🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

PRESENTED BY SCHOOL OF PSYCHEDELICS & ALTHEA 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that sends emails so good they should be illegal. Luckily, we know a guy. 😏

Here’s what we got this week.

• Decrim has no impact on hospital visits 🏥

• ARPA-H invests up to $100M in psychedelics 🧑‍🔬

• MindBio’s LSD microdosing trial fails 💀

• A shirt blessed by the psychedelic illuminati 👕

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Psychedelics are here, whether the powers-that-be like it or not.

People are having profound experiences left and right, and they need support integrating them.

You can help. School of Psychedelics is enrolling its February 2026 training cohort now, and early bird ends November 30.

When you register, you’ll learn Embodied Imagination® for Psychedelic Integration, a dreamwork-based method designed explicitly for this work (including the coming ibogaine wave tsunami).

And once you graduate, they’ll even send clients your way through their practitioner directory.

Join the February cohort.

MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Mix and match: Combining antidepressants with classical psychedelics may be safer than many people think.
Hitting back: Psychedelics could help reverse brain damage from domestic violence-related injuries.
Wake up call: A “virtual clinical trial” found that psychedelics could help restore brain activity in coma patients.
Pharmahuasca hits different: In a Phase 1 study, a purified DMT-harmala formulation produced strong mystical experiences, even for people who’d had ayahuasca before.
Chaos theory: A new DMT study linked ego dissolution to the suppression of alpha brain waves.

🏛️ Policy

Southern hospitality: Mississippi lawmakers want to partner with Texas on FDA-approved clinical trials of ibogaine.
Choose your fighter: Massachusetts is considering two competing proposals that would establish pilot programs for psychedelic-assisted therapy in the state.
It’s all happening: New Jersey legislators took another step toward legalizing psilocybin therapy.
Yeehaw to yee-naw: Many ketamine therapy providers in Texas will be forced to close if a newly clarified state regulation is enforced.
Aisle crosser: Former Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema tells Politico why she’s working with MAHA to embrace ibogaine.
Means business: Calley Means, a vocal advocate for psychedelics, is RFK’s newest senior advisor.

📈 Business

Math ain’t mathin’: Is there a mismatch between psychedelics and the economics of drug development?
Sobering news: Clearmind Medicine shared preliminary results from its Phase 1/2A trial of an MEAI-based drug for alcohol use disorder.
Boulder gets bolder: The first psilocybin healing center in Boulder has opened its doors.
Take (grey) matter in your own hands: Experience Onward, a psilocybin service center in Portland, and the nonprofit Athletes Journey Home ran a study that found psilocybin reversed the effects of TBI.
Cover me: Australia is leading the way in insurance coverage for psychedelic therapy.

🫠 Just for fun

Tripped and ripped: Can psychedelics enhance your workout?
From left to right: GQ says psychedelics, once claimed by the anti-establishment, have been coopted by conservatives.
KO’d by God: “Notorious” MMA champion Conor McGregor took ibogaine and saw his own death.
Meme of the week: When you hear for the 400th time that psychedelics are the future but we still need more research…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

No danger in decrim

Remember the hysteria circa 2012 about how legalizing weed would turn Colorado into some kind of Mad Max hellscape?

Yeah, we all saw those Facebook posts. And we all also have an uncle holding a fish in his profile pic. (Coincidence? We’re just asking questions here.)

But then… nothing happened. Interesting.

Well, turns out the same is true for psychedelic decriminalization.

A new study published last week looked at hospital admission data from 2016 to 2023 and found that decriminalizing psychedelics (i.e., letting adults be adults) has not led to the spike in emergency room visits doomers predicted.

In fact, the research shows the opposite. After a small uptick through early 2020, hallucinogen-related admissions actually declined through 2023. Let’s break it down.

• 📊 Tiny slice of the pie: Out of 1.3 million substance-related hospital admissions over 7 years, only 21,700 (1.6%) involved hallucinogens.

• ☠️ The real culprits: Alcohol and opioids accounted for the vast majority of substance-related ER visits (46-58% and 20-30%, respectively).

• 🧠 Pre-existing conditions: Most patients admitted for hallucinogen issues had serious mental illness or co-occurring substance use disorders.

• 🍹 Cocktail effect: When psychedelics did send someone to the hospital, alcohol and other drugs were usually involved.

These researchers aren’t saying decriminalization is responsible for the downward trend in hospitalizations, either. It was neutral. The analysis found zero correlation with decrim policies taking effect whatsoever.

Psychedelics still carry risks, especially for certain vulnerable populations. No one’s denying that. But as cities, states, and (hopefully) the nation keep evolving their psychedelic policies, this study offers reassuring context and an important message:

Chill out on the fear mongering… and maybe spend less time on Facebook. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Data dump

The federal government is writing big fat checks to figure out how psychedelics work. ARPA-H (think DARPA but for health) announced it's investing up to $100 million in EVIDENT, a new initiative focused on developing objective measures for rapid-acting mental health treatments. Now they’re soliciting research proposals in three areas: neuroplastogens (their term for psychedelics), neuromodulation (TMS, etc.), and digital therapeutics (VR and mobile apps).

The problem, the feds say, is we’re relying on fluffy subjective endpoints to convince the FDA that these treatments work. If you want your data taken seriously, you can’t just ask patients how sad they feel (this sad: ☹️) and call it a day, right? Instead, ARPA-H wants cold, hard biomarkers, like hormone levels and brain scans, that objectively show who responds, when, and for how long.

When ARPA-H talks about “neuroplastogens,” they explicitly mention psilocybin, LSD, DMT, ibogaine, and ketamine. So we’re not just talking about newfangled trip-free analogs. But ultimately, ARPA-H believes better data—not just better drugs—is how we’ll finally achieve personalized mental healthcare. Though, we must say… those drugs are prettay, prettay, prettay good.

The little drug that couldn’t

Well, this is awkward. MindBio Therapeutics just announced that their Phase 2B trial of LSD microdosing for depression came up short. CEO Justin Hanka broke the news on LinkedIn, confirming that none of the endpoints were met, and their take-home LSD product fared no better than a caffeine-pill placebo. Ouch.

At least the trial wasn’t a total waste of time for the 89 participants. Both groups actually showed modest improvements in their depression scores (30% with LSD and 36% with placebo). The problem for MindBio, of course, was that there was no significant difference between ‘em. It’s a particularly tough blow after the company’s last trial did so well. In the Phase 2A, patients saw a 60% improvement, but that time, everyone knew they were taking acid.

MindBio was one of—if not the—only biopharma companies trying to commercialize psychedelic microdosing. Now they’re pivoting to speech analysis tech to detect drug intoxication for law enforcement. (Sigh.) Results like this don't exactly inspire other companies to pick up where MindBio left off, either. But hey, would it be the worst thing if microdoses landed in the wellness aisle, not behind the pharmacy counter?

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🎽 Auction: Cultivating Wisdom is taking bids on a one-of-a-kind t-shirt autographed by dozens of psychedelic leaders. Proceeds will be split between MAPS and two other nonprofits advancing equitable access to psychedelics.

• 🃏 Ritual: Illuminate is a 44-card oracle and mantra deck, written and illustrated (by hand!) to inspire reflection, self-trust, and integration. Take 10% off with code TRICYCLE.

• 🌺 Retreat: In January, the Ram Dass Institute of Psychedelic Studies with the Dying (RIPS) is hosting a 5-day event on Maui, with a mission to advance research, education, and compassionate care at the end of life.

• 💰 Masterclass: Clementine Kruczynski, a consultant in establishing sacred medicine churches, recently taught a free class on using private trusts to protect your assets, privacy, and legacy. The replay is up until Tuesday.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here.

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.