🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that had a midlife crisis and bought a shiny new three-wheeler. It’s not compensating for anything, swear. 🤥

Here’s what we got this week.

Ibogaine might be the most effective tool out there for beating addiction.

But (as that NYT article pointed out) the industry has a standards problem. And handled recklessly, this medicine can do more harm than good.

Nekawa prides itself on doing things differently. Their program is a 28+ day nature-based experience in the Brazilian rainforest, grounded in lifestyle education and medical oversight.

Their founders are hosting a free live webinar on Oct 24 covering what real safety entails and whether ibogaine is even the right choice for you.

Good mourning: Ayahuasca-assisted therapy outperformed therapy alone for adults experiencing severe grief after the death of a family member.
Rise and shine: A new trial will test whether psilocybin and apomorphine can help unresponsive ICU patients awaken from comas.
Everything is emo: Psilocybin influences the emotions evoked by certain musical genres.
Shocker: Ketamine can make electroconvulsive therapy more effective and mitigate its cognitive side effects.
Tell ‘em how you really feel: SUNY Buffalo is recruiting volunteers (with or without personal psychedelic experience) to complete a wide-ranging research survey.

Bigger fish to fry: Portland City Council is considering an ordinance that would deprioritize the policing of psychedelic use.
Hear, hear: The Colorado Office of Natural Medicine Licensure is holding a permanent rulemaking hearing on October 8.
Divine intervention: Religious psychedelic users have new avenues and arguments to challenge federal, state, and local laws.
Integration nation: For veterans (and others), psychedelic access can’t stop at the drug itself.
Across the pond: The UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists has called for better trauma care. Drug Science says psychedelic therapy offers a solution.

At ease: Drop Thesis, an Oregon psilocybin service center, launched a program to sponsor psilocybin therapy for military veterans.
Follow the leader: J&J paved the way for Compass’s psilocybin launch.
Neuroplastic, it’s fantastic: Kasvu Therapeutics raised a €30 million Series A to develop neuroplastogens that target TrkB without engaging 5-HT2A.
Cocktail hour: Clearmind added three more patents covering LSD, ketamine, and ibogaine to its IP portfolio.
Lawyer up: Psychedelic drug patents are starting to get tested.

Easier said than done: The secret of life is learning to unclench.
Welcome to the jungle: A new $100 million project will use AI to track the biodiversity and ecosystem health of the Amazon rainforest in real time.
I think, therefore: Consciousness may have evolved to solve a problem basic cognition couldn’t.
An oldie but a goodie: An obscure 1967 guide to LSD use still holds up today as an effective harm reduction resource.
Meme of the week: When you finally break through the waiting room and meet the DMT entities…

The way the world is dragging Gen Z for bringing iced coffee to job interviews, you’d think they were committing a crime.

Be kinda funny if they were... Like, what if that’s actually mushroom tea rattling around in there? Could explain why Zoomers are so unbothered.

Anyway, there might be something to the chill young psychonaut stereotype. This week, a new study dropped that surveyed 1,088 adults about their lifetime psychedelic use and current mental health, and then looked at how the picture changed with age.

Here’s what it found.

You: Welp, psychedelics are wasted on the young. Guess I missed the bus.

Not so fast. A snapshot survey can't establish causality. Maybe the kids tripping for fun already felt good. And maybe older adults who try psychedelics are actively seeking relief, meaning they’re starting with more anxiety and depression.

The authors are calling for age-stratified research to sort these questions out.

In the meantime, our own real-world data suggest people seeking out legal psilocybin sessions are well past college age. And they're reporting meaningful improvements.

So no, a 50-year-old brain isn’t past its expiration date. No guarantees on the oat milk in your cold brew though. 🫠

Man, you can’t make this stuff up. Barely a week after the FDA hosted its historic public hearing on psychedelic medicine, the DEA has proposed placing five more tryptamines in Schedule I. If this whole charade sounds familiar, congrats, you’ve done your homework. The DEA tried the same move in 2022 but pulled the plug after researchers and advocates (rightfully) pushed back.

The crazy part is that most people haven’t even heard of these substances, let alone been harmed by them. 4-OH-DiPT, 5-MeO-AMT, 5-MeO-MiPT, 5-MeO-DET, and DiPT are pretty obscure. In fact, the DEA’s own filing admits that no single-substance exposures to these compounds resulted in death, and that the FDA isn't aware of any diversion from research. Meanwhile, Reunion Neuroscience's luvesilocin, a prodrug of 4-OH-DiPT, holds a breakthrough therapy designation for postpartum depression. Mixed signals much?

Research isn't the only place the DEA’s shenanigans have hindered progress. It has also stood between terminally ill patients and psychedelics under right-to-try laws, and between spiritual communities and their sacraments under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The public has 23 days to comment on the proposal. You know what to do, Cyclists.

An Australian psychedelic company just made its intentions for the U.S. clear as can be. Emyria has named Dr. David Shulkin, former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as a “strategic advisor.” Shulkin will leverage his connections to help the company scout research and drug development partnerships right here in the land of the free.

You might not have heard of Emyria, but they’re the real deal down under. In 2023, Australia became the first country to let authorized psychiatrists prescribe MDMA and psilocybin, and Emyria got in early. They were the first provider in Australia to get psychedelic therapy covered by Medibank, the country's largest private insurer. And last fiscal year, they treated 138 patients across five clinics and brought in ~A$4 million. Modest, sure, but Emyria says no operator in the world has treated more commercial patients.

Now, the U.S. is on a whole ‘nother level from Australia. In 2024, the VA served 5.8 million veterans, and at least one in seven had PTSD. Once MDMA and/or psilocybin gets FDA approval, the VA’s gonna need teams, protocols, and treatment spaces ready to go. We have a hunch Emyria wants to be the partner the VA calls.

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.