🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that’s as real as it gets. You’re not dreaming. We really typed and sent this email (and agonized over this very sentence). 😅

Here’s what we got this week.

Microdosing is the most popular way people use psychedelics today.

Yet somehow this phenomenon has been mostly ignored by the big events in the space.

So on October 21, the nonprofit Microdosing Collective is teaming up with Third Wave, Center for MINDS, and Texans for Greater Mental Health to host The Microdosing Summit in the Texas Hill Country just outside Austin.

They’ll have panels and presentations, of course. But beyond that, you can expect wellness activations, brand showcases, live music, and comic relief.

We’ll be there, and we got you the hookup.

Fake it till you make it: Researchers at Stanford have an idea for what could make a more convincing placebo in psychedelic trials.
Main character energy: We have the first clinical trial evidence that psilocybin therapy can reduce depression in patients with comorbid Cluster B personality disorders.
Ready for the maze: Psilocybin restored spatial memory and reversed learning deficits in a rat model of Alzheimer’s.
The real MVP: Music is the “hidden therapist” in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
All in a day’s work: Healthy volunteers can earn up to $320 for participating in this study on the cognitive and memory effects of psychoactive drugs.

The people have spoken: After much public feedback, Oregon dropped its proposed fee hikes for psilocybin licensees. (See previous coverage.)
Got any ideas? ARPA-H is soliciting proposals for its ASCENT-IBO program, which will fund efforts to accelerate clinical development of ibogaine for opioid use disorders.
Ducks in a row: Virginia is preparing for the potential FDA approval of psilocybin.
You won’t believe #3: There are (at least) five reasons Medicaid leaders should be paying attention to psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Full circle moment: A federal judge ruled that Sandoz (yes, that Sandoz) is blocked from bringing a generic form of Spravato to market until 2035.
They’ve done it again: Optimi is launching a Health Canada-authorized Phase 3 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
Fancy: Psychedelic Alpha scooped Usona’s psilocybin brand name.
Diving headfirst: BetterLife Pharma closed $100 million in funding to continue developing 2-bromo-LSD for cluster headache and migraine.
Something to chew on: Sensorium Therapeutics posted Phase 1a data for SNTX-2643, its kanna-derived drug candidate for anxiety disorders.

Every day we stray further: In medieval times, gardens and music were prescribed for mental health. Then again, so was ostrich liver.
In case you were too afraid to ask: CNN answers the question, what is ibogaine and what does it treat?
Wake up: People are taking psychedelics not just for fun, or even for mental health, but to connect more deeply with the divine.
Ticked off: The Washington Post follows one woman’s journey treating her Lyme disease with psilocybin.
Meme of the week: When I accidentally use personality A with friend group B…

You know there’s a whole subfield of psychedelic research focused on engineering the trip out of the drug, right?

On the one hand, we get it. The subjective effects of psychedelics can be… hmm, confrontational. They can also last for hours (depending on the medicine). Neither of those qualities is particularly appealing for drug developers trying to squeeze their IP into the healthcare system.

On the other, we’re skeptical. Neuroplasticity is great and all, but can you really get all the benefit without the emotional range and outright weirdness of a journey?

A new study on ketamine (everyone’s favorite psychedelic dissociative anesthetic) suggests not.

Researchers followed 23 patients with treatment-resistant depression through eight weekly subcutaneous esketamine sessions. Based on these data, dissociation is probably not just a side effect to manage.

Sorry, psychoplastogen-maxxis. But hey, since you’re trying to pare down the complexity of psychedelics, at least there’s this...

In these sessions, there was no prep or integration to speak of. So if derealization is indeed mediating the outcomes, it's doing it with the most barebones therapeutic “container” we’ve ever seen.

Altered states of consciousness FTW. 🫠

It’s official. New Mexico has granted its first psilocybin license. A week ago today, the state's Department of Health Center for Medical Cannabis and Psilocybin announced it had licensed Sacred Alto Spores as the state's first medical psilocybin producer. That’s one small step for fungi and one giant leap for fun-guy-kind.

Sacred Alto’s website lists Golden Teacher, Inca Stargazer, Tidal Wave, and Columbian Rust (with photos) among the strains it grows organically. But don’t get any ideas, y’all. They’re supplying licensed service centers only, once those exist. The program is still finalizing its rules, but a public draft shows clinicians would be required to submit diagnoses and patient evaluations for clearance. And facilitators will have to complete a state-approved training, but it looks like they’ll honor the programs already up and running in Oregon and Colorado.

NM is shooting to launch by the end of 2026, a full 12 months ahead of its original schedule. Once it does, New Mexico will be the third state with a legal, regulated psilocybin access pathway. The spores are spreading.

California 🎶 knows how to (be late to the) party. 🎶 On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 113, the state’s annual budget act, into law. And would ya look at what they buried in there? Legislators earmarked $4.7 million for psychedelic therapy research in veterans. Cali has talked a big game on psychedelics for years, but talk is cheap. This is the first time the state has actually ponied up.

It took a three-year streak of legislative groundwork to get here. In 2024, AB 2841 reopened California's Research Advisory Panel after an 11-month stall, so it could resume approving psychedelic studies at all. Then last year, AB 1103 sped up that same panel's review process. Now, AB 113 is the first bill to fund the research instead of just greasing the wheels.

We'd be remiss not to mention California's rockier history with psychedelic policy, though. In 2023, Newsom vetoed a bill to decriminalize personal use, telling lawmakers to come back with a regulated therapy framework instead. They tried, of course. But the bill that would've built that very program died in committee the next year. So Californians still don’t have blanket access. But at least they’ve got dollars.

Numinus's next free info session is on Friday. On the call, their Executive Director will help you map out a personalized path to becoming a licensed psychedelic provider. (Cyclists get 10% off any program with code ALTHEA10.)

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.