🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that thought Phase 3 was that period in high school when we quoted Brand New in our AIM away message. 🖤

Here’s what we got this week.

Three years ago, licensed psilocybin facilitator wasn’t a job.

So it’s no surprise most people don’t know what facilitators do.

We’ll start with this. They don’t diagnose conditions, give therapy, or sell chocolates out of long trench coats in dark alleyways. (In Oregon, they can’t even handle mushrooms!)

So what can they do?

Acadia made a 10-minute video breaking it all down—what facilitation is, how regulations differ in OR and CO, and what their training involves.

Their 2026 cohort starts March 5. Applications close soon.

Of mice and men: In a Phase 2a placebo-controlled trial, a single dose of DMT significantly reduced symptoms of depression for up to 3 months. (DMT outperformed a 30-day course of Prozac in a mouse study, too.)
Broke but not broken: Group psilocybin therapy was effective for low-income adults with depression in Oregon’s regulated program.
So pick a good one: Psychedelic facilitators may have a greater effect on treatment outcomes than therapists do in traditional psychotherapy.
Here for a reason: MDMA use is associated with greater meaning in life among childhood trauma survivors.
Cuckoo for Kykeon: Chemists testing the “psychedelic Eleusis” hypothesis successfully converted toxic ergopeptides into psychoactive compounds using technology of the era.

Come on in: A sweeping Oregon healthcare bill would expand who can provide psilocybin services and make it easier for out-of-state providers to get licensed.
Let my people grow: Portland activists spent $18,000 last quarter lobbying city council on an ordinance to deprioritize psychedelic law enforcement.
Slowly, then all at once: Lawmakers in Tennessee, Maryland, and Vermont each introduced new ibogaine bills.
Blame the brain worm: RFK Jr. is shaking up the leadership team at HHS.
Bag secured: The Australian government has committed $739 million to a VA expansion plan that includes MDMA and psilocybin treatment for eligible veterans.

Retreat yo’ self: Confluence Retreats is collaborating with the Carhart-Harris Lab to contribute real-world data to UCSF’s global psychedelic study.
Got coverage? Medibank, Australia’s largest private health insurer, is expanding its coverage area for psychedelic therapy.
Nine strikes, you’re out: Police raided the Windsor, Ontario location of FunGuyz, an illegal psilocybin dispensary, for the ninth (and apparently last) time.
We’ll integrate that in court: A Florida ayahuasca church is suing the DEA after a federal raid interrupted one of its ceremonies.
Your name here: Psychedelic advocates penned an open letter to BC College of Social Workers to rethink its stance on psychedelic therapy. (You’re welcome to co-sign.)

Celestial parade: Later this month, six planets will line up in the sky.
You think this is a game? National Geographic says psychedelics could be a game changer for end-of-life care.
Spiritually attuned care: Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions is heads down, developing the field of psychedelic chaplaincy.
Meme of the week: Me on mushrooms examining the stories that have created my identity…

We don’t know a ton about sports, ok. But we're told going 2-for-2 is pretty good.

Compass Pathways just became the first company to hit the primary endpoint in two Phase 3 trials with a classic psychedelic. And they did it for treatment-resistant depression, maybe the toughest crowd in mental health.

Yesterday, Compass reported results from COMP006, its second and larger pivotal trial. This might as well be the Super Bowl for psychedelics nerds like us. (No offense, Bad Bunny.)

Here's where things stand across both studies.

Ok now for the measured take. While a 3.8-point MADRS difference is statistically significant, some analysts are quibbling over magnitude. Would a bigger number be better? Of course.

But modest averages can definitely mask remarkable individual responses, especially for people who’ve tried everything under the sun. And importantly, the effects last. (FDA asked for 12 weeks of durability data; Compass hit ‘em with 26.)

Zooming out for a sec, let’s acknowledge that the psychedelic industry has basically gone through the five stages of grief since MDMA was rejected in 2024. Knock on wood, but Compass is making the regulatory path seem walkable.

We believe that's what the sports fans call a “comeback.” 🫠

Oregon Health & Science University just received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (part of the NIH) to run the first federally funded study of legal psychedelic services in community settings, not clinical trials. The initiative, run through the Oregon Psychedelic Evaluation Nexus (OPEN), is focused on psilocybin's effect on substance use disorders in particular.

The idea is simple enough. The researchers want to compare outcomes between people who access psilocybin services and those who don't, to prove this stuff works. They’re shooting to enroll 1,600 participants over five years and have 300 signed up already. For context, only ~3,000 people have participated in all psychedelic clinical trials combined since the 1950s. And Oregon alone has served an estimated 15,000 clients in two years.

These data will obviously matter for other states weighing legal psychedelic frameworks. But the bigger story might be that federal dollars are going to state-regulated psilocybin services at all. Until now, it’s kinda felt like the feds would only ever go for psilocybin through the FDA path. Now, this funding isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the non-medical model, but hey at least their heads are out of the sand.

You’re tripping, and you notice the world has turned into a living painting… or maybe a Super Nintendo game. (Watch out for goombas, y’all.) This week, we learned that’s the result of your brain getting less visual information, not more. According to new research, psychedelics suppress the brain's visual processing system, causing it to fill in the gaps with *wait for it* fragments from your own memory.

Using advanced imaging in mice, German scientists observed that psychedelics boost slow, rhythmic brain waves (5-Hz oscillations) in visual areas. Those waves strengthen communication with the retrosplenial cortex, a region responsible for memory retrieval. And the stronger that connection, the more perception shifts from what's in front of you to what your brain has filed away. Lead researcher Dirk Jancke calls the resulting state “partial dreaming.”

So that’s where (at least some) hallucinations come from. Which of course has implications for psychedelic-assisted therapy. If 5-HT2A agonism helps people resurface and reprocess memories, then the trip isn’t a pesky side effect but a core aspect of the medicine. That said, I don't recall ever seeing a carpet pattern dance, so not sure where my brain pulled that one from.

As psychedelics go mainstream, it’d be a shame to lose the sacred for “scale.” Can’t we have both? On Feb 28, drop into conversation with Rick Doblin, Rosalind Watts, Will Siu, and more as they discuss the crossroads we’re at.

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

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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.