🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that’s not trying to lose weight. See, we’ve never had a problem keeping things light. Badum-tss. 🥁

Here’s what we got this week.

• Psychedelics for weight loss 🥵

• Psilocybin hits pharmacy shelves 🍄

• Lykos has one last trick up its sleeve 💊

• Live breakdown of FDA’s decision on MDMA 🧑‍💻

FROM OUR SPONSORS

This moment in psychedelics is fragile. One wrong move, and sentiment can change just like that.

So if you’re a practitioner (or thinking of becoming one), it’s your responsibility to tread carefully. We need to take safety, ethics, and best practices seriously.

On this free, six-part workshop series from The Synthesis Institute, you’ll learn from leaders in psychedelic care how to create the right conditions for transformative healing experiences.

Have to miss a session? No stress. Registration includes lifetime access to all the material.

Register for the free workshop series.

MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

A rose by any other name: MDMA has been called a psychedelic, an empathogen, and an entactogen. Two pharmacologists reject those labels and propose a new one.
Don’t believe everything you think: Psychedelics can sometimes lead to false insights and beliefs.
Built to last: In a study of LSD-assisted therapy for anxiety, patients sustained improvements for a year.
Keeping the lights on: Psilera is developing non-hallucinogenic psychedelics to treat dementia.
Tag, you’re it: Researchers have developed a new method to track how psychedelics affect neurons.

🏛️ Policy

Banned in the bayou: Why is Amanita muscaria legal in every state except one?
Brain trust: Massachusetts lawmakers sent a bill that would create a psychedelics working group to the governor for sign-off.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: After listening to the public, Oregon Psilocybin Services is updating some of its rules.
Get in the zone: Boulder’s City Council has outlined its plans for local regulation of natural medicine.
Across the pond: The European Union Drugs Agency published FAQs on the therapeutic use of psychedelics.

📈 Business

Watch out, Hershey: Oregon has licensed the nation’s first state-legal psilocybin edibles manufacturer.
Up to code: Naropa University’s psilocybin facilitator training is now state-approved under Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act.
RSVP: Beond has extended an open invitation for free ibogaine treatment to any US politician.
Viral marketing: Meta is taking heat for allowing ads for illicit drugs, including psychedelics.
Buy signal? 66% of psychedelic-friendly investors plan to increase their positions over the next year.

🫠 Just for fun

Is that what I think it is? A medieval fresco depicts Adam and Eve huddled around a familiar mushroom.
Juicin’: Meet the billionaire psychedelic magnate who thinks the Olympics would be better with drugs.
Battle scars: How a 3-star general came to believe in psychedelics.
Meme of the week: Once again, mushrooms take home the gold…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

The weight (and walls) just melt away

Ozempic, you had a good run. But your 15 minutes of fame and body shame are up.

Two new studies are making us wonder if psychedelics might be the next big thing in treating diabetes and obesity.

First up, researchers found that combining harmine (one of the compounds in ayahuasca) with a GLP-1 agonist (a drug like Ozempic) boosted insulin-producing cells by 700% in diabetic mice.

Something tells us they didn’t even adhere to a proper ayahuasca dieta, either. Tsk tsk.

But this next one’s for the purists. A separate study showed that the psychedelic compound MEAI could be the weight loss wonder drug we've been waiting for. Here’s why.

• 💃 Looking svelte: Obese mice lost about 15% of their body weight on the MEAI protocol.

• 🏋️‍♂️ Gym rats: Taking MEAI also increased their energy expenditure by ~15% and fat oxidation by ~25%.

• 🍰 Craving killer: It reduced their preference for sugary treats by roughly 20%.

• 🩺 Full-body tune up: MEAI generally improved the mice’s glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, and liver health.

Now, before you compost all your kale and toss out your yoga mat, keep in mind these are early, preclinical studies. We don’t know if the results will translate to humans. Besides, when it comes to weight loss, diet and exercise are still undefeated.

Even so, it’s hard not to get excited considering we’re dealing with a global obesity epidemic. Could we be looking at a future where your functional medicine doctor has you counting your macros and your microdoses? 🫠

AFTERGLOW

CVS, take note

Hot take: the most advanced nation in the world isn’t the US or China. It’s Jamaica. Don’t believe us? Fontana Pharmacy, the island’s Rx chain of choice, is rolling out psilocybin-infused products across seven of its locations. Name another country where you can pick up lab-tested shroom chocolates right by the band-aids and baby formula. We’ll wait. (And don’t say America. Everyone knows those gas station abominations can’t be trusted.)

It’s all thanks to a partnership with PATOO, Jamaica's first legal psychedelic CPG company. They manufacture everything from microdosing capsules to magic honey, chocolate bars, and vegan gummies that'll have you singing One Love like your last name is Marley. Worry not, harm reducers. Fontana says they’ll make sure their staff is fully trained on dosage and safety before they start dispensing to consenting adults.

Jamaica's still one of the few places on Earth where growing, eating, and selling psychedelic mushrooms are legal. The founders of PATOO even sit on the country's official mushroom committee. (Yes, that's a thing.) So if you travel down for some fun in the Caribbean sun, keep in mind: what happens in Jamaica... might actually reshape global drug policy. Who said paradise can’t be progressive?

It’s the final countdown

Tick tock, Cyclists. Time’s running out for the FDA’s big decision on MDMA therapy. And now Lykos Therapeutics is throwing a Hail Mary before the August 11 deadline. They just announced a slew of "new initiatives and measures for additional oversight" to prove to regulators that they can keep the situation under control if their PTSD treatment hits the streets err, clinics.

The game plan? Spin up an independent advisory board stacked with multidisciplinary big brains, establish partnerships with top health facilities like Emory and Hackensack Meridian, and a promise to play nice with therapy training programs. It may not directly address the FDA’s concerns around functional unblinding or trial misconduct, but hey, their effort’s gotta count for something.

In case you couldn’t tell, the stakes are much higher than just MDMA. Lawmakers and vets have said their piece, and now the entire psychedelic scene is watching with wide eyes and sweaty palms. (No pressure, FDA.) Former NIMH director Thomas Insel thinks this moment could be a "wake-up call" for new ways to regulate drug-therapy combos, and legal eagle Mason Marks warns that a rejection could hinder future psychedelic research.

At the end of the day, your guess is as good as ours. So what say you, Cyclists? 👇

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

UNTIL NEXT TIME

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

• 📣 Put your brand in front of 53k psychedelic enthusiasts by sponsoring Tricycle Day. Book an ad.

• 📈 Grow your psychedelic business with our marketing agency. Apply to work with us.

• 🫂 Get professional support from a vetted therapist, guide, or coach. Browse Maria’s List.

• 😎 Style yourself out in our iconic merch. Collect a shirt.

• ✍️ 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.