ROCK CREEK, BC - TheNewswire – January 13, 2022 – SpeakEasy Cannabis Club Ltd. (CSE:EASY) (Frankfurt:39H) (CNSX:EASY.CN) (the “Company” or “SpeakEasy”), a holder of a federal licence to cultivate, process and sell cannabis under the Cannabis is happy to update shareholders on its Narcotics Dealers License (“NDL”) application and advances in the psychedelic market.

Application Progress

SpeakEasy’s application process for its Narcotics Dealers License has continued as anticipated with progress and continued good communication with the governing body, Health Canada. The facility housing the designated site has been completed leaving only minor details to be completed and is awaiting final requests for information prior to inspection and approval.  

Founder Marc Geen, states, “I originally became infatuated with cannabis after seeing all the good it brought people consuming the product and wanted to help with the cause by building a business around it, I see the same thing with psilocybin. People are seeing significant improvements in their lives with the use psychedelics for their mental health and we can be a part of it. I see many similarities between how the cannabis regulations developed in Canada and the United States and how the psychedelic regulations are progressing. I am excited to see the regulations advancing and expect they will continue to where we can participate in a regulated market.”

 Advances in Psychedelics Regulations

Washington State

On January 4, 2022, Washington State legislators filed SB 5660, a bill that would legalize the supported adult use of psilocybin by people 21 years of age and older.

Sponsored by Senators Jesse Salomon and Liz Lovelett, the bill, known as the “Washington Psilocybin Wellness and Opportunity Act”, includes many innovative features including a Social Opportunity Program to help address harms caused by the war on drugs, a provision to support small businesses, and accommodations for people with certain medical conditions to receive the psychedelic substance at home.

Passage of the Act would enable the Washington Department of Health to issue licences to psilocybin manufacturing facilities, testing labs, service centers, and facilitators. It will also create the Washington Psilocybin Advisory Board to advise the Department on creating rules for the Act’s implementation.

Under supported adult use, psilocybin services are made available to people 21 and older for nearly any purpose – the Act specifies that clients need not have a medical condition to participate, and psilocybin services in Washington will not constitute medical diagnoses or treatment.(1)

Canada

Canada has recently amended federal regulations to allow patients suffering from life-threatening mental illnesses to be treated with MDMA and psychedelic drug psilocybin.

The active psychedelic chemical found in some mushrooms, psilocybin, has been trialed and tested for years and has now been approved for use "beyond palliative care" in Canada, where it was previously only allowed in "palliative circumstances."  

The approval has taken a significant amount of time to come since it was first proposed in late 2020, later causing discussions and debates around the topic when the consultation was moved to the public, although the response was overwhelmingly supportive of the legal move.

Both psilocybin and MDMA could also be approved for use if granted legal exemption from the country's Health Minister, allowing patients suffering from mental illnesses to be able to access both drugs through the Special Access Program which gives help to those where therapy is otherwise unsuitable or hasn’t worked. According to physicians, the drugs will only be allowed for use “in a controlled, individualized fashion” under “conventional supervised therapy”.(2)

“There has been emerging scientific evidence supporting potential therapeutic uses for some restricted drugs, most notably psychedelic restricted drugs such as MDMA and psilocybin,” the Canadian Government’s official communication stated.(3)

What it Means for SpeakEasy

SpeakEasy has been working on the first steps to prepare for the potential launch of a psilocybin market in Canada. We expect to obtain our NDL early this year and begin cultivation and extraction trials for creation of products to be released if a legal psilocybin market develops in Canada. Our plan is to be ready to be among the first to market with a full line of proven genetics and products made ready for sale in whatever format Health Canada will allow.

Founder Marc Geen “We will continue with our high-quality at a low-cost agricultural approach to this segment of the market with the added advantage of being early participants. I am very happy to see the advances in regulations both here and in the United States and see it as a clear sign they are on the right track for creating a medical and non-medical marketplace for psilocybin.”

About SpeakEasy Cannabis Club Ltd.

SpeakEasy Cannabis Club Ltd. holds a cultivation, processing and sales licence issued by Health Canada under the Cannabis Act. SpeakEasy owns 290 acres of land in Rock Creek, British Columbia, and leverages five generations of farming experience in B.C. as well as its favourable location to grow and process high-quality cannabis products at low cost. SpeakEasy cultivates small batch, high quality craft cannabis at scale in a portion of its 63,200 square foot indoor cannabis complex and has completed its harvest of its 60-acre outdoor field.

On behalf of the Board of the Directors

 For more information please contact:

Marc Geen, Founder

778-738-2988

investor@speakeasygrowers.com

 

Forward-Looking Statements

 

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause SpeakEasy’s actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "could" or "should" occur.

 

Forward-looking statements in this document include the expectation of receipt of its narcotic dealers licence and the timing thereof, its expectations concerning the commencement of cultivation and extraction trials and the timing thereof, its expectations concerning the release of products if and when a psilocybin market develops in Canada, its expectations concerning the regulation of MDMA and psilocybin in the United States and Canada and all other statements that are not statements of historical fact.  

Although SpeakEasy believes the forward-looking information contained in this news release is reasonable based on information available on the date hereof, by their nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

Examples of such assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, assumptions, risks and uncertainties associated with the global COVID-19 pandemic, including the risk that the Company be deemed a non-essential business and asked to temporarily cease operations; general economic conditions; adverse industry events; future legislative and regulatory developments involving cannabis; the Company’s ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favorable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada and generally; the demand for cannabis and cannabis related products, the ability of SpeakEasy to implement its business strategies; competition; the ability of SpeakEasy to obtain and retain all applicable licences under the Cannabis Act and other assumptions, risks and uncertainties.

 

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.

The Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Service has approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

 

1. (1) http://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/01/05/washington-psilocybin-supported-adult-use/ 

2. (2)The Scotfree | PSILOCYBIN AND MDMA APPROVED FOR MEDICINAL USE IN CANADA 

3. (3)https://globalnews.ca/video/8497644/psychedelics-approved-for-medical-use-in-canada/ 

 

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