🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

PRESENTED BY SCHOOL OF PSYCHEDELICS 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that opens your heart. Not with a controlled substance, but with good ol’ fashioned html and the dopamine hit of a new email. 💌

Here’s what we got this week.

• How MDA compares to MDMA 💗

• Psychedelic emergency training comes to Ohio 👮

• Investor sentiment in psychedelics is on the rise 📈

• The mycelium mindset board game ♟️

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Psychedelic experiences are like dreams.

Both speak in symbols and sensations that vanish the second you try to explain them.

Which is why most integration practitioners struggle. They're using talk therapy tools for experiences that live beyond language.

Embodied Imagination® takes the opposite approach. Instead of discussing the journey, you guide clients to re-enter it and anchor insights somatically, right where they landed.

In this free 20-min training video, you’ll learn the 7 replicable steps of this Jungian dreamwork-inspired technique.

Watch the demo and explore the career pathway.

MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Trust fall: MDMA increases feelings of trust in the social world.
How to save a life: Psilocybin therapy may reduce suicidal ideation in people with psychiatric conditions.
You seeing what I’m seeing? Studying psychedelics could lead to new treatments for Lewy body diseases, since both produce visual hallucinations.
Calm and connected: An fMRI study found that meditating on pharmahuasca produced different functional connectivity changes in the brain from meditating alone.
Wellness check: TheraPsil is recruiting participants for the world’s first clinical study to examine whether psilocybin-assisted therapy can improve everyday wellness in adults.

🏛️ Policy

Come get it: Arizona’s $5 million for ibogaine clinical research is now up for grabs.
Poppin’ bottle(neck)s: California’s governor signed a bill that will streamline research on controlled substances, including psychedelics.
Post mortem: Lucid News breaks down the fatal flaws of Massachusetts’ Yes on 4 campaign, which could have decriminalized psilocybin and other natural psychedelics.
You thought wrong: An Ontario judge ruled that banning psilocybin does not violate the constitutionally protected freedom of thought.
Nutt’s case: British drug expert David Nutt wants to revoke the UN Convention’s international ban on psychedelics ASAP.

📈 Business

Mind the gap: MindMed has become a front-runner in the psychedelics race.
Rapid expansion: ATMA CENA will soon have 13 psychedelic clinics operating throughout Canada.
Gateway drug: PharmAla Biotech, an MDMA manufacturer, launched a portal to help prescribers navigate the regulatory pathways for patient access.
Branching out: Neural Therapeutics, a mescaline-focused drug developer that spun out of Filament Health, just took a stake in a German hemp retailer.
Around the world: MAPS and HoloMind launched Poland’s first international psychedelic therapy training program. The first such training program in Italy also just launched.

🫠 Just for fun

Fake news: Slipknot is beginning the psychedelic, free-love phase of their career.
Big swing: A pro golfer spent Masters week at an ayahuasca retreat and came back with a new business plan.
Technology, brother: Silicon Valley founders are optimizing every minute of their calendars, including their strategic LSD trips.
Touch grass: People report greater happiness on days when they visit natural spaces.
Meme of the week: When you ask a friend to check in on you during a journey…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

A heart-to-heart study

MDMA's having a moment. FDA approval drama, therapy headlines, billionaire takeovers. It’s a whole thing.

But what if we told you MDMA has an edgier cousin who's been lurking in the underground, just waiting for its turn in the spotlight?

Enter MDA. That’s 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine for our fellow organic chemistry nerds. It's actually one of MDMA's metabolites, meaning your body makes a little MDA every time you roll.

But researchers at the University Hospital Basel wanted to know, what happens when you take MDA directly? So they did what any self-respecting scientists would do. They gave 23 healthy volunteers equimolar doses of both substances in a double-blind, crossover trial.

Here's what they learned about the MDA experience.

• ⌚️ Longer ride: MDA lasted 6 hours vs MDMA's 4 hours.

• 😵‍💫 Trippier vibes: It produced significantly more visual alterations and psychedelic-like effects.

• 🫀 Stronger stimulation: Participants gave it higher ratings of subjective stimulation than MDMA.

• 🫂 More oxytocin: MDA released even more oxytocin (the neurotransmitter of social bonding) than MDMA.

• 😬 Rougher edges: It also elicited more fear and adverse effects, both acutely and the next day.

Basically, MDA goes harder than MDMA. It produces all the empathogenic, trust-building, lovey-dovey effects that MDMA is famous for. But it also comes with visual distortions, anxiety, and a gnarlier comedown.

The researchers also tested lysine-conjugated versions (basically slow-release prodrugs). Lys-MDA worked well, delaying the onset and peak by about an hour. Lys-MDMA, however, was a total dud. Completely pharmacologically inactive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So what does this mean for therapy? Well, MDA's longer duration and prosocial effects could be interesting. But its inferior tolerability profile suggests MDMA still has the better therapeutic margin.

Outside of therapy though? No comment. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Give PEACE a chance

Harm reduction is officially going mainstream. In one state, at least. Ohio State University just launched a statewide program to teach first responders and healthcare workers how to handle psychedelic emergencies. Funded by a $400k gov’t grant, the PEACE program (Psychedelic Emergency, Acute, and Continuing Education) has the lofty goal of reaching over 127,000 doctors, nurses, EMTs, cops, social workers, and the like. It kicks off in January 2026.

The numbers don’t lie. More and more people are using psychedelics, which means the fraction who end up in ERs or dealing with first responders is also going up. Thing is, the standard protocols for opioids or meth don't apply. We’re preaching to the choir now, but someone having a challenging trip often just needs a calm environment and reassurance. An intrusive medical intervention could actually make things worse.

MAPS pioneered similar training for Denver first responders after the city decriminalized psilocybin in 2019. If Ohio State can make it work at the state level, who knows? Maybe someday we’ll see this model replicated nationwide. The last thing anyone needs during a rough trip is to face off against a paramedic who learned everything they know about mushrooms from D.A.R.E.

Feeling bullish?

The smart money is. Psychedelic Alpha's latest quarterly survey, which polled 182 investors, found a dramatic shift in sentiment from last year. More than half now report feeling moderately to highly optimistic about their investments, compared to last year when 43% were neutral or pessimistic. Only 12.5% express doubt today.

So what changed? First, the new U.S. administration has investors hyped, with over 65% reporting it positively affected their outlook. The regulatory landscape, which barely even registered last year, is now a top driver of interest (right up there with clinical milestones). Meanwhile, the money's getting serious. Larger-ticket investments are growing, and among those who invested over $250k last year, exactly zero plan to pull back this year.

The shift is most dramatic among retail investors, though. Over 80% of them now report moderate-to-high optimism compared to less than 20% a year ago. And nearly 50% of all respondents now believe current interest in psychedelics is entirely sustainable. That’s the highest on record. After years of doom and gloom, looks like investors are ready to put their money where their third eye is.

🙏 Editor’s note: This week, the psychedelic community mourns the unexpected loss of Dr. Nolan Williams, a brilliant clinician-neuroscientist known for his pioneering work in TMS and ibogaine research. His friend and colleague Owen Muir wrote a moving eulogy here. Rest in peace, Nolan.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🍄 Tabletop game: Shroomscape is a “mycelium mindset board game” where players entangle with resources to survive. Tagged as one of Kickstarter’s “projects we love,” it’ll only move to production if it reaches its goal by Oct 31.

• 🧑‍💻 Business salon: Psychedelic Professionals Networking Club is back, this time for a special one-time event. Use our link to take a couple bucks off your ticket.

• 💸 Fundraiser: The nonprofit Microdosing Collective is raising money to help get New York’s proposed legislation, which would allow adults to obtain psilocybin permits, over the finish line.

• 📕 Book: Love Serve Remember Foundation, the organization preserving Ram Dass’s teachings and legacy, has a new book coming out. There Is No Other is available for preorder now.

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.