This Week in Psychedelics 🫠

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We’ve added a new section to the newsletter this week. Introducing Psychonaut POV, where we highlight one professional or luminary from the psychedelic field with a brief Q&A.

Let us know how we did at the bottom of this email, and you might get featured in our next newsletter!

1. Hawaii and Virginia each moved toward creating expert committees on psilocybin

Bills are in motion in the Aloha State and the Old Dominion to establish psychedelic task forces.

• Hawaii’s “therapeutic psilocybin working group” would be responsible for considering psilocybin’s potential in PTSD, depression, anxiety, and end-of-life distress and eventually ensuring safe access to psilocybin products.

• Virginia’s “psilocybin advisory board” would be charged with monitoring federal regulations and planning Virginia’s approach.

In both states, bills have passed through the Senate and now need to be voted on in the House.

Progress is progress, so we’ll take it. But we’re still holding our breath to see which state will be first to spin up a Parliament Funkadelic.

2. Utah may legalize psilocybin therapy soon for certain conditions

Meanwhile, Utah is already ahead of the game. The Beehive State (no relation to our GOATed email service provider) launched their psychedelic task force back in March 2022.

Well, task and you shall receive. Because this week, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla (D) introduced a measure to legalize psilocybin therapy for adults 21 and up.

Unlike in Colorado and Oregon, where there’s no specific list of qualifying conditions, psilocybin would be available only to Utahns in hospice care or diagnosed with depression, treatment-resistant anxiety, or PTSD.

3. Mail-order ketamine might not be a thing much longer

The Biden administration made an announcement this week that doesn’t bode well for ketamine telehealth clinics.

Let’s back up. Up until fairly recently, a law called the Ryan Haight Act prohibited doctors from prescribing controlled substances like ketamine without an in-person consult. That all changed when the federal government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency (PHE) and waived the requirement.

Now the jig is up. Starting May 11, the PHE declaration will end, leaving mail-order ketamine providers in the dreaded gray area. ☠️

Between federal and state laws and possible extensions and exceptions, no one really knows what’s going to happen. But here’s one thing we do know:

If you got drugs in the mail, did them, and lived to tell the tale… that’s a W. 💪

4. MDMA makes you better at socializing

These days, everyone’s talking about mental health. But no one is paying attention to social functioning, which probably underlies the most common mental health disorders.

A new study published in Nature finally did something about that. Researchers looked at several psychedelics and found that MDMA in particular was associated with reduced risk of 3 kinds of social impairment.

✅ Difficulty participating in social activities → IMPROVED 👍
✅ Being prevented from participating in social activities → IMPROVED 👍
✅ Difficulty dealing with strangers → IMPROVED 👍
⬜️ Being prevented from interacting with strangers → womp womp ❌ 

3 out of 4 ain’t bad. That’s 75%, a gentleman’s C. 🤝

And let’s be real. Do you even want to interact with strangers?

5. The UK is speeding up the approval of ketamine for alcoholism

Awakn Life Sciences, a company we’ve covered before, is getting special attention from UK regulators.

Have you ever been to Disney World, waited 3 hours to ride Space Mountain, and then watched a kid on crutches cut the entire line? 😡 

Well, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (the FDA of the UK) lets some drugs do the exact same thing. They just have to fill an unmet medical need.

MHPRA calls their line-cutting pass an “Innovation Passport,” and they just gave one to Awakn for their proprietary ketamine-assisted therapy for Severe Alcohol Use Disorder.

Considering alcohol use disorders affect 285 million people million globally, we get it. Just don’t be surprised if you see us pulling up to Trippy Mountain with a suspicious injury.

• Psychedelics may be part of U.S. medicine sooner than you think [Time]

• How psychedelics became the new club drug [Vice]

• Some moms are microdosing mushrooms for anxiety and depression [Washington Post]

• Tripping with your significant other: Healing with psychedelic couples therapy [Leafly]

• Psychedelics are a promising therapy, but they can be dangerous for some [NY Times]

Renude Chaga Matcha — Here at Tricycle Day, we believe all mushrooms are magic. That includes functional mushrooms like chaga, which supercharge this clean, vegan, keto, sugar-free matcha mix. Get 10% off with code CYCLE10.

Psychedelic Science 2023 — Make the trip to Denver for “the SXSW of Psychedelics.” You’ll be in good company. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and podcaster Tim Ferriss are among the dozens of speakers on the agenda.

This cartoon — You gotta be at least triple blind to miss the signs.

How did you first encounter psychedelics?

I moved in with my best friend who was a DJ and loved going out and partying. She gave me MDMA, and for the first time in my life I could actually dance in front of people. My whole life I’d been petrified of dancing in public, but all of a sudden after taking MDMA, I was on the wave of the music, free from all my self judgment. I didn't care about other people's opinions and I could actually enjoy the music.

That was the moment when I realized how chained up I was in my own mental cage. From there, I decided to give myself permission to show up as I wanted without worrying too much about others.

How do you work with them now?

Now as a microdosing coach, I educate people on how to use microdosing for different outcomes. I’ve developed protocols using psilocybin and LSD, which I share with clients to help them achieve their potential and optimize their lives.

But microdosing is just one of the tools we use. The coaching is comprehensive and personalized to my clients' needs.

What was your most difficult trip?

After taking a combination of LSD and ketamine, I experienced all life that ever existed or will exist in one split second. When I came out of it, I could see the consequences of every possible decision I would make. It was like foreseeing the future in any path I could take. So that led me to not want to experience life anymore. For a week, I was questioning the point of my even being here.

Losing that meaning for life was quite difficult. But I journaled a lot, connected with friends, and tried to revisit things that give me joy. Eventually I realized that there is no intrinsic meaning to life; it can have whatever meaning I give it. I get to choose what to bring into my life to make it beautiful.

Most rewarding trip?

One of the things that I've always struggled with is self worth. It's led to patterns like people-pleasing, failing to set boundaries, showing up as less than myself, and being afraid to ask for what I want.

I was in a ceremony with a group of other women coaches, and we mixed MDMA and mushrooms. In that experience, for the first time in my life, I felt fully worthy. It came from a profound realization that, not just I, but everyone is such a gift to life itself. Life loved us so much that it brought us into this world, so that it could experience itself through our unique ways of being. I realized there is no other reason for us to be alive but to be our true selves. So our only job here is to be more of who we are without hiding. I loved myself during that journey, and I felt lighter afterward.

What advice can you offer to beginners or curious minds?

These are very powerful tools. While it's okay to explore, it can be very destabilizing. So having a community to share your experiences with, or someone who can understand what you're going through and walk you out of, or through, the dark forest is important. Even though I believe in psychedelics, I know it's not for everyone.

What other resources do you recommend?

I love anything from Stanislav Grov. He started with research into LSD for mental health and later developed Holotropic Breathwork, which is very powerful, too.

Any final thoughts?

Everyone seems to be focused on healing, and that's a very important part of our journey. But I think the whole point of healing is to be able to play, create, and get back to a childlike wonder for life. I’ve noticed a lot of people are stuck in the healing phase. They think that they need to keep on healing and healing.

But sometimes that's just another way to dodge the responsibility to show up in their life and make a decision to commit to something that they really love.

Learn more about microdosing on Ana’s website, microdosingguru.com.

Want to master microdosing and your mindset in 30 days? Sign up for Ana’s online program and get 15% off with code TRICYCLE15.

That's all for today! If you like what you see, share Tricycle Day with all your friends. New subscribers make us trip! 🫠

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.