🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the newsletter that makes you feel hopeful—not anxious—about the fate of the world. So throw on a weighted blanket, snuggle up, and enjoy.

Here’s what we got this week.

• LSD crushes anxiety 😰

• The fundamental freedom to trip ⚖️

• Crackdown on obscure psychs 👮

• Drink your mushrooms 🍸

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Optimizers, wake up. There’s a self-improvement tool you’ve been sleeping on.

It’s called ibogaine, and biohackers like Ferriss and Rogan are using it to achieve peak performance.

Why? It stays in their system for 3 months of boosted neuroplasticity.

Whether you (or someone you know) are battling addiction, processing trauma, or prioritizing growth, Beond provides safe and effective ibogaine treatment to help get you better faster.

They don’t call it “Miracle Grow for the brain” for nothing.

Speak to an ibogaine expert about the new you.

MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Balenci-chaga: Scientists have sequenced the genes of 100+ strains of P. cubensis, with the goal of cultivating “designer mushrooms.”
Shock and awe: A new paper explores the similarities between 5-MeO-DMT and electroconvulsive therapy.
Does your head hurt? The Microdosing Collective is seeking volunteers for a study on psychedelics and chronic headaches. 
Better together: In an open-label trial, cancer patients got relief from depression through psilocybin group therapy.
Habit breakers: Delix won a $320k grant from the NIH to study “neuroplastogens” for substance use disorders.

🏛️ Policy

Open enrollment: With the passage of the new defense bill, any military member with PTSD or TBI can join a psychedelic clinical trial.
Decriminalize P-town: Provincetown is the 7th jurisdiction in Mass to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. 
Going backwards: Oregon officials want to roll back Measure 110, the decrim initiative that voters passed alongside the state-regulated psilocybin services model.
The right to try: Missouri lawmakers have filed two bills to legalize psilocybin therapy and fund clinical trials.
Only the finest: Australia’s TGA is proposing new quality standards for MDMA and psilocybin, after legalizing psychedelic therapy in July.

📈 Business

Harder, better, faster, stronger: Enveric Biosciences has created new psilocybin-like compounds that could produce a shorter trip.
A hunnit: Sunstone is celebrating 3 years and 100 psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions.
Risk it for the canna-biscuit: A drug law expert warns psilocybin facilitators that cannabis rules may not apply.

🫠 Just for fun

Proceed with caution: A psilocybin therapist shares how to survive a bad trip.
The shroom boom: 10 terms you need to know.
Meme of the week: Me trying to tell everyone how psychedelics have improved my life…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Drop acid to drop anxiety

You know that feeling when a friend says something objectively normal and then suddenly you’re obsessing over hypothetical scenarios where they secretly hate you?

Well, we don’t hate you. In fact, Tricycle Day loves you so much we’re going to share some encouraging news about psychedelics and ✨ a n x i e t y. ✨

This week, MindMed released high-level results from their Phase 2b clinical trial of MM-120 in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). MM-120 is their fancy name for LSD, in a proprietary chemical salt form.

For this study, participants took a single-dose of either 100 µg or 200 µg of MM-120. Then they were watched for 4 weeks to see how their anxiety improved. Without any additional intervention—yup, no psychotherapy this time—their scores plummeted.

• ⚡ It worked immediately. Participants started seeing improvements by day 2.

• 🙌 Almost everyone responded. 78% of participants saw a 50%+ drop in anxiety scores by week 4. (Only 31% in the placebo group did.)

• 🤏 The lower dose was extra effective. 50% of those who took 100 µg achieved clinical remission. (Speculating here, but maybe the 200 µg dose was a bit more challenging?)

The numbers are impressive, but the fact that there was no talk therapy component is really remarkable. It suggests it’s actually the LSD that’s working. Plus, a simple protocol could help keep costs down once MM-120 is commercialized.

Considering there hasn’t been any pharmaceutical innovation in treating anxiety since the rise of SSRIs and benzos, you can see why this is such an exciting and promising update. Would be a real shame if my anxiety decided to fixate on all the things that could go wrong instead. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Free your mind, literally

Once your shroom dispensary has been busted enough times, you either give up or you get even. FunGuyz, the Canadian shop that’s been raided by police no less than 3 times this year, is definitely not throwing in the towel. A spokesperson from the company just told the federal and provincial governments, through a Notice of Constitutional Question, that he intends to legalize psilocybin.

Samer Akila’s case rests on Section 2 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Similar to the US’s First Amendment, the Charter guarantees certain fundamental freedoms to Canadian citizens, including those of religion and expression. Akila argues that psilocybin is a freedom of thought tool, which underpins all other freedoms. To deny it, he suggests, is to threaten the very democratic principles of the nation.

It’s a pretty bold strategy. Come to think of it, it’s so creative that I wonder if FunGuyz and their legal team could have ever come up with it without the help of psilocybin. Yay, the mushrooms helped them subvert the system! Oh wait, that’s probably not what Canada’s bureaucrats want, huh?

DEA vs DOI and DOC

The saga of big D’s continues. Last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tried to put two relatively obscure psychedelics—DOI and DOC—on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Activists pushed back, and the DEA ultimately retreated. But now they’re at it again. This week, the DEA submitted a new proposal to place the two psychedelics on the strictest level of criminal control.

DOI and DOC are two so-called phenethylamines, popularized by the legendary psychonaut and scientist Sasha Shulgin. Their subjective effects are often compared to LSD, though trips on either can feel more “energetic” and last significantly longer, up to 24 hours.

Moving the substances to Schedule I wouldn’t just make recreational use a felony; it would also introduce frustrating barriers to researchers interested in studying their therapeutic potential. Ah, the irony—say a drug has no medical value; then make it practically impossible to demonstrate medical value. Classic DEA. The rule proposal is open to comments until Jan 12.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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

• 📣 Put your brand in front of 35k psychedelic enthusiasts by sponsoring Tricycle Day. Book an ad.

• 🧑‍🎓 Build and improve your psychedelic skills with our online courses. Enroll today.

• ✍️ Need something else? Reply to this email. (We read every response.)

ONE CYCLIST’S REVIEW

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.