and this partnership will bring us one step closer to our goal of building an international psychedelic supply chain framework.”
