🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that likes altered states but loves altered traits. This email is dedicated to all our Cyclists putting in the work to show up better today than yesterday. 💪

Here’s what we got this week.

• Engineering new states of consciousness with AI 🤖

• Two psilocybin biotechs join forces 🤝

• FDA takes heat for MDMA fumble 🤬

• Eat this to make your dreams more vivid 🌌

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Mystical doesn’t do it justice: There’s more to the psychedelic experience than oceanic boundlessness. It’s time for a new measuring stick.
What’d you expect? A new study combed through 200 people’s LSD trips to find what predicted a positive or challenging experience.
Can’t scare me: Researchers have a new explanation for how psychedelics turn off the fear response.
The verdict is in: A review of the scientific literature shows psychedelics are safe and well tolerated.
Fire kasina: This advanced meditation practice reliably produces psychedelic experiences.
Volunteers wanted: Participate in research on psilocybin as a treatment for fibromyalgia.

🏛️ Policy

Psychedelics will be yuuuge: Donald Trump has thoughts on psychedelic and cannabis policy.
Royal court: The “ketamine queen” and one doctor implicated in Matthew Perry’s death will go to trial, while the other defendants will plead guilty.
Safety first: Drug testing isn’t as common at festivals as it could be, due to an often misunderstood federal law.
Post-mortem: MAPS hosted a discussion with experts after the FDA’s public meeting on PTSD treatments (more coverage below).

📈 Business

Fresh blood: Lykos Therapeutics has a new interim CEO.
Staking claims: Awakn is trying to patent a new class of psychedelic compounds, while Clearmind and SciSparc filed a patent for an MDMA combo treatment.
The root problem: The iboga retreat industry is burrowing deeper underground after another death.
De-real deal: This clinic specializes in helping people recover from extended bad trips.
We’d like to thank the academy: Entries are now open for the first Psychedelics Design Awards.

🫠 Just for fun

For the fun guys and gals: 7 mushroom festivals you should know about.
Tune in: Musicians are driving the psychedelic therapy revolution.
Not cordyceps: The same fungus that turns house flies into zombies may be the basis for new psychotropic drugs.
Meme of the week: Psychedelic therapists watching their clients overcome trauma…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Now we’re cooking with gas

We’ve all heard the line. Go ahead. Say it with us:

“The medicine may not give you what you want, but it always gives you what you need.”

There’s definitely some wisdom in there. But hear us out… what if that’s a cop out? And really, we just need more precise tools to get where we wanna go?

That’s the basic idea that Mindstate Design Labs is running with. Instead of leaving the psychedelic experience up to nature’s whim, they’re using AI to engineer new and specific altered states of consciousness.

Now this all might sound like sci-fi, but it’s about to get very real. Because the FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA) just gave Mindstate the thumbs up to start human trials. Let’s break it down.

• 🧪 Base ingredient: Their first clinical candidate is MSD-001, aka 5-MeO-MiPT—a psychedelic so mild, they're calling it "psychedelic tofu."

• 🤌 Season to taste: The plan is to combine MSD-001 with other compounds (or probes) to dial in specific effects and mental states. (Because tofu’s pretty bland without sauce.)

• 🤖 The cookbook: Where does AI come in? Identifying the “probes.” Mindstate’s platform analyzed 70,000+ trip reports and a huge biochemical data dump to see what would pair best.

Mindstate's CEO, Dillan DiNardo, says this mission is bigger than drugs. He wants to “go beyond psychedelics” to crack the code of consciousness itself. Only then can we have precision therapies for everything from depression to stuttering.

With Phase 1 trials on the horizon, guess we’ll find out soon if he’s on the right track. Fingers crossed there are no disasters in the kitchen lab. After all, even tofu’s dangerous if you're allergic to soy. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Mushroom merger

Uh-oh, the psychedelic biotechs are consolidating power. Psyence Biomedical just inked a deal to acquire Clairvoyant Therapeutics for the low, low price of $500k in shares, with the potential for another half milly in cash down the road. What's got them so excited? A synthetic psilocybin treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) that's already knee-deep in a Phase 2b trial.

This acquisition isn't so much about gobbling up a competitor. It's a strategic move that could expand Psyence’s portfolio and fast-track them from shroom startup to commercial player. With Clairvoyant's AUD treatment complementing Psyence's own nature-derived psilocybin for cancer-related adjustment disorder, they're positioning themselves as the Swiss Army knife of psychedelic therapy.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. The sector's still nursing a hangover from the FDA's recent MDMA rejection. Still, with 50 million at-risk drinkers around the world, and previous studies showing psilocybin's promise in AUD, Psyence might just be onto something. And if their whole plan goes sideways? Hey, at least mushrooms still grow in the woods (/in your closet). 🤫

FDA gets an earful

The FDA just hosted a public roast meeting on PTSD treatments, and let's just say the suggestion box is smoking. Emotions were (justifiably) running high after the FDA’s recent rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy. About 4% of men and 10% of women will face PTSD in their lifetimes, yet here we are, still stuck with same old ineffective choices. So on Friday, everyone from academic researchers to salty vets showed up to give the feds a piece of their mind.

The FDA's Dr. Bernard Fischer tried to play it cool, pointing to the 447 psychedelic clinical trials in motion. But the crowd wasn't buying it. Johns Hopkins' Dr. Neşe Devenot demanded higher standards, while veteran Jon Lubecky basically told the FDA to get a move on already. Meanwhile, Denver's Ashley Troxell showed up championing full psilocybin descheduling. Because why stop at medical use when our cognitive liberty’s at stake? (Preach.)

HHS's Dr. Leith States tried to smooth over the MDMA setback, saying, "We all feel some type of way." Yeah, no kidding, doc. Just ask Amy Emerson, who stepped down as Lykos's CEO this week after laying off 75% of the company’s staff. But enough about them. We want to know what you think, Cyclists.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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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.