Oregon company develops magic mushroom nasal spray, ahead of the "Blue Wave" and the golden age of psychedelics

What will they come out with next?

Vices By Will Brendza

The cannabis “green wave” started in Colorado and has grown at an explosive rate, spreading from state to state, making millions of dollars in tax revenue, and making millionaires out of people who were once considered common criminals. Startups started, companies flourished like flower and before anyone even realized the true potential of cannabis as a product, the industry was already booming.

Now, in the wake of Denver’s magic mushroom decriminalization, enterprising entrepreneurs are looking towards the oncoming “blue wave” with hopeful, hungry eyes — situating themselves to get in on the ground floor and ride that wave to Money Town.

Which is exactly what the folks at Silo Wellness, a new psilocybin startup from Oregon, are trying to do. They’ve developed a patent-pending psilocybin nasal spray specifically for micro-dosing. Should the blue wave explode like the green wave did, and should Silo Wellness get their patent approved, people could soon have the option to spritz a perfect little dose of magic straight to their dome.

Silo Wellness' logo - courtesy of their website.

But the Silo wellness team says they’ve been working on this since “before it was cool.”

“National media didn’t care about psychedelics until Denver passed their decriminalization ballot measure,” Mike Arnold, the founder of Silo Wellness, said in a press release about the nasal spray. “Before that, everyone thought I was crazy when I told them that we were entering the medicinal psychedelics space in advance of Oregon legalizing in 2020.”

Silo Wellness, which actually has its roots in the cannabis industry, formulated their magic nasal spray product in Jamaica. The product is intended to give users a consistent and convenient dosing method, to apply psilocybin micro-doses for anti-depression, treating symptoms of PTSD, increasing creativity, improving mood and/or just for fun. The spray bypasses the digestive system, and is absorbed straight into the bloodstream through nasal mucus membranes. So it doesn’t cause neausea (a common side effect with eating the actual dried fungi) and it works fast. Just pop it in your nasal cavity, press the button and get shroomed.

The research team was led by pharmacologist, Parag Bhatt and the company’s COO, Scott Slay, a Marine combat veteran. The Silo Wellness team says they tested the micro-dosing product on themselves first, and then on volunteers in private micro-dosing sessions.

And, apparently it works.

“I love our product and can’t wait until it’s legal in the United States, so we can share it with crime victims and first responders,” Arnold said in the press release. “I want to share this medicine with the world by making it affordable and comfortable for all.”

Arnold is an interesting cat. He was once a lawyer in Oregon, before he quit law to instead start a 40,000-plant cannabis grow operation. Now, he’s pivoting again to enter the looming psychedelic boom.

Which is coming way faster than anyone really expected: The FDA recently approved the use of psilocybin mushrooms for anti-depressant drug trails. Earlier this year, they also approved a ketamine nasal spray to treat depression. This summer, the University of Chicago initiated the first US studies to test the effects of micro-dosing LSD on a person’s mood. Denver decriminalized the possession and sale of magic mushrooms in May, then shortly afterwards Oakland decriminalized all natural psychedelic substances — and in Oregon, where Arnold plans on headquartering Silo Wellness, there is a ballot initiative that would essentially legalize psilocybin and psilocybin “administration services” (meaning it would be legal for someone to administer a product like the nasal spray to a pre-screened individual over 21 years of age).

It seems like the golden age of psychedelics is descending upon us. Could it mean the beginning of a new world? Could it help mankind re-engage with our natural ancestral psychedelic roots? Could this usher in a renaissance era of empathy, love and creativity? Might this planet know peace at last??

Potentially. All we know for certain, right now, though, is that this blue wave is going to make a lot of people very rich. Just like the explosion of cannabis has. That’s what Arnold and his team at Silo Wellness are banking on, at least — they know what they stand to gain if they can design a useful, effective, safe psilocybin product, and get it to market before anyone else.

“We are so grateful for the opportunity to have an actual and real first-to-market consumer product in magic mushrooms,” Scott Slay, Silo Wellness’ COO said in a press release. “Most of us were too early to cannabusiness or too late.”

But this time, they don’t plan on missing the boat.

Which isn’t just good news for them, but good news for everyone. When the psychedelic levy truly breaks and products like this start becoming legally available in states across the country, there’s going to be an effect on the American mindset – and that could change the world for the better.