Colorado’s Natural Medicine program launches, and Texas goes all in on psychedelics
Plus: People were smoking bufotenin 3000 years ago, and Tracking participant diversity in psychedelic studies
Happy Friday and welcome back to The Microdose, an independent journalism newsletter brought to you by the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Colorado’s Natural Medicine program launches
Colorado’s Natural Medicine program is up and running. On April 29, Colorado’s Department of Revenue issued the state’s first psilocybin testing license to Nordic Analytical Laboratories. With that license granted, all components of the program are now operable: clients can take psilocybin with licensed facilitators in healing centers using psilocybin sourced from licensed manufacturers and tested in licensed labs.
The program began accepting license applications on December 31, 2024, and granted its first healing center license to The Center Origin in April. Since then, the state has licensed four other healing centers, two mushroom cultivators, one product manufacturer, and a total of 90 facilitators. An additional 18 healing centers, 9 cultivators, 3 manufacturers, and 19 facilitators are awaiting approval.
Colorado is the second state in the U.S. to launch a state-regulated psilocybin program; Oregon’s began in 2023.
Texas goes all in on psychedelics
Over the last 10 days, Texas legislators have weighed in on three psychedelics bills. On Tuesday, the Texas House voted 138-2 to approve House Bill 3717, which would create a public-private partnership to fund a clinical trial using ibogaine. The bill passed the Senate two weeks ago and now goes to Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
The bill would require that the study investigate the use of ibogaine in treating opioid use disorder, other substance use disorders, and “any other neurological or mental health conditions for which ibogaine demonstrates efficacy.” It would create a commission to review applicants to run the clinical trial; the applicant selected must contribute “an amount of money that is at least equal to the amount of money that the applicant received” in its grant funding from the state.
The recently founded Texas Ibogaine Initiative, a campaign spearheaded by the REID Foundation, has been the bill’s primary supporter. Its executive director W. Bryan Hubbard, former chairman of Kentucky’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, has testified on its behalf, and the group has pledged to contribute $50 million to the endeavor. REID and Hubbard first explored a public-private model for funding ibogaine research in Ohio, and they have been exploring the option in other states for the last year or so; Texas is the first to take significant strides towards executing their vision.
Last Thursday, the Texas House passed two other psychedelics bills. House Bill 4014, which passed 115-31, would require that a study be conducted that would investigate the use of MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine in treating mental health conditions including PTSD and depression. House Bill 4813, which passed unanimously (146-0), proposes that the state shall reschedule any Schedule I drug that has been removed from the list of controlled substances, or rescheduled by the
federal government after receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Both o
f those bills are now with the Texas State Senate, but face a race against time: the state’s legislative session ends June 2.
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People were smoking bufotenin 3000 years ago
Researchers have long believed that ancient peoples used psychedelics at Chavín de Huántar, an archaeological site in Peru — their art included depictions of the San Pedro cactus, and images of people who appear to be in an altered state. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA provides evidence that people were using psychoactive plants in their rituals as long as 3000 years ago.
In their analysis, anthropologists studied artifacts collected at Chavín, which included tubes made of bird bones they believed to be smoking pipes. They ran chemical tests analyzing the bones and found that they contain remnants of tobacco and Anadenanthera colubrina or vilca, a tree that produces beans containing bufotenin, a psychedelic with a chemical structure similar to 5-MeO-DMT and psilocin.
The pipes were found in tiny back rooms — “restricted-access interior spaces” — in areas where other offerings, like a collection of 700 ceramic vessels, have been found. The lack of physical space as well as the other artifacts found nearby suggests these smoking rituals were exclusive gatherings. “Privileged access, then, might include not only entry into restricted spaces and participation in offering or sacrifice that established ‘contact and contract’ with the supernatural, but also consumption of controlled substances that produced altered mental states,” the authors write.
Tracking participant diversity in psychedelic studies
As more people have become interested in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), questions remain about how people’s identities and backgrounds affect how well the treatment works for them, their rapport with therapists, and whether they can access such therapy in the first place. A new analysis published in Psychiatry Research set out to analyze how psychedelic clinical trials are keeping track of demographic information.
Overall, the researchers found that across 21 randomized controlled trials, all reported participants’ gender while three-quarters collected information on participants’ race or ethnicity. Twelve of the 21 reported on participants’ socioeconomic status, but each collected different metrics, such as employment status, education, or income. Just two collected information on participants’ sexual orientation, and one on participants’ immigrant background.
“The first step in evaluating the extent to which PAT is generalizable across demographic groups is measuring and reporting relevant participant characteristics,” the authors write. “A concerted effort to ensure representative samples in all trials of PAT will help to elucidate conclusions surrounding its generalizability.”
In episode 3 of Psychedelics and the Texas Trip, a podcast from Texas Public Radio’s Petrie Dish, host Bonnie Petrie and UC Berkeley-Ferriss fellow Robin Berghaus report on traditional use of psychedelics.
The parent company running Portland psilocybin service center The Sacred Mushroom reported a revenue loss of $2 million last year, reports Willamette Week. The alt-weekly notes that several other service centers have closed, with three licenses expired and three surrendered, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority.
The Coalition for Psychedelic Safety and Education, a nonprofit organization focusing on psychedelic education and policy, recently launched a pilot media campaign called Before You Trip, aimed at providing resources to Gen Z-ers who are curious about or already using psychedelics, and it is specifically targeting young people in Colorado. It includes videos made by influencers including drag queen Symone, and podcaster Miles Bonsignore.
A group of psychiatrists, legal experts, and psychologists presented their recommendations for the safe use of psychedelics at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, reports Lisbon’s newspaper Público.
Lucid News reports on a new venture in which existing franchisees of sensory deprivation float tanks will have the option of also offering ketamine and a “digital light and sound technology which the company says introduces non-ordinary states of consciousness and improved mental well-being.”
You’re all caught up! We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday with an excerpt from Susannah Cahalan’s The Acid Queen, the story of Rosemary Woodruff Leary.
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