🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that holds the world record for longest consecutive streak of original psychedelic memes. We haven’t called Guinness yet because, listen, we don’t do it for the fame. We do it for you. 🫡

Here’s what we got this week.

• Medium-dose psilocybin for OCD 🗂️

• Cybin secures $500 million financing deal 🤑

• Osama bin Laden’s killer endorses ibogaine 🎙️

• Win a legal psychedelic retreat abroad 🎟️

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

I am you, you are me: DMT reduces the brain’s ability to differentiate between others’ faces and one’s own.
Heart of the matter: At high doses, LSD could pose cardiac risks. But microdosing might actually protect against heart disease.
It’s all in your head: After participating in a psilocybin retreat, veterans with traumatic brain injuries saw improved mental health outcomes and normalized EEG activity.
Psychedelics, so hot right now: Psychedelics are so prevalent in public discourse that researchers have developed a new scale to assess psychedelic-related media exposure.
Don’t do it for the money though: University of Denver is recruiting participants for a (paid) study on high-dose mushroom journeys.

🏛️ Policy

Psychedelic States of America: Oregon and Colorado are leading more than 20 other states in psychedelic policy reform.
You thinking what I’m thinking? In May, Montana quietly expanded its Right-to-Try laws, allowing healthcare providers to administer “experimental treatments” not yet approved by the FDA.
Live free or… be a felon? New Hampshire’s Senate killed a bill that would have lowered criminal penalties for psilocybin possession.
Signed, sealed, delivered: Natural Medicine Alaska submitted 230 voter signatures to put a psychedelic legalization measure on the state’s 2026 ballot.
Just czeching in: The Czech Republic is on the verge of legalizing psilocybin therapy.

📈 Business

Infographics galore: Psychedelic Alpha turned the first cut of data from Oregon’s psilocybin program into easy-to-understand visuals.
Pulling another thread: The brothers behind Charlotte’s Web are developing botanical pharmaceuticals from psilocybin mushrooms now.
Speaking of natural medicine: Filament Health received FDA authorization for its Phase 2 trial of botanical psilocybin for alcohol use disorder and PTSD in veterans and first responders.
Robin’s nest egg: Red Light Holland tapped Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris as Scientific Advisor.
The WSJ asks: The MAHA movement loves psychedelics. Should Wall Street?

🫠 Just for fun

Gotta have faith: Step inside the Colorado psychedelic church run out of a suburban basement.
Once a VJ, always a VJ: Remember Qudduz from Total Request Live? He’s a shaman now.
Artificial Integration: People are using AI chatbots to process their psychedelic trips.
Meme of the week: When you’re trying to surrender to the experience…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Felt compelled to share

Sorry, we gotta get on our soapbox real quick.

If your bookshelf is organized by color, or you insist on neatly stacking your papers, that doesn’t make you “so OCD.” OCD isn’t a cute, quirky personality trait. It’s a debilitating disorder that traps people in cycles of intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.

Cool. Now that that’s off our chest, here’s some good news. Europe's first formal study of psilocybin for OCD just got published, and the results could give patients and psychiatrists a new reason to obsess.

Researchers at Imperial College London tested a 10mg dose of psilocybin against a 1mg control in 19 participants with treatment-resistant OCD. Here's what they found.

• 😮‍💨 Rapid results: A single dose led to significant reductions in OCD symptoms within just one week.

• 📉 Moderate-large effect size: Participants saw meaningful improvements on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. (Benefits were stronger for compulsive behaviors than obsessive thoughts.)

• ⌛️ Short-lived relief: Effects peaked at one week and weren't sustained at two or four weeks.

• 🎯 OCD-specific: Depression scores didn't change, which suggests psilocybin directly targets OCD mechanisms.

For a condition so notoriously hard to treat, any improvement is worth celebrating. But this obviously isn’t a cure-all. The effects were temporary, and no one achieved full remission.

That said, the researchers deliberately chose a gentler 10mg dose instead of the typical 25mg used in other trials. Why? People with OCD often fear losing control of their thoughts, so they wanted to minimize intense psychedelic effects.

Looking ahead, the team suggests combining psilocybin with other therapies to extend the benefits. They’re also not opposed to testing higher or repeat doses.

Now if you'll excuse us, our altar beckons. We need to go arrange all our mushroom crystals by size… for aesthetic reasons, okay? 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Half a billy

Everyone claims it’s a near-impossible time to be raising money. Well, hold my beer mushroom. Cybin just pulled off the biggest financing deal in psychedelic history, securing up to $500 million in convertible debt. The Toronto-based biotech closed $50 million upfront from High Trail Special Situations, with another $450 million potentially on tap.

Here's how it works. Instead of traditional loans, Cybin issued "convertible debentures," basically IOUs that convert into company shares rather than requiring cash repayment. The remaining $450 million isn't guaranteed though. Both parties have to agree on future funding tranches, meaning Cybin needs to keep hitting milestones to unlock the cash.

Cybin really needed to refill the war chest. They're burning ~$100 million a year on clinical trials for two promising drugs: a modified psilocin molecule for depression (71% remission rate in Phase 2) and a DMT derivative for anxiety. With Phase 3 trials underway and manufacturing scale-up ahead, it’s no wonder they’re getting creative with financing. Guess expanding your mind starts with expanding your credit line.

The kill shot for stigma?

You know we’ve hit a cultural inflection point when the guy who claims to have killed Osama bin Laden starts advocating for psychedelics on conservative media. This week, Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill told Tucker Carlson, the ex-Fox News pundit whose show ranks among the top podcasts in the world, that ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT have helped him manage his PTSD. And he wants VA facilities to offer psychedelic therapy domestically.

Sporting a hat embroidered with the big, bold block letters D-M-T (subtle, we know), O'Neill described how ibogaine "gets in your brain, shows you stuff, and kind of cleans out the closet.” The vet wasn’t shy about his theories on why these treatments are still illegal either. "The alcohol doesn't help, but the psychedelics do. And that's why they're not legal here. Because it works."

If there was any doubt that psychedelics have become a non-partisan issue, there’s your proof. A year ago, most Americans had never heard of ibogaine. Now they're getting stories of transformation piped into their eardrums by podcasters across the political spectrum every other week. Meanwhile, we're over here quietly sending newsletters like it's 2003. Hey, every revolution needs its scribes.

Editor’s note: Last week, in our article about Lykos’s C-suite shuffle, we referenced the wrong Mike Burke. The story has since been updated. Thanks to Kevin L. from Nashville, TN for pointing out the error. 🫠

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

• 🎟️ Giveaway: PORTAL has teamed up with Synthesis Institute for an epic sweepstakes. Win a 5-day legal psilocybin retreat in The Netherlands, including roundtrip airfare.

• 📒 Instruction manual: The Psychedelic DJ offers a practical guide to music curation during psychedelic therapy.

• 🎥 Crowdfunding campaign: The Golden Teacher is a docudrama capturing the first filmed case study of psychedelic therapy used to treat Alzheimer’s Disease.

• 🌌 Conference: Next month, the Arctic Visions Psychedelic Conference is going down in Anchorage, AK. Come for the speakers; stay for the aurora borealis views.

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.