Maybe it’s just me, but it was especially difficult to keep up with everything happening in the world of psychedelics this month. There are dozens of drug policy reforms and psychedelic research studies to keep up with, and making sure I’m covering each one and only reporting the most up-to-date news about them is extra tough when they change on a daily (and sometimes hourly) basis.
So I’ve tried my best to recap this month’s most important psychedelic news in this blog post. We’re going to cover a bunch of drug policy reforms, how patents are affecting the psychedelic industry, the latest events in psychedelic science, and much more.
Here is a slimmed-down video recap version that is available for those who prefer an easier-to-digest option:
There’s a lot to get through this month, so without further ado, let’s jump into the news:
Drug Policy
New Laws
Starting off this month’s recap with some good news and paving the way for the rest of the country, Oregon’s drug decriminalization bill went into effect. Now Oregonians will no longer face criminal charges for possessing small quantities of drugs and the state is prioritizing drug treatment over law enforcement.
Policy Reform Wins
Several other initiatives moved one step closer to becoming a reality—Cambridge, Massachusetts decriminalized psychedelics, New Jersey’s governor signed a whopping three reform bills (two separate bills that will legalize and decriminalize cannabis and a third bill that will reduce penalties for psilocybin possession), and the Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate announced steps to federally legalize cannabis later this year.
In addition, both Virginia’s House and Senate voted to legalize cannabis, North Dakota’s House voted to legalize recreational marijuana, and Alabama’s Senate passed a bill to legalize medical marijuana.
Lawmakers on committees in five states voted in favor of six drug policy reform bills this month. Cannabis legalization efforts passed in Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, and North Dakota, lawmakers in North Dakota also advanced a cannabis decriminalization bill, and a drug decrim bill in Washington made it out of the committee round. Just earlier this week the initiatives in Minnesota and New Mexico both passed their second rounds and will definitely be heading to each state’s House for further consideration.
Hanging on by a thread, Virginia’s lawmakers are facing a Saturday deadline to reconcile two different conflicting House and Senate cannabis legalization bills and at the moment things are looking tense. Hopefully they’ll get it all worked out.
Proposed and Submitted Bills
Several more bills have been either proposed or submitted: initiatives to decriminalize psychedelics in California and Vermont; bills that would permit access to psychedelics for seriously ill patients in Iowa and Missouri; legislation that would decriminalize all drugs in Kansas, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Washington; a new medical marijuana bill was introduced in Kansas; a bill to study psychedelics in Texas and a federal cannabis research bill; and California activists announced plans to work on legalizing magic mushrooms in 2022.
Prohibitionists Resist
The dying gasps of prohibitionists around the country can be heard in several states where there are efforts to overturn the will of voters that voted in favor of cannabis reforms last November. A judge in South Dakota ruled the state’s recreational marijuana measure unconstitutional and the governor delayed the launch of the state’s medical marijuana program until 2022, and the American Medical Association is attempting to overturn the medical marijuana vote in Mississippi and the Senate passed legislation to enact an alternate medical marijuana program from the one that voters approved in November.
In a future-proofing move, Idaho’s Senate passed a measure to block cannabis legalization even if voters approve it later on. For a bunch of teetotalers, that’s quite a paranoid move.
International News
On the international stage, an attempt to legalize the medical use of MDMA and psilocybin in Australia was rejected. But don’t worry—the fight’s not over yet because Mind Medicine Australia is challenging the decision.
And to round out this month’s drug policy update on a positive note, Norway is considering decriminalizing all drugs.
Psychedelic Industry
Psychedelic patents are a big area of concern in the psychedelic industry right now. In a controversial move, COMPASS Pathways submitted a patent application attempting to lay claim to pre-existing, common psychedelic therapy techniques including the use of soft furniture and holding hands.
Although the patent has not been granted, it just goes to show how psychedelic companies plan to use patents to gain an advantage over their competitors, with some even stooping as low as trying to patent things that have been a part of psychedelic culture long before these newfangled companies were around.
At this point, we can only hope that this patent application will be rejected. But in other cases, companies are already winning psychedelic patents.
A small biotech startup known as CaaMTech Inc. won a patent that will protect any new compositions and methods that are created by combining cannabinoids and psilocybin derivatives. So even though people have been combining cannabis and magic mushrooms for basically forever, now CaaMTech will own exclusive rights to any future pharmaceutical concoctions that come from combining the two drugs.
Psychedelic patents will continue to have a huge influence over how the industry evolves over the next few years. Hopefully they won’t completely ruin it.
Psychedelic Research
New Centers
The psychedelic research field is busier than ever before. Four new psychedelic research centers launched this month: Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics, COMPASS Pathways’ Drug Discovery Center, New York University’s Center for Psychedelic Medicine, and Aion Therapeutic’s new Aion International Center for Psychedelic Psychiatry in Jamaica.
Studies
There are several new studies to go over, including a preliminary clinical trial that found MDMA therapy to be more helpful at treating alcohol addiction than conventional treatment methods, a meta-analysis that showed MDMA therapy to be less effective for people who take antidepressants, a study that suggested that psychedelic researchers who admit to using the substances themselves are viewed as having less integrity than researchers who are psychedelically-naïve, a study that showed that people suffering from chronic suicidality were given quick relief by consuming regular oral doses of ketamine in a clinical setting, researchers found that the rapid antidepressant effects of ayahuasca are linked to changes in inflammatory biomarkers, and a neuroscience study indicated that LSD “frees” brain activity from anatomical constraints.
Although it hasn’t been published yet, one study that deserves mention is MindMed’s LSD neutralizer study, which is now underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
In this study, MindMed is attempting to see if a 5-HT2A antagonist known as ketanserin is capable of safely and effectively stopping the effects of an LSD trip during LSD therapy sessions. This technique would be used if an active session got completely out of hand or simply became too uncomfortable for a client, and it’s come under a lot of scrutiny with many people arguing that it would be better for the full psychedelic trip to unfold than to halt it in its tracks.
While this study isn’t going to explore the efficacy of prematurely evacuating a psychedelic trip, at the very least we should know whether ketanserin is viable trip-killer within the year.
Announced Future Trials
Finishing up this month’s psychedelic research segment is a collection of clinical trials that will be conducted in the future. Algernon Pharmaceuticals will explore treating stroke survivors with DMT, PharmaTher wants to see if ketamine can help treat Parkinson’s disease, UC San Diego will explore using psilocybin to treat phantom limb pain for amputees, and Tryp Therapeutics will see if psilocybin can help people who suffer from over-eating disorders.
On a personal note, psilocybin helped me overcome some issues that I used to have with over-eating and so I’m interested to see how it fares in a clinical setting.
That’s a wrap on psychedelic research for this month. Even though it’s becoming increasingly tougher to keep up with it all, I’m more excited than ever before to see so much psychedelic science happening nowadays!
Denver Mushroom Dealer Avoids Prison
Next up is an update on a story from 2019 where the DEA raided a Denver man’s home because he was selling magic mushrooms in the city, which had just decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms a few months earlier. A federal judge decided against sending 29 year-old Kole Milner to prison, instead opting to sentence him to three years of probation and a fine of $5500.
This is actually a pretty encouraging turn of events, considering that just a few years ago the judge probably would’ve chosen the more punitive approach of imprisoning Miliner rather than slapping him with probation and a fine.
Just as a reminder, even though psilocybin mushrooms have been decriminalized in Denver, they haven’t been given the same sort of approval from the state of Colorado or the federal government, AND they haven’t been legalized, so while it’s ok at the municipal level to possess and use them, it’s not legal to sell them. Be smart and safe out there, y’all.
New Professional Psychedelic Associations
As psychedelics continue to become more mainstream, legal and medical professionals are banding together to create new psychedelic associations that will enable researchers and therapists to establish new standards of care and help attorneys understand the complexities of a constantly-changing drug policy landscape.
Some of the newest organizations include the Psychedelic Medicine Association; the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists and Practitioners; the International Association of Psychedelic Nursing; Medicine Midwives, the Association of Entheogenic Practitioners; the Psychedelic Justice League; and the Psychedelic Bar Association.
If you’re a medical or legal professional then be sure to check out these new associations and get involved—your input could help shape the field of psychedelics for decades to come.
QAnon Shaman Turns Against Trump
This month there is a followup from January’s QAnon Shaman story, where self-described psychedelic guru Jake Angeli took part in the attempt to seize the U.S. Capitol and prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s November election victory.
It turns out that there was at least one other psychedelic right-winger at the Capitol that day—William Watson, who was out on a $103,000 bond for LSD and cannabis trafficking charges, also took part in the insurrection.
But getting back to Angeli, although he was previously “horrendously smitten” with Trump, the QAnon Shaman eventually turned against the former President after not receiving a pardon that would have set him free. He even went as far as to offer to testify against Trump in his second impeachment trial.
It doesn’t look like Angeli got that chance though, as the trial came and went and I couldn’t find any confirmation that he was given the opportunity to air his testimony.
We may never get to hear impeachment testimony from the QAnon Shaman on how Trump duped him, Watson, and thousands of others into participating in the insurrection, but this whole saga is a great reminder that—contrary to popular belief—there are people of all political persuasions that use psychedelics, not just liberals.
Independent Investigation Finds Elijah McClain to Have Been a Victim of Police Violence
A young Black man named Elijah McClain died in August 2019 after he was stopped by Colorado police, put in a carotid hold, and injected with ketamine. The officers involved were never charged because prosecutors claimed to lack evidence that would prove the officers caused McClain’s death or that the force was unjustified.
However, an independent investigation found that the officers did not have a legal basis to stop, frisk, or restrain him. This means that McClain is no longer listed as a suspect but rather was a victim, which has brought a ton of relief to his mother, Sheneen McClain. Aurora, Colorado, which is the town where this event occurred, has announced that it will hire an independent police monitor after hearing results of the investigation. While this is only a small step toward justice, it’s still progress.
Meanwhile, officer’s involved with the suffocation death of a Black PCP user named Daniel Prude will not face charges, indicating that there is still a lot of police reform work to be done in this country.
Tim Leary’s Castalia Foundation Co-Opted by Conspiracy Theorists
In an interested turn of events, Timothy Leary’s Castalia Foundation has been co-opted by conspiracy theorists who have been sharing anti-mask content, praise for Donald Trump, and discussion about elite pedophile rings. It’s a crazy tale and definitely worth checking out.
Jamaica Is Facing a Marijuana Shortage
Cannabis farmers in Jamaica are struggling as the country is currently running low on ganja. An extended drought following heavy rains, an increase in local consumption, and less marijuana farmers have caused the worst shortage that the island has ever seen. It’s gotten so bad that even tourists have noticed, posting on travel websites about difficulties finding some grass to imbibe. Hopefully this year’s crop will fare better and Jamaica can get back to being one of the best countries for cannabis.
That’s all for this month’s update. Remember to always test and weigh your drugs and until next time—keep thinking wilder.
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