🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that will try anything once. Except the parasite lettuce at Taco Bell. 🤢

Here’s what we got this week.

Our most popular experience is getting even more perks.

At $750, Althea's Pick is already the most affordable way to have a legal psilocybin journey with a licensed facilitator.

Every booking includes the journey itself, plus prep and integration support. And the facilitators leading these groups are some of the most sought-after in the space.

Now, you heard it here first… We're building something new on the integration side.

We're not ready to share the details just yet, but anyone who books before August 1st gets early access.

You’re glowing: Psilocybin may protect skin cells from premature aging caused by poor diets.
Trust your gut: Researchers designed a new synthetic psychedelic with fewer gastrointestinal side effects.
Shock and awe: Ibogaine alters specific dynamic substates of the default mode network, which correlate with its mystical effects.
Live, trip, and learn: Psilocybin helps rodents make better choices.
Black magic mushroom: Mycologists have identified the first species that contains both psilocybin and deadly amatoxins.

Run it back: The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend a psychedelics research effort at the Department of Defense for another six years.
Just in case: Two separate Massachusetts bills that would establish pilot programs for psychedelic therapy have advanced. (See previous coverage.)
Remember the Alamo: The mayor of San Antonio asked VA Secretary Doug Collins to consider the city as a site for psychedelic clinical trials.
MAHA’s gatekeeper: The White House’s top pick for FDA Commissioner was heavy handed with edits to Trump’s executive order on psychedelics.

You snooze, you lose: Two other companies apparently considered buying AtaiBeckley before Lilly sealed the deal. (See previous coverage.)
Not so fast: Analysts say the AtaiBeckley acquisition likely won’t trigger a broad wave of Big Pharma deals.
Ch-ching: Jupiter Neurosciences will pay $3.3 million upfront for U.S. rights to PharmAla Biotech’s MDMA drug. (See previous coverage.)
Calling dibs: Entropy Neurodynamics secured a patent covering methods of treating fibromyalgia using psilocybin-based treatments.
Pharma chops: Rose Hill Life Sciences appointed a new CEO.

Read the rock: Modern psychedelic medicine can learn from cave paintings.
Gotta have faith: Religious leaders need to reckon with the growing popularity of psychedelics.
Boutique breeds: Craft mushroom cultivators are building devoted followings around increasingly specialized genetics.
Psychedelicatessen: This art exhibit in NYC blends psychedelic counterculture with Jewish tradition.
Meme of the week: Choosing my new personality after a psychedelic journey…

Anyone got an extra $20k lying around?

Oh c’mon. There must be a few grand buried in your couch cushions? No?

Bummer. Because that’s how much every psilocybin service center in Oregon will have to fork over to the state next year, just to keep their license active. If a round of steep fee hikes we covered earlier this month comes to fruition, that is.

Maybe their fate isn’t sealed yet, though. This week, the Center for Psychedelic Policy fired back with a 37-page rebuttal to Oregon Health Authority’s plan.

The nonprofit argues Oregon is about to strangle a program that's actually saving the state money (and with one major tweak, could save a lot more).

Here's what their data show.

OHA says increasing fees is the only way to keep the program solvent. But a recent survey found 80% of licensees won't renew if fees double, so we’re not sure their logic holds up. (In fact, a third of Oregon’s centers have already closed.)

So instead, CPP wants $37,500 to run an economic analysis to kick the tires on this whole fee-based model. Crazy idea… maybe Oregon should just cover psilocybin like they would any other proven healthcare.

After all, if it makes (or saves) dollars, it makes sense. 🫠

If a pharmaceutical goes to market, and no one sees a hokey ad for it, does it still make a splash? Alas, the world may never know. This week, two of the leading psychedelic drug companies, Compass Pathways and Definium Therapeutics, launched new promotional campaigns. Ready or not, Cyclists, it’s happening. Psychedelic medicine is now entering its commercialization era.

Neither Compass nor Definium (who are developing psilocybin and LSD, respectively) can legally advertise a drug that isn’t approved yet. So for now, Compass has rolled out a new visual identity, tagline, and video to tease what they’ve got cooking. Definium is running the classic unbranded disease-awareness play with Wired for Worry, a new platform to prime doctors on generalized anxiety disorder, the first indication on their roadmap for LSD.

We’re still early, but the land grab of mental real estate has begun. Fun fact: did you know that the U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer pharma ads? Imagine if we got a full-blown TV commercial for psychedelics in the Super Bowl. Can’t wait to see the celebrity endorsements.

We always stress the importance of preparation before a journey. Welp, you don’t have to take our word for it anymore. A new study has found that what you do right before taking psilocybin can shape what happens in your brain and influence how long the effects last.

Researchers split 105 participants into two groups, had each do a different priming exercise before a group psilocybin ceremony, and then followed them for six months. One group practiced compassion imagery, a guided visualization of receiving warmth and care from someone else and then yourself. The other half simply focused on their breathing. The compassion imagery group showed greater increases in “absorption” (the ability to fully immerse oneself in an experience), and the gains held six months later. Brain scans also showed distinct connectivity patterns in this group, though only at the higher dose.

The researchers consider these results exploratory, not confirmatory. But it still raises a more useful question than what usually gets asked. It's not just “did you prepare?” but “how did you prepare?”. There's a long list of prep techniques worth comparing next (breathwork, journaling, cold plunges, etc). Who wants to test reading Tricycle Day?

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.