🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that got it from our mama. (Our attention to detail, that is.) 🍑

Here’s what we got this week.

Psychedelic approvals are coming.

Soon, the bottleneck will be trained people to meet the demand.

If you've felt the pull to become one of those people, the next question is where to train.

Numinus is one of the longest-standing training providers in the space, with certification pathways spanning multiple medicines and regulatory models.

They run a free live Q&A called Info Friday where you can ask their team anything about the programs. Next one is on June 12.

Fwiw, this is the pathway our founder Henry went through to get licensed in Colorado. (He turned out ok.)

Be cool: Psilocybin-assisted therapy reduced anxiety across 25 studies.
Best behavior: Combining psilocybin with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) led to significant and sustained improvements in depression over a 7-month trial.
Zzzz: Psilocybin may improve sleep quality through its impact on brain microstructure.
We’ve heard murmurs: Lifetime psychedelic use may modestly increase one’s risk of valvular heart disease.
Read the room: People who use psychedelics have different research priorities from academics and institutions.

Look the other way: Portland’s city council is considering an ordinance to make personal use of psilocybin mushrooms a low police priority.
Our pen pal: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the state’s regulated ibogaine research bill into law. (See previous coverage.)
Hear ye: A Michigan House committee heard testimony on a bill that would create an ibogaine research grant program.
Not dead yet: Although Minnesota’s psilocybin therapy bill didn’t pass this session, another law did that directs the state cannabis office to dig deeper and report back.
Left, right, and center: Forbes asks why psychedelics are gaining support across the political spectrum.

Yes, strings attached: Vicente LLP lays out what investors and operators should be prepared for if Compass’s psilocybin product is approved with a REMS program.
Squad goals: Sunstone Therapies received $1.5 million in grants from Reason for Hope and the state of Maryland to study group MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans.
Forget me not: Filament Health landed a deal to supply its botanical psilocybin drug candidate to UCSF for a study probing preclinical markers of Alzheimer’s disease.
Free your mind: MAPS is fundraising for a new project focused on psychedelic therapy for formerly incarcerated people.
Stocked up: Optimi Health has secured two sources of ibogaine and will start producing standardized doses this summer.

Plant whisperers: This startup listens to plants and hears what they need to thrive.
Bad trip: Filming is underway in New York for a psychological thriller about a mushroom retreat gone wrong.
Foul play: The WNBA just removed cannabis from its banned substances list… but it added psilocybin, DMT, and ibogaine.
They’ve seen the light: More doctors are validating near-death experiences.
Meme of the week: This is the best the mushrooms can do…

Modern medicine has reached sci-fi levels. You can literally edit your DNA or 3D-print a new hip now.

But say you want to treat postpartum depression, and you’ll be met with blank stares. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This, despite PPD being a) brutal and b) incredibly common. ~1 in 5 new mothers deal with it.

But looky here… 5-MeO-DMT, the ego-dissolving psychedelic often sourced from toad secretions, just broke into the women’s health conversation.

GH Research ran a Phase 2a trial where 10 women with moderate-to-severe PPD received 1 to 3 doses of vaporized mebufotenin (their amphibian-free formulation).

And the results were, to use a scientific term, bonkers.

Now for some big asterisks. Only 10 patients got the drug, the trial was open label (i.e., no blinding or placebo group), and there was only one week of follow-up, so we don’t know how long the effects last.

GH is neither the only drug developer working on 5-MeO nor the only one to apply psychedelics to postpartum. (Reunion Neuroscience's luvesilocin landed an FDA breakthrough therapy designation for PPD in February.)

Still, more options is better. Especially when none of them is a sure thing.

Bigger, controlled trials will tell us if this drug’s the real deal. For now, color us cautiously yet toad-ally intrigued. 🫠

Ask any neurologist and they’ll tell you Alzheimer's is irreversible. (Once function declines, it doesn't come back.) That’s why this case report out of Brazil has been getting so much attention. An octogenarian woman, 10 years into her Alzheimer’s diagnosis and largely nonverbal for the last five, was given a high dose of psilocybin mushrooms. About 19 hours later, she woke up and started telling stories about her life.

Over the following weeks, her doctors documented all sorts of improvements. She regained urinary continence, started walking and dressing herself, made eye contact, and cracked jokes. (We’d love to see her meme game.) A second session a month later brought more of the same. Of course, the caveats are enormous, this being an n-of-1 finding and all… not to mention the hairy questions around consent.

So why even report on this? Anecdotes get a bad rap, but research has to start somewhere. Studies only happen when someone believes a question is worth asking. And btw, this isn't the first time psychedelics have surprised scientists studying neurodegeneration. The first psilocybin-for-Parkinson's study found motor function improvements nobody predicted. So yeah, “worth a closer look” might be the understatement of the year.

Anyone else noticing a pattern? No, not the sacred geometry inside your eyelids. We mean the trend of psychedelic bills actually getting passed. Connecticut just expanded its psychedelic therapy pilot program. Gov. Ned Lamont signed SB 191 into law on Thursday, after the bill cleared the Senate with a unanimous 35-0 vote. Drug policy hasn’t always been this bipartisan, ya know.

Connecticut launched this pilot back in 2022 to study psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapy, but it was originally limited to veterans, first responders, and healthcare workers. Apparently, recruitment was a challenge, so SB 191 opens the program to any adult 18+ who meets the clinical criteria. It also kills a self-destruct clause that would've shuttered the program once psilocybin or MDMA was federally approved. (Probably seemed a lot further out in 2022 than it does now.)

As we’ve pointed out, the math has become more enticing lately. Trump's executive order put $50 million in matching funds on the table for states with psychedelic research programs. While states still have to pony up their own share, that kind of cost-sharing makes a yes vote much easier. So don’t be surprised if more states suddenly discover their passion for psychedelic science.

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

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here.

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.