🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that trusts its gut. And right now, it’s telling us to ask you to forward this email to a friend. Who are we to argue with trillions of little bacteria? 🦠

Here’s what we got this week.

• A randomized controlled trial of “pharmahuasca” 🧐

• More restrictions for Colorado healing centers 🍫

• This AI can tell you microdosed 🤖

• Tarot but make it mycological 🃏

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Buttoned up: Peyote ceremony participants reported positive changes in four core areas of health.
Dollars and sense: It costs less to treat a patient with esketamine than it does with traditional antidepressants.
Halo effect: Subcutaneous ketamine reduces anxiety in people with treatment-resistant depression.
Stone cold: Beckley Psytech released topline results from its study of 5-MeO-DMT for alcohol use disorder.
Case reports: Ibogaine may reverse neurodegeneration in patients with MS.

🏛️ Policy

Watch list: These five states could legalize psychedelics this year.
That’s… specific: The Colorado House passed a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe crystalline polymorph psilocybin upon FDA approval.
Battle tested: A Virginia Senate committee advanced a bill to fund clinical trials of "breakthrough therapies” (i.e., psychedelics) for veterans.
At the buzzer: Massachusetts lawmakers filed a dozen psychedelics bills before the legislative deadline.
A million signatures: This citizens’ petition would force the EU to consider psychedelic policy reform.

📈 Business

Show your work: Compass Pathways published the “psychological support model” for COMP360, its psilocybin drug product.
Greasing palms: Compass also lobbied for the recent bills in CO and VA that would selectively reschedule its form of psilocybin.
Fresh face: Numinus appointed a new CEO.
Heart to heart: PharmAla is supplying the MDMA for a MAPS Israel-backed study focused on early sexual trauma.
Out of the woods: GH Research has completed all the FDA’s requests to lift the IND hold on its aerosol 5-MeO-DMT product.

🫠 Just for fun

Released: The founder of the Silk Road received a full pardon from Donald Trump.
Nailed it: This manicurist paints incredibly detailed Alex Grey tributes you can wear on your fingers.
The minivan is stocked: Mushroom oil is the drug of choice for middle-class moms.
Shortcut to samadhi: Can psychedelics enhance your yoga practice?
Meme of the week: When the mushrooms bring up a lot of feelings…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Purging is so passé

People who've sat with ayahuasca will often tell ya the same thing…

“Words don’t do it justice.” The experience is ineffable, they say.

Even if you really press ‘em, one word you’re unlikely to hear is "convenient." Between the strict dieta, the hours-long ceremonies, and the, um, enthusiastic purging (from both ends), let's just say it's a commitment.

But what if there was another way?

A new study out of Switzerland just tested a novel "pharmahuasca" formulation that could streamline the whole operation. Instead of drinking a bitter brew of plants, participants got DMT through nasal spray and harmine via dissolving tablets under their tongue.

Don’t knock it till you try it. The results were pretty encouraging.

• 🩸 Predictable delivery: The combo produced consistent blood levels of DMT lasting 2-3 hours.

• 🤢 Better tolerance: Way fewer people experienced nausea compared to traditional ayahuasca. (And only 3% vomited.)

• 🧑‍🔬 Precise dosing: The repeated-intermittent nasal spray let people control their journey.

This isn't the first attempt to make ayahuasca more palatable. Scientists have tried combining harmine and DMT into pills before. But by bypassing the digestive system entirely, this new approach seems to dodge many of the usual pitfalls while still delivering the goods.

You can see where they’re going with this. A more predictable, better-tolerated version of ayahuasca might make it easier to study in clinical trials and eventually bring to patients in need.

Though something tells us traditional healers won't be trading in their brew and icaros for nasal sprays anytime soon. After all, some people say the purge is part of the medicine.

Then again, maybe that's just what they tell themselves while they’re hugging the bucket. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

No mushroom chocolates for you

Now that Colorado's psychedelic therapy program is finally ready for liftoff, some lawmakers want to clip its wings. A new bill would ban all psilocybin edibles and extracts from licensed healing centers, meaning clients would have to choke down raw mushrooms only. Their rationale: requiring medicine to taste like earthy cardboard is somehow... safer?

The restrictions feel especially odd considering these sessions happen in supervised settings where clients can't exactly smuggle chocolates home to the kiddos. But the bill's backers, a youth protection lobbying group, aren't letting logic get in their way. Never mind that the state's Natural Medicine Division already shot down these same proposals during rulemaking last year.

As critics point out, eating raw mushrooms isn't just unpleasant; it's counterproductive. Formulated products can help reduce the nausea that often comes with psilocybin, while extracts allow for more precise dosing. And making legal options less appealing will just push people to the underground, which kinda defeats the purpose of regulation, no? Lawmakers will take up the bill in committee soon, where facilitators plan to remind them that churning people’s stomachs isn't exactly a winning strategy.

Shhh, the bots are listening

Promise not to get paranoid? Everyone knows you’re microdosing. Okay, maybe not everyone, but the machines are definitely onto you. MindBio Therapeutics just discovered their AI can tell if you've taken their LSD product simply by analyzing your speech patterns. No blood tests, no questionnaires—just a quick chat with the robots and boom, they know if you've taken the tiniest hit. Welcome to the future, Cyclists.

The tech isn't just a fun party trick. MindBio says it'll help them monitor whether patients stick to their prescribed microdoses and flag any potential misuse. But there might be more to the story. By acquiring Life AI, whose "Booze AI" app detects alcohol intoxication through voice analysis, they're positioning themselves to commercialize this IP way before their drug makes it through clinical trials. Clever move for a biotech running multiple expensive studies.

Speaking of which, those trials are looking good. In their depression study, 72% of participants saw relief for six months after treatment. Women's health studies are up next. Now, let's just pray we never need an AI app’s permission to take our medicine. It’s too soon for the singularity.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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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.