🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA & FOUNDATIONS 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that has yet to receive a single cent from the United States government. Our check must have gotten lost in the mail. 🥲

Here’s what we got this week.

• atai Life Sciences gets $11.4M from NIH 💰

• UK’s psychiatrists speak out on psychedelics 🩺

• Students win court ruling to run Entheofest 🎪

• Learn to trip sit from the masters 🧘

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Most intentional psychedelic use falls into one of two categories:

Clinical (for mental health) or ceremonial (for spiritual seeking).

But what about “healthy normals” who want breakthrough results?

This is your last call to join Henry from Tricycle Day and Jay & Cory Fiset from Foundations for our free masterclass on Functional Psychedelics, a new paradigm for coaches in practically any field.

Learn the framework for creating your Signature Psychedelic Protocol, and see real case studies of coaches who’ve turned their calling into a career.

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

No brainer: Psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT may heal traumatic brain injuries by promoting neuroplasticity and reducing inflammation.
The artist’s way: In a placebo-controlled trial, an ayahuasca-inspired formulation of DMT and harmine altered the dynamic process of creativity.
Glands gone wild: The interplay between psychedelics and female hormones may account for differences in subjective effects, therapeutic response, and even romantic relationships.
Those are rookie numbers: A randomized controlled trial found that a 15 μg microdose of LSD was not sufficient for pain management.
Playlist problems: Music is important in psychedelic therapy, but there’s no empirical guidance yet on how to select it.

🏛️ Policy

Beyond the mushroom: Colorado’s Natural Medicine Program Advisory Board voted to recommend therapeutic access to ibogaine.
Trigger bill: Pennsylvania lawmakers held a public hearing about a law that would streamline legalization of Compass Pathways’ psilocybin product, if and when it’s approved by the FDA.
Bless and forgive: This summer, Colorado Governor Jared Polis pardoned psilocybin offenses, but not everyone qualified.
Mind police: Next month, a Canadian judge is expected to deliver a decision on a legal case where the defendant argues laws banning psilocybin violate his freedom of thought.
It’s not a phase, Mom: Mexico’s Supreme Court is evaluating whether its ban on psilocybin mushroom practices violates fundamental rights, including the free development of personality.

📈 Business

A new era: After AbbVie’s $1.2 billion acquisition, it feels like psychedelic pharma is heating up.
They did it again: The soon-to-be-merged entity, atai Beckley, posted another data set supporting their 5-MeO-DMT nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression.
MIRAcle drug: MIRA Pharmaceuticals is expanding into neuropsychatric disorders with its ketamine-derived drug candidate.
Relisted: Relmada Therapeutics is back on Nasdaq.
Truth in advertising: The owner of Colorado’s first licensed psilocybin manufacturing business responded to the proliferation of mislabeled psychedelic edibles.

🫠 Just for fun

Trip report: A reporter took the cheapest legal mushroom trip in Oregon and shared his experience.
Follow your spleen: Human design is the new astrology.
Kambo is a gateway drug: Now people are treating themselves with snake venoms.
Solo dolo: What are we missing out on when we trip alone?
Meme of the week: When they say you need a diagnosis to benefit from psychedelics…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

The gov’t just handed atai $11.4 million

No strings attached. Well, except for all the strings.

This week, atai Life Sciences scored an $11.4 million grant from NIDA (part of the NIH) to develop non-hallucinogenic psychedelic compounds for opioid addiction.

Now before you get all worked up about taxpayer dollars flowing to pharma, this is par for the course. The NIH hands out billions annually to biotech companies for drug development.

What makes this time special is that it's the second largest NIDA grant ever awarded for psychedelic research and the first major federal psychedelic grant awarded directly to a private biotech company.

So here's what the feds are really paying for.

• 🎯 Five-year commitment: NIDA will provide $11.4 million over five years to optimize atai's novel 5-HT2A/2C receptor agonists.

• 🧠 Trip-free therapy: The compounds are meant to deliver psychedelic-like benefits without any hallucinogenic effects.

• 💊 Massive market: They're targeting opioid addiction, which affects 16 million people and costs $750+ billion globally.

• 🫀 Safety first: Drug design will specifically avoid 5-HT2B activity, which has been linked to heart valve risks.

$11.4 million is practically pocket change compared to the $63 million atai raised in February. Still, federal grants are a kind of legitimacy stamp in the drug development world. And atai hasn’t exactly taken the most well-trodden path.

While most of their competitors have focused on a single molecule (like Compass Pathways with psilocybin, or MAPS Lykos Resilient Pharmaceuticals with MDMA), atai is collecting compounds like an overzealous psychonaut at Burning Man.

Their pipeline includes DMT buccal film, R-MDMA capsules, 5-MeO-DMT nasal spray, psilocin infusions, and ibogaine derivatives. Probably some other stuff we don’t even know about, too.

This grant is essentially a bet that quantity won’t get in the way of quality. Just don’t take ‘em all at once. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Whoa whoa, pump the brakes

The Royal College of Psychiatrists just released their official stance on psychedelics as medical treatments. And yes, it's about as lukewarm as you'd expect from a bunch of British doctors. The College’s new report acknowledges that LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine could help treat anxiety, depression, PTSD, and addiction, but it stops short of giving their blessing for routine clinical use.

The report highlights familiar challenges plaguing psychedelic research, including how difficult it is to keep participants "blinded" when they're obviously tripping. (Most people can tell whether they’ve taken a psychedelic or a placebo, ya know?) The psychiatrists also worry about replicating findings and the lack of long-term safety data. There’s one exception, though. Ketamine gets their stamp of approval for depression treatment in specialist settings.

Unsurprisingly, they’re recommending more research, centralized data, and specialized clinical settings. What they don’t want is for "hype" to outpace the evidence, or for people to self-medicate (gulp). As Professor Oliver Howes put it during a press briefing, "We are cautiously excited," which is probably the most diplomatic way possible to say, "Don’t get ahead of yourselves."

The kids are alright

University of Michigan administrators just got schooled by their own students in court. The Student Association for Psychedelic Studies sued the university after their permit was denied for Entheofest, a student-run psychedelic plant and mushroom festival, arguing their First Amendment rights were violated. On Thursday, the Michigan Court of Claims ruled in favor of the students, forcing UM to allow the festival on campus.

The university's rationale reeked of institutional paranoia. They were worried they’d lose their federal funding (understandable actually, given recent events) if the event was seen as promoting illegal substances. They also claimed the organizers couldn't adequately police attendees who might bring or sell drugs on campus. But the students fought back with a detailed risk mitigation plan that ultimately won the courts over.

The win sets an important precedent for student free speech rights on campus, especially around ‘controversial’ topics like psychedelics. The festival went ahead as planned on Sunday, perfectly timed to celebrate five years since Ann Arbor decriminalized psychedelics locally. To all our enterprising college students reading this, consider this your green light to go organize.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🫂 Course: Zendo Project is running their next Sitting and Integration Training over four Mondays in October. Learn how to provide effective and compassionate support to people in non-ordinary states of consciousness.

• 🧑‍💻 Online event: Heart Mind Institute is throwing their 4th annual Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Global Summit, and this year the free event is focused on microdosing and psychedelic retreats.

• 🙈 Eyemask: YAWN makes the perfect accessory for all you closed-eye visual lovers. Their “mushroom meditation mask” is comfy and hand-washable, and it blacks out all light. Take 30% off with code TRICYCLEYAWN.

• 👾 Game: Gridbound is a fantasy puzzle-strategy game based on alchemy. Naturally, you begin with one item in your inventory: the all-powerful mushroom.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.