In the streets of Montreal and on social networks, advertisements in flamboyant colors offering microdosing products are multiplying. Obtaining drugs online is child’s play: with just a few clicks, it is possible to receive chocolates or magic mushroom treats in the mail in attractive packaging, even if it is illegal. Meanwhile, the scientific community is busy unraveling the real effects of taking microdoses.
Popularized in Silicon Valley in 2016 for their supposedly therapeutic virtues, microdoses of LSD, psilocybin — also known as magic mushrooms — and MDMA have been all the rage in companies. Some workers regularly took an amount that is about one-tenth the typical dose. For magic mushrooms, a microdose is about 100 milligrams. At this dose, the user does not experience the psychedelic effects of the substance.
At the exit of the Berri-UQAM metro station in Montreal, the company Utopia clearly displays its colors: “Canada’s trusted source for psilocybe mushrooms and their derivatives”, we can still read today on the company’s posters. based in British Columbia. In Ottawa, two shops clearly indicating that they sell magic mushrooms have even set up shop. The duty visited them. In both cases, the dealers told us that the substance was decriminalized in Ontario, but the law is clear: the production, sale and possession of magic mushrooms are illegal in Canada.
On the spot, the police seem to tolerate their activities, even if the substance is not decriminalised. By email, the Ottawa Police Service said it “evaluates complaints on an individual basis to determine the correct course of action, which may lead to investigations.” He also said he did not comment on specific cases, such as those of the two shops visited. Business owners, meanwhile, did not respond to calls from the Duty.
Real benefits?
Better concentration, reduced anxiety, improved creativity: the reasons given by followers for consuming microdoses are multiple. Roxane Néron is microdosing consultant and occasional consumer. She discovered microdosing magic mushrooms at a party with friends a decade ago and decided to quit alcohol for good five years ago. The microdose, “it helped me a lot on my way to sobriety,” she explains. Over time, she has done several researches on the subject and developed her knowledge, which she now shares on social networks or in workshops.
Maxime (fictitious name, because he fears reprisals) is among those who extol the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. “It’s really a fantastic molecule, which has the potential to help a lot of people, even save lives,” says the man who started his own online sales company, Psilocybin Canada. The former health care worker had followed, in his former career, with a neurologist colleague in the United States, a protocol to help a patient suffering from cluster headache, also called “suicide migraine”. “This patient followed the microdose treatment for three months and then completely recovered,” he says.
For the DD Gabriella Gobbi, professor and researcher in psychopharmacology in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, scientific studies on microdoses do not yet provide all the results necessary for the marketing of substances, even if some data are encouraging. “To find out whether a microdose has an effect or not, you have to do randomized studies with placebo: people take the placebo, others take LSD or psilocybin. The doctor observes, but does not know to which group the people belong. And these clinical trials must be done on different types of volunteers and conducted in three phases. We would therefore have to wait another three to five years to have complete studies and know if the benefits are real, adds the DD Gobbi, who has been studying the effects of psychedelic drugs on mice in the laboratory for a decade.
“What we observed [en laboratoire avec les animaux]is that at lower doses, LSD acted particularly on the serotonin neurons, and serotonin is the substance in our brain that is precisely involved in anxiety, in mood, in appetite regulation […]. So, the hypothesis was raised that LSD, in small doses, could have an effect on anxiety, while, in high doses, it was a dosage with negative effects, such as psychosis. »
An increasingly lucrative market
In recent years, companies that sell and produce psychedelic substances have multiplied. “In the United States, there are now 300 specialized companies. Several are already on the stock market. There is therefore also a very important economic interest for [elles] “, explains the DD Gabriella Gobbi.
Since January 2022, Health Canada has authorized, through the Special Access Program, doctors who request it to use psilocybin and MDMA to treat some of their patients. In the general population, the statistics are still embryonic. According to the Canadian Alcohol and Drugs Survey conducted by Health Canada with Statistics Canada, only 2% of Canadians say they have used hallucinogens in 2019. Data on microdose consumption is not yet available.
Although the sale of psilocybin remains prohibited in Canada, Maxime has found a way to distribute his products legally. His company uses in its microdoses 4-AcO-DMT, a synthetic substance that has exactly the same effects as psilocybin in the consumer. Health Canada has confirmed to Duty that “the molecule is not currently controlled under the schedules of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act”.
“Studies have shown that 4-AcO-DMT has a mechanism of action and physiological and psychological effects similar to those of psilocybin. There is no information on the risks that the molecule can cause to health, ”also specified by email the ministry. He adds that he is currently collecting data and monitoring the risks of 4-AcO-DMT.
“There are very few studies on 4-ACo-DMT, so you have to be careful. Maybe we should also have regulations on this substance, ”warns the DD Gabriella Gobbi.
Are we witnessing a trivialization?
The multiple advertisements in the street and on social networks may portend a certain democratization of substances. For Maxime, you have to be careful. “That’s why we really prioritize microdoses and a therapeutic clinical perspective, but not recreational. Young people are not encouraged to start consuming large amounts of magic mushrooms. That’s not the magic of the molecule at all,” he summarizes.
Roxane Néron’s goal, meanwhile, is to guide those who are starting to use to ensure that they use in a safe manner. “Me, I’m kind of like the funnel for someone who’s like, ‘I heard about this…what do I do with this?’ In her discussions with new consumers, she tries to target their intentions and see if this practice can really be useful to them. However, she considers that the microdose is not a miracle cure: “The fact remains that it must fit into a healthy lifestyle,” she argues.
Roxane Néron also admits that there is a danger, as with all new trends. However, she sees positive sides to free speech on the subject. “Talking about it also helps to better inform, to better understand the dangers, the pitfalls to avoid. Is there trivialization? Personally, I would perhaps prefer to speak of the evolution of mores, perhaps. »
“There is a lot of pressure for legalization, like with cannabis. And there, you have to be a little more careful, ”thinks for her part the DD Gabriella Gobbi. Clinical studies will need to be completed before it can be considered. The scientist is of the opinion that taking microdoses should be done in a professional setting, to avoid the negative effects of the substances.