Minnesota Medical Cannabis Firm to Study Psychedelic Medicine

Minnesota medical cannabis company, Goodness Growth Inc., is set to begin studying psychedelic medicine, according to a Twin Cities Business report. Using their subsidiary, Resurgent Biosciences, the company said it will research the effect of “naturally derived” psychedelics on a variety of psychological disorders.

Goodness Growth—formally known as Vireo Health and one of only two medical cannabis companies in Minnesota—said that prior to seriously beginning research, they were waiting for studies like a November 2020 Johns Hopkins University study that suggested psilocybin is an effective treatment for depression.

Goodness Growth Chairman and CEO Dr. Kyle Kingsley said he “wanted to wait for a kind of threshold of evidence to make sure this was a real opportunity, and that it would be real medicine for people.”

“It’s gone beyond that. It’s really sort of exceeded my expectations as far as the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.”—Dr. Kingsley via Twin Cities Business

Goodness Growth is not yet planning to manufacture or distribute psychedelics. However, Kingsley indicated they will focus on “research undertakings” and partnering with other companies in the U.S. and abroad. He is optimistic about the potential of psychedelics going forward, remarking in the interview, “it could change the paradigm from people taking a pill every day or multiple times a day to just sort of a few therapeutic interventions—as few as maybe one or two a year.”

That’s what I’m excited about,” he said in the report, “these paradigm shifts.”