🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA & FOUNDATIONS 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the newsletter that hasn’t gone public (yet?), but there’s nothing private about our stance on psychedelics. Help us scream it from the rooftops by sharing this issue far and wide.

Here’s what we got this week.

• The psychological shifts after psychedelics that count 👁️

• Optimi Health files for an IPO 🍄

• MA advances a new psychedelic therapy bill ✈️

• Oral histories of the psychedelic underground 🛋️

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Most intentional psychedelic use falls into one of two categories:

Clinical (for mental health) or ceremonial (for spiritual seeking).

But what about healthy, high-performers who want breakthrough results?

Join Henry from Tricycle Day and Jay & Cory Fiset from Foundations for a free masterclass on Functional Psychedelics, a new paradigm for coaches who want to stand out from the field.

Learn the framework for creating your Signature Psychedelic Protocol, and see real case studies of coaches who’ve transformed their businesses (and their clients' lives).

Register for our free masterclass.

MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Mix and match: A scoping study review concluded that antidepressants and classic psychedelics can be used together safely, with no increased risk of serotonin syndrome.
Life saver: Another review found that psilocybin therapy may reduce suicidal ideation in adults with psychiatric diagnoses.
Elders, take note: Classic psychedelics tend to have blunted effects in older adults.
Dogs on acid: Low-dose psychedelics may be therapeutic for anxious pets.
Mind the gap: Researchers make a strong case for studying microdosing in patients with deficit schizophrenia.

🏛️ Policy

Empire state of mind: New York lawmakers have a hearing scheduled to discuss the medicinal value of psilocybin.
Not in their backyard: In Colorado, Pitkin County commissioners want to keep psilocybin healing centers away from schools.
Freedom to voyage: A Utah-based church is still fighting for its constitutional right to use psilocybin mushrooms as a sacrament.
No more secrets: The FDA’s new “radical transparency” initiative could offer a roadmap for psychedelic biotechs.
Make America think again: A co-chair of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus says the Trump administration is bringing “common sense” back to drug policy.

📈 Business

Right on target: Psychedelic Alpha released the Q3 update to its psychedelic drug development bullseye charts.
Head case: Bright Minds Biosciences posted preclinical results for its investigational compound, to be used as a treatment for vascular headaches.
Nose goes: Silo Pharma secured an Australian patent for its intranasal PTSD treatment.
Before you wreck yourself: Fireside Project launched TripCheck, a new service that reaches out to people during their psychedelic journeys at pre-scheduled times.
Here we go again: An analysis of products advertised as “magic mushroom” edibles found that they contained no psilocybin.

🫠 Just for fun

Parental guidance: Parents are quietly trying ketamine therapy for their teens.
Beyond the binary: Psychedelics can change your views on gender and sexuality.
Row, row, row your boat: This man crossed 26 miles in a kayak made of mushrooms.
Far out: Explore the planets and moons of our solar system with this interactive visualization of space.
Meme of the week: My internal monologue whenever I take a heroic dose…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

How (specifically) to change your mind

Why is it that some people get a full mental glow-up after taking psychedelics, while others walk away mostly unchanged?

Yeah, watching the floor breathe is cool and all. But if your intention is to feel better, you’re looking for more than a dreamy, ephemeral experience, right?

Practically, you already know the answer. Integration, integration, integration.

But let’s dig a little deeper, shall we? At the psychological level, there must be underlying ingredients of change that predict whether someone will get those sweet, sweet mental health gains.

And indeed, there are. Or so says a new study that tracked 161 real-world psychedelics users and used statistical modeling to compare 19 psychological changes they underwent.

Here’s what the researchers found when they parsed the data.

• 💪 For overall wellbeing: Increased meaning in life was the top predictor, followed by increases in agreeableness, mindfulness, and extraversion.

• 😓 For anxiety relief: Increased mindfulness was most strongly associated, and increased emotional stability and extraversion also made the cut.

• 💔 For depression relief: Higher self-esteem had the strongest association, while increased mindfulness and emotional stability also helped.

The real MVP, it turns out, is mindfulness. Of all the predictive factors, mindfulness was the only one to crack the top three across every outcome.

The hype men will tell you psychedelics are magic pills. But you’re smarter than that; you’re a Cyclist. This research supports a more nuanced story—that they're more like catalysts for certain psychological processes, which can in turn be hugely beneficial to the individual.

Now if only we could predict whether someone will benefit before they trip. But that’s a question for another study.

Until then, maybe focus less on which strain of mushrooms you're taking and more on the present moment. Just like this: Ahh, I’m reading Tricycle Day. Life is grand. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

It’s IPO szn

Optimi Health just filed paperwork with the SEC for an initial public offering, hoping to raise $25 million from American investors. Never heard of ‘em? The company operates what it claims is the world's largest pharmaceutical-grade mushroom farm from a sleepy mountain town in British Columbia. Oh, and their abundant supply of vacuum-sealed psilocybin mushrooms is stocked next to thousands of doses of pure MDMA. Casual.

Rather than going the synthetic route for psilocybin, Optimi grows the real deal. Their genetics bank includes ~100 different mushroom strains, from Albino Penis Envy to *ahem* Chode Wave. (They come in all shapes and sizes apparently.) To get there, Optimi has dropped nearly $30 million building out specialized rooms that replicate climates from Oregon to Costa Rica. So far, the investment has paid off in the form of regulatory approvals to ship psychedelics around the globe.

The filing estimates Optimi can supply enough medicine annually to treat 100,000 PTSD patients and 200,000 people with treatment-resistant depression. With the legal psychedelics market projected to hit $10 billion by 2027, that's solid positioning. The only catch is, they've lost almost $4.5 million in the last year. So this IPO better work out.

Mass movement

The Bay State is so back. Massachusetts lawmakers approved a bill this week to establish a pilot program for regulated psychedelic therapy, inching the state closer to sanctioned therapeutic use of psilocybin and MDMA. The measure sailed through the Joint Committee on Mental Health and now heads to Health Care Financing for review, with a public hearing set for November 10.

To be clear, this pilot would be very pilot-y. Only three (3) licensed facilities statewide could administer psychedelics, and only under the care of a multi-disciplinary clinical team. The Department of Public Health would also call the shots on protocols for treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorders. And in a delicious twist, eligible organizations can’t be tied to cannabis companies, psychedelic biotechs, or Big Pharma.

A more cautious approach makes sense after Massachusetts voters rejected broader psychedelics legalization last year. Several MA cities have joined the decrim wave; maybe lawmakers prefer baby steps over bold leaps. But if this pilot works out, broader expansion could be in the cards. And if it doesn’t, well… at least no one can take your clam chowder.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 📚 In-person talk: Two longtime contributors to the psychedelic movement are hosting an intimate Q&A at the Shulgin Farm, where Sasha and Ann developed hundreds of molecules and pioneered underground psychedelic therapy.

• 📺 Video: Neurologist Zeus Tipado’s YouTube channel, “Your Drug on Brains,” explores popular myths about psychedelics. In the pilot, he tests whether inspecting a diffracted laser on DMT reveals the code of the universe.

• 🎥 Fundraiser: As one Cyclist put it, “before there was Tricycle Day, there was Erowid.” The legendary harm reduction resource is hosting its annual support-a-thon, and qualifying donations are matched or tripled.

• 🥳 Party favor: Alice Mushrooms released a new chocolate supplement called Party Trick. Along with the usual functional fungi, it also includes kanna, velvet bean, and pop rocks because why not? Take 20% off with code TRICYCLEDAY.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

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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.