The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is proposing a “dramatic increase” in this year’s production quotas for psychedelics ibogaine and psilocybin as well as marijuana compound delta-9 THC to “support research and clinical trials.” According to the proposal, the DEA would like to almost double its THC, psilocybin and psilocin production compared to its origin projections for 2023 and increase ibogaine production by four times.
The federal agency said in a recently published notice that it wants to increase “other tetrahydrocannabinol” production from 15,000 grams to 350,000 grams, raising the quota by a whopping 23 times. It also wants to increase Ibogaine production by five times the December 2022 level to 150 grams.
The DEA increased production quotas for controlled substances such as psychedelics and cannabis in late 2022 when it was finalizing production quotas, and it seems the agency is increasing controlled substance production quotas significantly.
According to the DEA notice, the significant changes to its production quotas for controlled substances were “warranted.” It is proposing a new production quota of 15,000 grams up from 8,000 for psilocybin and 24,000 grams for psilocin from 12,000 grams.
The recently proposed quotas represent the agency’s highest quota increases in years and point to increased interest in researching hallucinogenic substances. With more researchers across the country studying various psychedelics for potential mental-health benefits, it isn’t surprising that the DEA is looking to raise production quotas.
Research has found that psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca and mescaline have the potential to treat various mental-health disorders effectively with few side effects and at minimal doses, making the substances potential alternatives to traditional mental-health treatments. Most of this research is in its infancy, however, and further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms that allow psychedelics to treat various mental disorders and develop psychedelic-assisted treatments for the masses.
Big pharma and institutional investors are now pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into research and development with the hope of being the first to launch psychedelic treatments. The proposed production quota changes are now open to a 30-day public comment period.
The boosted DEA quotas could potentially help various companies such as Lucy Scientific Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ: LSDI) gain access to the research-grade psychedelic products that they need to advance their-drug development programs.