Durrant Pate/ Contributor

Packaged in flat bars that contain 1,000 mg (one gram) of psilocybin per bar

Jamaican medical cannabis retailer, Kaya Group has entered Jamaica’s legal psilocybin market by introducing psilocybin-infused chocolate.

This is being done through its Kaya Extracts subsidiary. Psilocybin, which is popularly called magical mushroom is a naturally occurring psychedelic pro-drug compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi.

Psilocybin is not and has never been banned in the country under the controlled substances listed in Jamaica’s Dangerous Drugs Act and the Jamaican Promotions Corporation (Jampro) has identified opportunities in cultivation and development of facilities that can process psilocybin according to international standards.

A significant number of Jamaicans and tourists from the U.S., Europe, and Asia are already self-medicating with psilocybin. Over the years, studies by researchers including those at Johns Hopkins Medicine suggest that treatment with psilocybin was effective in relieving major depression disorder, among other disorders, warranting more research into its possibilities.

Kaya’s initial Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) of Jamaican white, dark, and milk chocolate comes in flat bars that contain 1,000 mg (one gram) of psilocybin per bar that can be broken into four equal-sized pieces containing 250 mg of psilocybin per square.

Kaya Group recently celebrated with Jamaican reggae music artistes, Ky-Mani Marley, Chi Ching, and others, five years of medical cannabis sales under Jamaica’s amended law at Kaya Herb House locations, providing a higher end of flower products on the island. Armed with Kaya’s mastery of the applied benefits of medical cannabis, psilocybin is the next step in the company’s verticals.

Foray in the psilocybin business

Commenting on Kaya’s foray in the psilocybin its founder, Balram “Bali” Vaswani tells Forbes magazine, “going into mushrooms is a similar situation where it hasn’t been set up in terms of a single dose, and what would be an actual dose where you’re going to actually feel something. So what we thought is that it’s  on an introductory level.”

While Jamaica doesn’t have a medical system in place for psilocybin to mandate regulations, Kaya currently maintains the same protocols in that persons would have to come in with a recommendation to enter Kaya Herb House location for purchase and use on property in its consumption lounges with medical intentions.

 “At Kaya we are focussing on three key areas based on the protocols we use to have patients enter our Herb Houses across the island: Knowledge to further research to inform regulations and policy, patterns of use, and association of medical outcomes based on surveys of current patients,” Vaswani explains.

He argues, “the association between Jamaican psilocybin use and poor mental health requires further research as we are at the very early stages of having the availability and consistency of variety products that were not available in a microdose format in the past. You would typically have to stop at a local street side in Negril like Miss Browns—that has been there for over 50 years—to purchase mushroom tea or raw mushrooms, but you would not know the type or dosage which usually led to mixed effects for each person and more for recreational use than medical.”

Stronger dosage coming

Larger doses are in the pipeline, declares Vaswani adding, “we are going to be moving towards  this in Q4, to having a stronger dose where we could have 5000 mg or 5 mg bars.” Psilocybin and chocolate were combined by the Aztecs in a practice called “cacahua-xochitl,” translating to “chocolate-mushrooms.”

The chemicals in chocolate may enhance the actions of psilocybin on the brain, as the tyramine and phenylethylamine (PEA) in chocolate slow the metabolism of psilocybin with Vaswani highlighting that, “there’s benefits from combining them.”

Some of the potential benefits of combining psilocybin and Jamaican chocolate Kaya says include:

·      Improved mood: Chocolate contains compounds that can enhance a person’s mood, such as phenylethylamine (PEA) and theobromine.

·      Enhanced creativity: Psilocybin is known to enhance creativity and open the mind to a variety of new ideas, while chocolate can enhance cognitive function and focus of the body and brain.

·      Reduced anxiety: Psilocybin has been shown to have anxiolytic effects, and chocolate contains compounds that can reduce stress and anxiety.

·      Improved taste: Artisan have worked on infusing local flavors of the Chocolate so it can improve the taste of psilocybin, making it easier to consume for most users who may find the taste of raw mushrooms unpleasant.

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