🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the newsletter with a downright surgical approach to sharing what’s happening in the psychedelic space. Let’s get to it. Scalpel! 😷

Here’s what we got this week.

• “Emotional blunting” on SSRIs vs psilocybin 😐

• Colorado completes its psychedelic supply chain 🧩

• The Surgeon General nominee is a psychonaut 🩺

• Pitch your psychedelic business to investors 🦈

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

If you can’t love yourself… Self-compassion appears to play a key role in the treatment effects of MDMA-assisted therapy.
Forgive me, father: Psychedelic use is linked to religious disaffiliation but not to changes in spirituality.
K marks the spot: New research points to a specific location in brain as the hub for ketamine’s neuroplasticity.
Ontological shock: An interview-based study identified 11 themes of existential challenges following psychedelic experiences.
Speak it into existence: Participate in this study on the effects of intentions on perceived outcomes of psychedelic experiences.

🏛️ Policy

Yeehaw: Texas’s House and Senate have both passed a bill that would set up a public-private partnership to move ibogaine therapy through FDA approval. The House also passed a pair of bills that would expedite access to psilocybin and MDMA.
Sorry, mycologists: The governor of Florida has signaled he’ll sign the agriculture bill that would ban the possession and sale of psychedelic mushroom spores.
He’s on a roll: The VA Secretary has been meeting with veterans and advocating for psychedelics in the Senate.
How to change bureaucrats’ minds: Psychedelic Medicine Coalition hosted the first ever Federal Summit on Psychedelic Medicine with researchers, advocates, and members of the new administration.
Medical tourists, incoming: In Portugal, esketamine is now covered by public insurance, and a working group has recommended classifying other psychedelics as medicines.

📈 Business

Nemawashi: Otsuka, a large Japanese pharma company, is investing in infrastructure development toward the rollout of psychedelics in Japan.
Second chance for MDMA: atai Life Sciences dosed the first patient in its Phase 2 trial of MDMA for social anxiety disorder.
Tanks for the memories: The largest float tank franchise in the US is partnering with technology company, SoundSelf, to open hundreds of psychedelic support centers.
Rescue, not research: Scottsdale Research Institute is using its DEA license to repopulate peyote.
Long live the queen: Amanda Fielding is stepping down from Beckley Foundation after an unsuccessful cancer treatment.

🫠 Just for fun

Operation acid drop: This Black Hawk pilot argues it’s his religious right to sell LSD on the dark web.
Nothing virtual about the drugs: The most hardcore VR ravers are fueling their 60-hour dance marathons with ketamine.
Dino skulls abound: Take a tour of billionaire atai founder Christian Angermayer’s London penthouse.
Lean into uncertainty: Neuroscience says curiosity rewires your brain. Here are five ways to cultivate it.
Meme of the week: When you try art therapy for psychedelic integration…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Music make you lose control

Imagine hearing Bohemian Rhapsody and not feeling the primal urge to go full Wayne’s World during the guitar solo. Couldn’t be me.

And yet, this numbing (to music and other stimuli) is exactly what many people report when taking SSRIs for depression. They call it "emotional blunting."

Now, two recent studies have confirmed what many have suspected all along: SSRIs work by dampening your emotions across the board, while psilocybin lets you feel all the feels.

Both studies compared psilocybin to escitalopram (aka Lexapro) in people with depression. In the first, researchers measured participants' brain activity while showing them emotional faces. For the second, the participants listened to music.

Here's what the studies found.

• 😶 Face attuned: SSRIs reduced brain responses to emotional faces, while psilocybin maintained or slightly increased them.

• 🎵 When the beat drops: SSRI users showed decreased responses to "surprises" in music, while psilocybin preserved these positive emotional reactions.

• 🧠 Less cognitive filtering: Psilocybin therapy reduced prefrontal control over emotions and boosted sensory processing.

• 🥰 The return of pleasure: Both treatments reduced depression and anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), but psilocybin had a stronger effect.

Most folks consider emotional blunting an undesirable side effect of SSRIs. But this research shows it’s probably a factor in their antidepressant action. In other words, SSRIs might work because they numb you out.

This isn't to say SSRIs are inherently bad. For some, a narrower range of emotion is a worthwhile trade-off for relief from debilitating depression. But psilocybin seems to offer a fundamentally different approach: relief without sacrificing your capacity to feel.

In fact, many would argue the healing comes through the feeling.

Sorry, what was that? Couldn’t hear you over the early 2000’s emo and the sound of my tears. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Testing, testing, is this thing on?

Imagine chomping down on a “mushroom” chocolate only to discover it contains no psilocybin. Nope, just a bunch of mystery ingredients and empty promises. This is why Colorado's latest milestone matters. Nordic Analytical Laboratories just became the state's first licensed psilocybin testing facility, charged with ensuring that psychedelic healing centers (and their clients) know exactly what they’re getting.

Nordic, who’s been testing cannabis since 2015 with labs in Denver and Pueblo, will be responsible for verifying both potency and purity of all products in Colorado's regulated program. And yes, this officially completes the state's psychedelic supply chain, which already includes five healing centers, two cultivators, and one product manufacturer, all ready to rumble.

There's only one small hurdle standing between Coloradans and legal, supervised journeys. The state has to put the finishing touches on a stack of required forms for clients and facilitators. Industry insiders think the first sessions could begin within two weeks. Now that medicine testing is under control, that just leaves our patience to test, huh?

The ends justify the Means

The next Surgeon General might be tripping, and we mean that in the best way. Trump just nominated Dr. Casey Means—a Stanford-trained physician, bestselling author, and health tech founder—as America’s top doctor. Unlike anyone who’s ever held the title, she openly shares her personal experiences with psychedelics, including a psilocybin journey where she felt "one with the moon, every star, every atom.”

Means would bring an unconventional background to the position, having left her surgical residency to pursue functional medicine. (Naturally, critics question her credentials, while supporters say a root-cause orientation is just what we need.) In her book Good Energy, she frames psychedelics as essential tools for trauma healing and neuroplasticity. She also wants to expand clinical trials and root out regulatory capture by pharma companies.

With Means potentially joining psychedelic-friendly officials like RFK Jr. at HHS and Doug Collins at the VA, the administration is assembling quite the curious Cabinet. Maybe some day, those gnarly cigarette labels will be a distant memory, and the Surgeon General's warning will say: "Eating mushrooms may result in deep, life-affirming conversations with trees.”

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🦈 Pitch Event: Need funding? Apply to pitch your psychedelic business in front of investors at Psych Tank, a live Shark Tank-inspired competition happening at Psychedelic Science 2025.

• 🎂 Birthday Party: The Shulgin Foundation is celebrating Sasha’s 100th birthday in Denver. Early bird tix are on sale now.

• 🔮 Webinar: Clearmind is inviting Rick Doblin and Robin Carhart-Harris to gaze into the crystal ball of psychedelics’ future and share what they see.

• 💥 Comic book: The latest of Brian Blomerth’s trippy graphic novels tells the story of John C. Lilly, one of psychedelia’s most notorious researchers.

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.