🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. Just like a fine-tuned microdosing protocol, we rewire your brain in the best way possible. ⚡️ 

Here’s what’s on the docket this week.

• Soldiers must be trippin’ 🪖

• Long-term data: do the effects last? ⏳

• 5-MeO-DMT for alcohol recovery 🍺

• Psilocybin and the gut-brain connection 🧠

• Uruguay to legalize psychedelics? 🇺🇾

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1. Congress wants active duty military included in psychedelic research

Veterans have long been the poster children of psychedelic research. But this week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said our war heroes serving today shouldn’t get the shaft.

In a letter to Congressional leadership, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and 10 cosigners argued that we need cooperation across government to understand how psychedelics could help active duty military service members.

They say the results from clinical trials of MDMA for PTSD, especially in veterans, are promising and can’t be ignored. But they’re not enough. We need to know how these therapies could benefit soldiers defending our freedom right now. 🫡🇺🇸

So they’re asking the National Institutes on Health (NIH) to make sure the active duty demographic is included in any new studies.

NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research in the world. With that kind of power, they could turn those camo frowns right upside down.

2. Participants in MAPS’ MDMA trial are still going strong

MAPS is so back. This week, they announced preliminary results from their follow-up study on the long-term effects of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.

The researchers have been keeping an eye on the participants from their Phase 3 clinical trial to see if the treatment effects would last.

And so far, it’s looking really good. The study participants are showing “durable” (i.e., lasting) improvements in PTSD for at least 6 months and, in many cases, a year or longer. Since the patients all enrolled at different times, they’re still collecting data.

This announcement comes at a critical time for MAPS when they’ve been taking heat for the (in)accessibility of MDMA therapy, sexual abuse in the trials, and the understudied risks of psychedelic therapy in general. They might even be strapped for cash and struggling to raise money. 😬

Once the full results come out, we’ll see if they’re strong enough to pull MAPS out of the doghouse.

3. Beckley Psytech is testing 5-MeO-DMT for alcohol use disorder

There’s a lot of excitement around psychedelics for addiction recovery. Even if 12-step purists are skeptical, evidence shows that psychedelics are non habit forming and can treat substance abuse disorders with just one dose.

Addictions come in all shapes and sizes, but now Beckley Psytech is tackling the granddaddy of them all. They just kicked off a Phase 2a study of 5-MeO-DMT for alcohol use disorder (AUD), which affects 237 million people globally.

In the study, patients with AUD will receive a single dose of BPL-003, Beckley’s intranasal 5-MeO-DMT formulation, along with cognitive behavioral therapy. Then the researchers will follow them for 12 weeks to assess the safety and effectiveness of the treatment.

The study is “open label,” which just means the patients and researchers are all well aware who’s being dosed. (Because it’s kinda hard NOT to know when your soul is sucked out of your body into the center of the universe.)

Preliminary results are expected later this year. Meanwhile, a sister study of BPL-003 for treatment-resistant depression is ongoing.

5-MeO-DMT occurs naturally in some plant species and, most famously, in the venomous secretions of the Sonoran Desert Toad, Bufo alvarius, a species threatened by overharvesting.

So you can hate on Big Pharma all you want, but we know at least one guy who’s all for the synthetics. 🐸

4. Tryp Therapeutics wants to heal your gut with psilocybin

You hear about psychedelics’ effects on the brain all the time… but what about the second brain in your gut?

That’s what scientists call the enteric nervous system (when they’re feeling cute). That’s because it’s made of the same cells and chemicals as the brain in your skull. So the question is: can you trip your way into healing your gut?

We’re not sure yet, but Tryp Therapeutics wants to find out. So they’re collabing with the Mass General, Harvard’s largest teaching hospital, to conduct a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

This week, they finished training the team of psychotherapists tasked with treating the trial participants, who are all craving sweet relief from their chronic abdominal pain, anxiety, and fatigue.

It’s a major milestone for Tryp, MGH, and Fluence, who led the training. But it’ll be an even bigger deal if this research confirms what holistic wellness gurus have been saying about the gut-brain axis for years…

5. Uruguay is on the path to legalization

Ten years ago, Uruguay, a small country in South America with big dreams, became the first nation in the world to legalize cannabis. 👏

It won’t be the first to legalize psychedelics (Australia holds that honor), but they could be next.

Juan Sartori, a Senator from Uruguay’s National Party, filed a bill this week that would allow patients nationwide to access psychedelic medicine with a prescription from their physician. (Side note: remember when a doctor’s note let you get away with anything in elementary school? Guess that still works for controlled substances.)

For now, he’s focused on medical use. The new law wouldn’t look kindly upon the unregulated use or sale of psychedelic drugs.

Sartori’s definitely a believer though. After making his fortune in business, he launched a fund that is invested in the emerging psychedelics industry.

Conflict of interest? Maybe. For the benefit of society? We’d like to think so. 🤞

• European ‘shamans’ took psychedelic drugs 3,000 years ago [National Geographic]

• The rise of the mushroom moms [Romper]

• The therapy part of psychedelic therapy is a mess [Wired]

• A psychedelic trip brought sensation back to my nipples [Insider]

• Some Colorado communities don’t want psychedelic healing centers [Denver Post]

• Legal psychedelics expected to become $500-billion market by 2030 [Western Standard]

Microdosing for Mental Health — Sit back and let Paul Austin, founder of the Third Wave, take you to school for a macro-lesson on microdosing. We just added Into the Multiverse to our podcast rotation, and this episode does not disappoint. Stick with it ‘til the end to find out how you can get involved in the legalization movement.

Bicycle Day Parade — Bicycle Day is coming up a week from today! If you’re in the Bay Area, celebrate the 80th anniversary of Albert Hofmann’s discovery of LSD with an ecstatic bike ride around Golden Gate Park. (Yes, we’re named after Bicycle Day. No, sadly we won’t be there. 🥲)

The Harvard Psychedelic Club — If you’re into iconic figures from psychedelic history, here’s a story you gotta read. Don Lattin’s book recounts how Timothy Leary, Ram Dass (né Richard Alpert), Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil crossed paths at Harvard in the early 60’s and became the founding fathers of the New Age movement.

That’s all for today. Before you head off, don’t forget to share, rate, and review Tricycle Day below. Catch ya next time, Cyclists! ✌️

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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.