🫠 This Week in Psychedelics

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that’ll take you to the candy shop (yeah). We’ll let you lick the lollipop (uh-huh). Okay, that’s the first and last rap you’ll hear from us…

Here’s what we got this week.

• The benefits of candy flipping 🍭

• Millions in grants for mental health 🏥

• A psychedelic haven for athletes 🏋️

• Learn to cook with shrooms 🧑‍🍳

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RESEARCH

Soften your trip with MDMA

Having a difficult trip? Here’s some advice we didn’t expect to hear from the scientists… do more drugs.

In a recent study, researchers found that taking MDMA along with psilocybin or LSD improved subjective experiences, compared to psilocybin or LSD alone.

To be clear, combining MDMA with psilocybin (aka hippie flipping) or LSD (aka candy flipping) is nothing new. Psychonauts and ravers have been mixing mind-altering substances to fine-tune their highs for decades.

But controlled research on these trippy cocktails has lagged behind popular use. So Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris and team decided to dig deeper, and here’s what they found. Relative to classical psychedelic use alone, hippie flipping (shrooms + MDMA) and candy flipping (acid + MDMA) led to:

• 😓↘️ Significantly less intense challenging experiences, grief, and fear

• 💖↗️ Increased feelings of self-compassion, love, and gratitude

• ✨➡️ No effect on mystical experiences or general compassion

Important note: To get that buffer against negative experiences and enhancement of positive experiences, the dose of MDMA should be “low,” according to the research. Self-reported medium and high doses did not yield the same benefits.

So if you want a trip with less angst and more gratitude, choose your seat carefully.

MICRODOSES

😑 Nothing really matters: Are psychedelics growing in popularity because we have a crisis of meaninglessness and alienation? These psychologists think so.

🖇️ Connection cues: A new study shows it’s possible to tease out the benefits of the therapy part of psychedelic-assisted therapy.

🦅 You are a bird, soaring through the sky: Metaphor is an important narrative technique used in indigenous ayahuasca ceremonies. Would a similar approach work in clinical settings?

🌞 Sun’s out, drugs out: Clubbers and festival-goers are 171% more likely to use LSD in the summer than other seasons, according to a new survey. Psilocybin and ketamine are more popular, too.

POLICY

Federal gov’t invests in community mental health

This week, the US government awarded more than $64 million in grants for mental health services and training across the nation.

The funding comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), a law passed last June that provides $250 million to tackle the mental health crisis at the community level through 2025.

But the (250) million-dollar question is: will any of that cash go toward psychedelic therapy?

A year and change into the BSCA, it’s still unclear… Nothing in the letter of the law nor the recent $64 grants explicitly mentions psychedelics. 😕

However, with more states introducing legal models for psychedelic therapy, it’s certainly not off the table, especially by 2025. Here’s how much the most psychedelic-friendly states just received.

• 🍄 Oregon (legal + regulated) — $732,627

• 🏔️ Colorado (decriminalized, legal framework in flux) — $851,047

• 🍩 Massachusetts (2024 ballot initiative submitted) — $1,443,368

• 🥑 California (bill moving through legislative process) — $7,832,017

Here’s hoping some of those dollars can subsidize the cost of psychedelic therapy. Because right now, legal psilocybin sessions be like:

MICRODOSES

🏙️ First Minneapolis, next the world: Minnesota activists rallied at Big Psych’s annual symposium to legalize mushrooms and end the war on drugs.

😬 The suspense is killing us: California’s psychedelic decriminalization bill has moved into the suspense file, with an Assembly vote expected by September 1.

🚒 Where there’s smoke, there’s fire: An aristocratic councilor from London is taking heat for capitalizing on a local tragedy by plugging his psychedelic company.

BUSINESS

Athletes need psychedelic medicine, too

Move over, ‘roids. Some new performance-enhancing drugs are in town. 💪

These days, more and more pro athletes are opening up about their use of plant medicine. But unlike other taboo substances athletes use in secret, psychedelics aren’t about gaining a competitive edge.

These ballers just want to heal their physical and mental injuries sustained on the field. Is that so much to ask?

Take Kyle Quincey, an ex-NHL player, who’s recently announced plans to open a psilocybin therapy retreat center in his home state of Colorado. Motivated by his own post-retirement struggles, he hopes to provide psychedelic healing to other athletes and veterans once Colorado’s legal framework takes shape.

He’s not the only one advocating for psychedelics, either.

• 🏒 Daniel Carcillo, another NHL star, launched Wesana Health, a psychedelic drug company whose assets have since been acquired by Lucy Scientific Discovery.

• 🏈 Aaron Rodgers, Hall of Fame NFL quarterback, was a keynote speaker at MAPS’ Psychedelic Science conference.

• 🏈 Kenny Stills, an NFL wide receiver, spoke out about finding relief from depression through ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

• 🥊 Several other athletes are featured in ESPN’s Peace of Mind documentary, sharing their battles with mental health and treatment with psilocybin.

Doctors agree. The lead physician for the Toronto Blue Jays says athletes’ unique challenges put them at heightened risk for mental health conditions, disordered eating, and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), all of which have been successfully treated with psychedelics.

We know these players will bring their A game to advocacy. We’ve seen their track records. But in the meantime, please for the love of your brains, keep your helmets on.

MICRODOSES

🦘 From down under: Incannex Healthcare is preparing an investigational new drug application for its psilocybin therapy candidate for Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

👂 We’re listening: The DEA has announced a series of public listening sessions about prescribing controlled substances, including ketamine, through telehealth.

🥋 Rolling while rolling: M2Bio Sciences, a psychedelic biotech company, is launching a mixed martial arts organization.

💊 Shelf stable: Red Light Holland’s psilocybin microdosing capsules have passed third-party stability testing.

🏃 Going the distance: Freedom Biosciences wants to extend ketamine’s antidepressant effects by combining it with rapamycin, every longevity nerd’s favorite cancer drug.

🙈 Not a good look: An ex-director at MindMed is seeking at least $2.5 million in damages for sexual harassment and discrimination.

Cook With Magic Mushrooms — Fancy yourself a culinary wizard? Then surely you must be able to whip up a magical mushroom treat in the kitchen. No? Then join DoubleBlind’s latest course, from the authors of The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible and The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook. Learn to make your own micro and macro dosed teas, chocolates, fruit roll ups, granola bars, and even risotto! Oui, Chef!

Welcome to the Psychedelic Renaissance — What does that phrase even mean, really? This mini-doc explores the current wave of interest in psychedelics and how it differs from Timothy Leary’s “turn on, tune in, drop out” movement in the ‘60s. Step into MAPS’ Psychedelic Science conference, and meet the scientists integrating psychedelics into Western medicine, the politicians reaching across the aisle to move policy forward, and the comedians roasting everyone involved.

We Will Call it Pala — The perfect pairing to the documentary above, this cautionary tale depicts a commercialized psychedelic future gone awry. When David Alder published this short story in 2019, it went viral and set a standard against which psychedelic corporations are measured to this day. (FYI, Tricycle Day has signed the North Star Pledge, an ethical commitment inspired by Alder’s work.)

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.