🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelic newsletter that’s not a mind fuck. We’d rather make sweet, sweet (consensual) love to your mind. We’re gentle like that. 🫶

Here’s what we got this week.

• Congress is pushing for VA psychedelic centers 🏥

• FDA clears whole mushrooms for clinical trials 🚦

• New Mexico passes Medical Psilocybin Act 🩺

• Free advance copies of Paul Stamets’ new book 📚

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Pyramidal mysteries: Cornell researchers have identified two distinct mechanisms for psilocybin’s anti-depressant effects, and only one triggers hallucinations.
Slim fast: Psilocybin may facilitate weight loss when combined with dietary changes.
Mixed signals: One study suggests psychedelic use can lead to psychosis and mania, while another showed no link, even among those with a personal or family history.
Ache breaker: A small pilot trial found that psilocybin therapy improved fibromyalgia symptoms, anxiety, and fatigue.
Thread the needle: Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine helped a patient recover from adverse reactions to MDMA.

🏛️ Policy

Have a heart: A Hawaii bill that would fund psychedelic research and compassionate use passed unanimously through another committee.
Everything’s bigger: Texas held its first public hearing for a bill that would set aside $50 million for clinical research on ibogaine, to be matched by a private drug developer.
Mushroom apizza, anyone? Connecticut lawmakers advanced a psilocybin decriminalization bill.
Trudeau catching strays: PsyCan, a Canadian trade association, is calling on the next Prime Minister to step up his commitment to psychedelic medicine.

📈 Business

Bitcoin fixes this: atai Life Sciences bought $5 million worth of bitcoin to survive the “biotech winter.”
Hey, Siri: MindBio Therapeutics acquired Life AI to integrate its speech analysis tech into its own microdosing product development.
Trip advisor: Lawyers break down the legal risks of conducting psychedelic retreats abroad.
Underground to undergrad: California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is rolling out the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in psychedelic studies.
Government’s plug: NIH awarded Benuvia Operations a five-year contract to synthesize research-grade psilocybin in bulk.

🫠 Just for fun

Far out: Consciousness is a controlled hallucination.
Stand-up guy: The comedian Bill Burr told Conan O’Brien mushrooms improved his personality.
Robot rapport: Turns out AI therapists are pretty effective.
Non-survival of the fittest: Near-death experiences may be an evolutionary adaptation.
Meme of the week: When I accidentally use personality A with friend group B…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

In pursuit of excellence

What is this? A center for ants?!

No, Cyclists. It’s a center for military vets, and it’s been a long time coming. This is what it looks like when government officials actually listen to veterans instead of just thanking them for their service.

This week, representatives Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI) introduced the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act of 2025. It's the first bill officially backed by the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, and it may be the one that finally puts a dent in the veteran mental health crisis.

Here's what's on the table.

• 🏥 5+ centers: The VA would designate at least five facilities to become "centers of excellence" for psychedelic therapy.

• 💊 Multiple medicines: Centers would research MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, and ketamine.

• 💰 Serious funding: The bill would carve out $30 million annually to support these centers.

• 🎓 Education pipeline: Centers would partner with medical schools to train the next generation of psychedelic therapists.

This isn't some fringe proposal, either. The bill has additional co-sponsors in Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), plus endorsements from several major veterans organizations.

Amy Rising, the Air Force vet who helped craft the legislation, calls it "a desperate act of love" for the brothers-in-arms she's lost to suicide. To go the extra mile, VA Secretary Doug Collins says he’s open to providing vouchers for psychedelic therapy outside the VA system.

So while politicians usually can't agree on the color of the sky, let’s hope they can rally around the idea that our vets deserve better than pills and platitudes for their trauma.

And please make sure the buildings are human sized, okay? 🫠

AFTERGLOW

That’s the scientific term

It's not every day the FDA gives its blessing to something called "Jedi Mind Fuck," but here we are. The Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) just cleared a major regulatory hurdle for its groundbreaking clinical trial of whole magic mushrooms. Now that the clinical hold is lifted, SRI is officially clear to run the world’s first FDA-approved trials of natural shrooms, rather than isolated or synthetic psilocybin.

Unlike most clinical trials that use single-molecule extracts, SRI is testing the entire fungus because they believe that mushrooms contain a complex symphony of compounds with synergistic effects. But the FDA loves consistency, so getting their approval wasn't easy. It took 14 grow cycles and 40 official tests to standardize SRI’s mushroom chocolates.

The study, funded by Arizona’s $5 million research allocation, will include 24 participants exploring treatments for PTSD, chronic pain, and opioid addiction. Governor Katie Hobbs may have vetoed full legalization last year, but if this research pans out, Arizona could lead the nation in building a science-first approach to natural psychedelic medicine. May the force be with them.

Four states and counting

We got another one, folks. New Mexico just became the third state—err, technically fourth (why is everyone sleeping on Utah?)—to legalize psilocybin therapy. On Monday, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Medical Psilocybin Act into law after the bill sailed through the Senate 33-4 and House 56-9.

Unlike Oregon and Colorado's ballot initiatives, New Mexico's program passed through the legislature. It’s also decidedly more clinical; only patients with qualifying conditions like treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and end-of-life anxiety will be able to access natural mushrooms under supervision. It even includes an equity fund to help low-income patients afford treatment—a far cry from Utah's ultra-restrictive approach that limits treatment to just two specific healthcare systems.

Don't start packing your baggage (physical or emotional) just yet, though. The program isn't scheduled to launch until January 2028, giving officials plenty of time to iron out the details. Still, the fact that this passed through old fashioned politics tells us psychedelic medicine is becoming less fringe by the day. Next thing you know, they'll be serving psilocybin tea at congressional hearings.

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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.