🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that knows sometimes both/and is better than either/or. Got a favorite combo? Write in and let us know. 👀

Here’s what we got this week.

• The effects of mixing cannabis and psychedelics 🌿

• DC lawmakers call on the FDA to approve MDMA 🇺🇸

• Massachusetts gets legalization on the ballot 🗳️

• Add psychedelics to your wellness practice 🩺

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MICRODOSES

🔬 Research

Transformers: Psychedelic retreat participants report an enhanced capacity for enacting change in their lives.
More than meets the eye: Researchers worked out the neural mechanisms behind closed-eye visuals on psilocybin.
Let him cook: The director of CU Denver’s new Center for Psychedelic Research wants to study MDMA for dogs.
It’s not a competition, but: A new study suggests DMT has unseated psilocybin as the most-searched-for psychedelic
Triple threat: Scientists identified three MDMA alternatives that may pose less risk in clinical settings.

🏛️ Policy

Community rules: Colorado municipalities are beginning to pass local laws to regulate legal natural medicine businesses.
Seriously? The face of the MA decriminalization movement was caught impersonating a veteran.
The medicine of the people: As the decrim wave has moved through the US, public interest has shifted away from LSD and MDMA and toward psilocybin.
Compassionate use: Behind the scenes at the only hospital in Switzerland offering psychedelic treatment.

📈 Business

Pop goes the k-hole: How the ketamine wellness bubble burst.
Show ‘em the ropes: Colorado has opened applications for natural medicine facilitator training programs.
To the moon: Analysts expect MindMed’s stock price to triple.
Power of persuasion: Meet the controversial couple who convinced Australia’s regulators to approve psychedelic therapy.
Keep Austin psychedelic: The deadline for SXSW speaker proposals is fast approaching.

🫠 Just for fun

More on K, okay? Vanity Fair covers ketamine’s long, strange trip.
Gas station heroin: Beware of the sketchy drug marketed as a nootropic.
The less more I know the better: Tame Impala is launching a psychedelic fashion collab with A.P.C.
Meme of the week: Realizing where my self criticism came from…

THE PEAK EXPERIENCE

A match made in heaven at Burning Man

Get out your vintage Yellow Submarine lunchbox. Because it's time to talk about the peanut butter and jelly of drugs.

That’s right, Cyclists. We’ve got some new research on the classic combo of cannabis and psychedelics. And unlike some of the more “controlled” studies we cover, this one comes straight from the real world.

A new study out of Colorado asked festival-goers about their experiences mixing weed with psychedelics. Though people responded differently (every human is unique after all), some clear themes did emerge.

• 😮‍💨 Take the edge off: Half of the participants said cannabis helped them keep their cool. It calmed their anxiety, grounded them during intense moments, and balanced out the psychedelic experience.

• 🎛️ Dial it up to 11: For 22% of users, adding cannabis intensified their experience. Visuals got more vivid, body highs got buzzier, and trips got trippier.

• 🧠 Boost brain power: About 20% reported enhanced psychological effects. They reported clearer thinking, deeper introspection, and more overall joy.

• 🕰️ Extend the journey: 15% found that cannabis prolonged their trip or intensified the come-down.

Of course, it’s not all fractals and rainbows. About 11% of participants reported undesirable effects, such as increased anxiety, decreased sociability, negative mood swings, sleepiness, dissociation, and confusion.

Bottom line: mixing cannabis and psychedelics can enhance the experience for many, but it's not without risks. As always, know your dose, know your substance, and maybe keep a trip sitter on speed dial.

If they can make a mean PB&J, even better. 🫠

AFTERGLOW

Boots on the ground

Take cover, soldiers. The battle for psychedelic therapy just got some heavy-hitting reinforcements. Last Wednesday, members of Congress from both parties joined forces with veterans at the U.S. Capitol to push the FDA to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. And they pulled precisely zero punches.

Picture this: 150,000 dog tags displayed right there on Capitol grounds, each representing a veteran lost to suicide since 9/11. It's a gut-punch of a visual, backed by serious political muscle. Reps. Bergman, Correa, Luttrell, and Panetta all showed up to throw their weight behind the cause. But the real showstopper? Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who stood before the crowd and credited MDMA therapy with giving him his life back after combat-induced PTSD.

The stakes couldn't be higher. With 17 veterans dying by suicide per day (that’s the conservative estimate, folks) and PTSD as the prime culprit, the FDA's upcoming decision on August 11 is more than just bureaucracy. It's life or death. Lawmakers and advocates are calling on the FDA to follow the science, and we echo that sentiment. But is it too naive to hope they’ll follow their hearts, too? 

Get out the vote

Here you go, Cyclists—a brief distraction from the dumpster fire formerly known as the US presidential race! Looks like Massachusetts voters will be deciding on more than just the next POTUS this fall. It’s official. The Bay State's Secretary of the Commonwealth just green-lit a psychedelics legalization initiative for the November ballot.

The measure, backed by Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO), would let adults 21+ possess, grow, and share certain psychedelics—DMT, mescaline, ibogaine, and our old friends psilocybin and psilocin. But it's no free-for-all. The initiative also includes strict possession limits, a regulatory commission, and a 15% excise tax on psychedelics purchased at licensed facilities. (Because nothing says "self-transcendence" like paying taxes, right?)

Cities like Cambridge and Somerville have already decriminalized psilocybin, so Massachusetts is no stranger to psychedelic policy reform. But now, it’s on track to join Oregon, Colorado, and Utah in the state-regulated services club. We hope our MA readers don’t take this decision lightly. It’s almost—almost—as important as which octogenarian gets the nuclear codes.

CYCLISTS’ PICKS

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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.