🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. Just like a wild mushroom, we’re always growing and changing. Let us know what you think of the new format, would ya? Hit us with an honest rating at the bottom of the newsletter.

Here’s what we got this week.

• The latest CA ballot initiative 🗳️

• A PR crisis for psychedelics ✈️

• Beckley bought a ketamine app 📱

• Psilocybin-free microdosing 🍄

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Endpoint hit: Interim results are out from Cybin’s Phase 2 trial of deuterated psilocybin for major depression.
Focus! Mindmed has fully enrolled its Phase 2a trial of LSD for ADHD.
Brain balm: Combining psychedelics with nutraceuticals could help with mild brain injury.
License to chill: Loyalist is the first college to get Canadian approval for psilocybin research.
Care to share? Ball State is surveying volunteers about their psychedelic experiences.

🏛️ Policy

Just say no: The Kentucky commission weighing a $42 million investment in ibogaine research heard from naysayers.
Decrim down under: Australia’s capital has decriminalized certain drugs, including MDMA.
Signed, sealed, and delivered: Massachusetts advocates have gathered the signatures to get a psychedelics legalization initiative considered.

📈 Business

Liquidity event: Otsuka has completed its acquisition of Mindset Pharma.
DMTIP: Cybin has won two more patents for its deuterated DMT program.
Second chance? Safe Supply Streaming Co. has appointed Ronan Levy, ex-CEO of now-defunct Field Trip Health, as President.
Knowledge share: David Nutt’s research charity, Drug Science, has launched a consulting firm.

🫠 Just for fun

We need a Season 2: This podcaster chose to honor his mom’s life with a psychedelic cartoon.
Meme of the week: When the media sensationalizes a fluke psychedelic incident…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

California knows how to party file a ballot proposal

Again? California advocates have submitted yet another psychedelics-related ballot initiative.

The Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative of 2024 would establish the right to obtain and use psychedelics for medical, therapeutic, and spiritual purposes with a doctor's recommendation. Californians would also be able to grow entheogenic plants and fungi on private property.

For those keeping track at home, we now have not one, not two, but three citizen-led measures attempting to qualify for the 2024 ballot.

• Decriminalize California’s initiative to legalize psilocybin, including sales for adult use

• TREAT California’s bid to create a $5 billion state funding agency for psychedelic medicine

• And now this one, filed by Dave Hodges, the technicolor-dreamcoat-wearing leader of Zide Door, aka the Church of Ambrosia, aka the world’s largest psychedelic megachurch

If three proposals seems like overkill, keep in mind there’s no guarantee they’ll all make it onto the ballot. And after Governor Newsom’s veto of SB-58, can you really blame Californians for taking matters into their own hands?

With 100,000+ members in his church’s congregation, Hodges is confident he can mobilize the resources and collect the signatures necessary to make it happen.

You tell him, Psychedelic Moses: “Let my people go... get a doctor’s note to trip.” 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Please remain seated as we enter some turbulence

All press is good press, right? Uh, not exactly. When an off-duty pilot tried to shut off a plane’s engines mid-flight with 83 passengers on board, Alaska Airlines knew they were in for some damage control. But when that pilot admitted to having taken mushrooms two days before the incident, it became a PR crisis for the whole psychedelic movement.

Of course, the mainstream media jumped on the story instantly. (TMZ would be hard-pressed to write a more clickbaity headline.) But almost as quickly, psychedelic advocates rushed to downplay the role of the mushrooms in the apparent psychotic break. After all, the man hadn’t slept in 40 hours.

The reality is, psychedelics are risky. And even though a psilocybin trip usually runs its course in a few hours, a new study confirms that persistent negative effects—like delusions, intrusive thoughts, and existential struggles—are possible. Let’s hope this incident sparks earnest conversations about harm reduction, rather than sending psychedelics back into the dark ages.

Mergers and app-quisitions

The market’s heating up, bulls. We’re reporting another psychedelic acquisition. Beckley Waves, the venture studio founded by the Queen of Consciousness Amanda Fielding, has scooped up Nue Life, a ketamine-assisted therapy provider with a digital twist.

Like many other ketamine telehealth companies, Nue Life sends lozenges directly to patients’ homes once a doctor gives the okay via a virtual appointment. What makes Nue Life different, though, is its mobile app. It’s designed to enhance the at-home ketamine experience and may actually improve outcomes.

Beckley says Nue Life’s cost-effective approach fits with the venture firm’s mission to create an impact in the mental health space. But we can’t imagine the traction on those digital subscription programs hurt, either. Mmmmm, delicious monthly recurring revenue.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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

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• 🧑‍🎓 Improve your psychedelic skills with our first course. Enroll in Have a Safe Trip.

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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.