🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

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Here’s what we got this week.

• Autistic adults can benefit from psychedelics 🧠

• New rules for Oregon’s psilocybin program 🪪

• The DEA is muzzling psychedelic scientists 🤐

• The godfather of microdosing tells all 🎙️

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Believe it or not: We just got the first study of psilocybin for veterans with depression.
Ayahuasca, deconstructed: Meditators who took DMT and harmine experienced greater mystical experiences and non-dual awareness than those who meditated without assistance.
Fingers crossed: Psilocybin may increase optimism.
Cactus connection: Mescaline, the compound found in Peyote and San Pedro, likely works on the same receptor as the “classic” psychedelics.
Nice: Get paid $420 for participating in Robin Carhart-Harris’s next psilocybin study.

🏛️ Policy

Zoom out: Here’s how the US is regulating psychedelics.
Bay State ballot: Next month, Massachusetts may become the third state to legalize psychedelic services.
Mushroom money: Missouri is preparing to support psilocybin research with $5 million in opioid settlement funds.
K for konfession: The ketamine clinic operator charged in Matthew Perry’s death has pled guilty.
A maze of red tape: Now you can see why psychedelic researchers have to be policy experts.

📈 Business

Hot takes: Is the psychedelic renaissance over?
Trip with training wheels: Biotechs say safer psychedelic drugs are coming.
No deal: Psyence backed out of its plans to acquire Clairvoyant Therapeutics.
Pixeldelics: This LA ketamine clinic is rolling out VR for preparation and integration.
Work in the field? Fill out Psychedelics Today’s industry survey for a chance to win a $1,000 prize package.

🫠 Just for fun

Grey area: Are mushroom edibles safe and legal?
It’s not a sprint: This woman ran 500 kilometers to advocate for psychedelics.
Doors of perception: The newest Meow Wolf location opens on Halloween. Take a look inside.
Meme of the week: Going through airport security with mushrooms…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

Autism on acid

Society is indebted to autism. We said what we said.

Everyone knows folks on the autism spectrum are geniuses. Yeah yeah, we know it’s not fair to characterize an entire group of people… But c’mon, who else could’ve given us relativity theory, Pokémon, and electric cars?

Of course, even superheroes have their kryptonite. For our autistic friends, it’s often this pesky thing called “social anxiety,” which makes interacting with others challenging and stressful. According to a new study, psychedelics may help.

Researchers surveyed 233 autistic adults about their most "impactful" psychedelic experience. Here’s what changed for the participants after their journey.

• 😎 82% said their psychological distress was reduced. (They had better mental health overall, post trip.)

• 🫣 78% reported decreased social anxiety. (They felt less like hiding under a rock at parties.)

• 🤝 70% felt more socially engaged. (Small talk didn’t seem so pointless anymore.)

• 😰 20% said their anxiety actually increased. (Alas, no silver bullets here.)

Before you get too excited, remember this was only an online survey. No lab coats, no controlled environments—just a bunch of autistic folks sharing their truth.

(Then again, people who use psychedelics in the “real world” aren’t being poked and prodded either. At least we hope not.)

Imagine the possibilities. If psychedelics can eliminate a downside of this so-called “disorder,” it’ll be that much easier for everyone to get on board with celebrating neurodiversity.

After all, in a world where autistic minds are reshaping our reality on the daily, who’s to say what’s "normal" anyway? 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Oregon bends its psychedelic rules

Aww, Oregon Psilocybin Services is growing up so fast. Can you believe the nation’s first regulated psychedelic experiment program is entering its third year? To celebrate, regulators just dropped 92 pages of proposed rule changes. (Cupcakes woulda been nice, but ok.) The updates touch everything from training programs to waste management, but let's focus on the juiciest bits, shall we?

Starting in 2025, worker permits will only be good for a year, not five. And from 2026 onward, facilitator license renewals will require four hours of continuing education. Remember last year's spicy debate about data collection? Well, the new rules clarify that while clients can opt out of sharing their info, service centers can't encourage them to do so. People have a right to privacy and all, but Oregon still needs to know if the mushies are working.

Now, it's not all new hoops to jump through. The two-year residency requirement for business owners is sunsetting, which opens the door for out-of-state entrepreneurs. And clients can now bring a support person to sessions, so they can hold hands while they merge with the universe. Wanna weigh in? OPS is taking public comments until October 21. Time to let your freak flag fly, Oregonians.

Censorship at its finest

Speaking of toddlers, the DEA is now pulling the classic "la la la, we can't hear you" move. The agency is trying to block scientists from testifying at an upcoming hearing about banning two psychedelic compounds, DOI and DOC. Their reasoning? The expert testimony would be "incompetent, irrelevant, immaterial, and/or unduly repetitious." Translation: "We don't want to hear it."

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) aren't taking this lying down. They've assembled a dream team of neuroscientists, pharmacologists, and even a former government drug advisor to speak at the November hearing. But the DEA thinks they can muzzle their critics to get their way.

What’s at stake here is literally the future of psychedelic research (not to be dramatic or anything). DOI and DOC have been lab darlings since the '70s, helping us understand everything from serotonin to addiction. Scheduling them could kneecap decades of progress. Considering Americans’ mental health is worse than ever, the DEA’s argument—that bottlenecking psychedelic research is irrelevant—is pretty wild. Maybe these bureaucrats should leave the science to, you know, the scientists.

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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.