🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that knows age ain’t nothing but a number. And since we’re all just remixed stardust, technically you’re 13.8 billion years young… but who’s counting?

Here’s what we got this week.

• Ketamine may reverse the aging process 🧬

• Michigan could legalize mushrooms for PTSD 🍄

• atai unloads millions of Compass shares 📉

• The psychedelic therapy event of the year 🧑‍💻

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Silence, neurons! A new scientific discovery explains how psychedelics reduce anxiety.
Chill out: To get the therapeutic benefit from psychedelics, just feeling relaxed might be more important than having a mystical experience.
Who let the dogs out? For the first time (at least in scientific literature), a dog with separation anxiety was successfully treated with 1cp-LSD.
Try before you prescribe: Ketamine therapists agree their own experience with psychedelics helps them deliver better care.
Called it: Researchers created a scale that accurately predicts the quality of a psychedelic experience based on set, rapport, and intention.

🏛️ Policy

Ackshually: Oregon’s drug decriminalization policy, which has since been reversed, never increased overdose deaths.
Let them cook: Minnesota’s psychedelics task force is recommending a state-regulated clinical psilocybin program and more state-funded research.
Not to be outdone: Alaska has established a psychedelics task force of its own.
Property of the Pentagon: The VA has applied for a patent for the use of biomarkers to diagnose and treat PTSD with certain psychedelics.
Coming in hot: A key architect of Oregon’s policy reforms just joined the nonprofit Microdosing Collective to help establish a legal framework for microdosing.

📈 Business

Following in Steve Jobs’ footsteps: OpenAI founder Sam Altman says psychedelics changed his life.
The fees are too damn high: Colorado advocates are concerned licensing costs will kill the state’s psilocybin program before it starts.
Monk mode: Do psychedelics make CEOs quit their jobs?
To the masses: Zendo Project is expanding its psychedelic peer support model beyond festivals into mainstream communities.
Rolling with the punches: MDMA drug developers (of which there are many) are pivoting after Lykos’s FDA rejection.

🫠 Just for fun

Didn’t need a degree to tell you that: Bioethicists argue psychedelics are “intrinsically valuable” because they make life more interesting.
Faith the Trauma Slayer: Actress Eliza Dushku is making a career pivot into psychedelic therapy.
Nope, nope, nope: A man chopped off his penis with an axe after a taking a large dose of mushrooms.
Don’t hate the playa: Ever wondered what Burning Man looks like from space?
Meme of the week: Trying to fit in with society after taking psychedelics…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Long live ketamine users

Pretty sure we figured out Benjamin Button’s secret. Guys, it’s ketamine.

A new study about everyone’s favorite dissociative anesthetic just dropped. And it’s a curious case indeed.

Turns out, ketamine might do more than just (“just” lol) treat severe, intractable mental health conditions. It could be turning back your biological clock, too.

For the study, 20 people with depression and/or PTSD went through a 2-3 week course of ketamine infusions. Then, scientists took their blood and looked at DNA methylation levels on specific genes. Think of these “biomarkers” as timestamps that tell us how old our bodies really are.

Here's what they found.

• 😌 Mental health glow-up: As expected, depression and PTSD symptoms took a nosedive. (But that’s nothing new.)

• 🧬 Cellular aging: Three biomarkers—OMICmAge, GrimAge V2, and PhenoAge—showed significant reductions in epigenetic age. (In plain English? Ketamine might make your cells younger.)

• 🦠 Immune refresh: CD4T memory cells, which typically increase with age, decreased significantly. (So your immune system is more youthful, too.)

• 🧠 Brain rewiring: They saw changes in pathways related to T cell differentiation and circadian rhythm regulation. (That could mean improved sleep and reduced inflammation.)

Why does this matter? Well, it's not just about feeling younger—it's about potentially being younger at a cellular level. This study hints at ketamine's potential to slow down or even reverse aspects of biological aging.

Keep in mind, it’s a small study and it hasn’t been peer reviewed yet. Maybe that’s why Bryan Johnson and his longevity-nerd friends haven’t jumped all over this yet.

Anyway, it seems like the line between mental health and anti-aging therapies might be blurrier than we thought. That’s convenient because who’d want to live forever if you’re miserable? 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Magic in Michigan

Never—and we repeat, ever—count out the Midwest. Michigan lawmakers just introduced a bill that would legalize psychedelic mushrooms for PTSD patients. Rep. Mike McFall and his Democratic buddies are pushing to let adults with PTSD possess up to two ounces of "a substance that contains psilocybin." (Sheesh, mushroom isn’t a four-letter word, y’all.) Anyway, that's a lot of fungi, considering the active ingredient is measured in milligrams.

But don't expect shroom dispensaries to pop up next to your local Starbucks. This bill is strictly BYO mushrooms. There's no plan to license growers, sellers, or even facilitators, as we’ve seen in Oregon and Colorado’s supervised use models. It's more of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy for PTSD patients who want to heal with natural medicine, and who’d rather not be labeled criminals for doing so. Go figure.

Michigan's not exactly breaking new ground here. Five cities in the state have already told cops to chill out on psychedelic law enforcement. But this statewide push is next level. If it passes, Michigan would join Oregon, Colorado, and Utah in the big leagues, while the national government continues to do… *checks notes*… nothing. Federalism is pretty neat, huh?

Don’t call it a breakup

Looks like atai Life Sciences is cleaning out its medicine cabinet. The psychedelic powerhouse just offloaded 2.66 million shares of Compass Pathways, pocketing a cool $16.1 million. But before you start screaming "abandonment issues," let's get the facts straight from the horse's mouth—or in this case, from atai founder Christian Angermayer's posts on LinkedIn and X.

Angermayer insists this isn't a breakup, just a "trade-off." Even after trimming their position, atai still has about 10% ownership in Compass and is cheering on their psilocybin trials. So why the sale? It's all about that cash runway, baby. Remember, atai has its own psychedelic drug development programs to focus on—namely DMT, R-MDMA, and ibogaine. In Angermayer's view, taking some chips off the table beats diluting atai's "extremely undervalued" shares with another raise.

Meanwhile, Compass's stock took a hit, dropping to $6.81. But with a market cap of $467 million and more cash than debt, they're not down for the count. Analysts are still bullish, with an average "Buy" rating and a $47.40 price target. Now we wait to see if this calculated risk pays off, or if atai's just tripping.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

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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.