DEA charging thousands for Right To Try documents, a manifesto for psychonauts, and another one bites the dust

Plus: The State of Psychedelics and The Latest in Oregon

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. 

DEA charging lawyers thousands for Right To Try documents.

A physician and his patients requesting documents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have been told by the agency that it will not fulfill their request unless they pay nearly $12,000 in fees. Sunil Aggarwal, a physician in Seattle, and two of his patients, who are terminally ill and seeking psilocybin-assisted therapy through Right to Try laws, submitted a Freedom of Information request to the DEA for any internal records from 2022 discussing reclassification of psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule II, as well as all emails sent since 2021 mentioning Right To Try laws.

The DEA told Aggarwal and his lawyers that their request had been classified as one for “commercial use,” and that the agency would not review records unless they paid $11,740 in fees. Aggarwal’s legal team argued that their request was not for commercial purposes, as Aggarwal would not profit from this information, and that federal Right to Try laws would actually prohibit Aggarwal from receiving compensation if he were able to provide psilocybin-assisted therapy to his patients. The DEA was not moved by this appeal; they wrote back that Aggarwal team’s point “does not resolve the more fundamental issue that your clients appear to be requesting these records in order to help gain access to new medical treatments and that offering new medical treatments would almost certainly carry commercial benefits to medical providers beyond certain specific instances of direct compensation from manufacturers.” In a statement, Aggarwal’s lawyers refute this claim. “There is no evidence whatsoever to support this assertion,” they write.

This is just the latest in a longstanding back-and-forth between Aggarwal, his patients, their lawyers, and the DEA; the group has sued the DEA for declining to provide access to psilocybin-assisted therapy under Right to Try laws, and over allegedly unlawfully labeling FOIA requests as “complex,” thereby stalling the fulfillment of such requests.

A manifesto for psychonauts.

As the psychedelics industry grows, the “dark side of the shroom” is taking hold, argue scholars Neşe Devenot, Trey Conner, and Richard Doyle in an essay recently published in the journal Anthropology of Consciousness. The authors argue that corporate interests, academia, and the medical industry have largely ignored the Indigenous and counterculture traditions that embraced the power of psychedelics long ago, and they are guiding the so-called psychedelic renaissance towards a “one-size-fits-all” model of psychedelics where set and setting are standardized, companies seek to patent formulations of psychedelics found in nature, and profit drives “new psychedelic science.” The piece includes searing criticism of headline-making psychedelic research, hype from media campaigns, and pharma start-ups, as well as psychedelic “thought leaders.”

The authors encourage readers to resist the structures that grab at money and power. “We humbly invite readers to look deeply into an essential feature of sacred plant wisdom and all nondual traditions: healing is a function not of any ‘grabbing,’ but of release – a letting go,” they write.

There has never been a more exciting – or bewildering – time in the world of psychedelics. Don’t miss a beat.

A free newsletter from the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Another one bites the dust

Vancouver-based psychedelic company HAVN Life Sciences has folded. Founded in 2020, it burned fast and bright: in September 2020, the company received an exemption from Health Canada to study psilocybin and offered stock options to investors, which debuted at just under $20 CAD. By December 2020, the company’s stock had jumped to $35.70 CAD, but since then it has taken a steady nosedive. In an opaque press release, the company announced last week that “the Company is no longer a going concern as it is unable to meet its financial obligations as they come due.”  In other words, the company has run out of money. 

The Latest in Oregon

In July, we reported on the Oregon counties and cities adding measures to their November ballots asking voters to consider opting out of Measure 109, which would establish psilocybin services in the state. The measure passed in November 2020 alongside Measure 110, which reduced penalties for personal drug possession. Now, one Oregon county is exploring whether it could opt out of Measure 110 as well, reports the Argus Observer. 

This week, the mayor and city council of Ontario, Oregon wrote an open letter to the state’s governor, Kate Brown, as well as to state representatives. Measure 110 has “disastrously impacted our community,” they write. In the letter, they claim that homelessness and crime has increased in the past few years and that people are coming to Ontario from Idaho because of the state’s drug laws. 

The State of Psychedelics

As Oregon rolls out rules for implementing Measure 109, the state’s neighbors to the north are watching closely. In March 2022, Washington State passed Senate Bill 5693, which created a working group to evaluate whether the state might also allow for psilocybin services. The work group has already met twice. Ahead of its October meeting, the Harris Bricken Psychedelics Law Blog reviewed what that workgroup has discussed. So far, members have heard from the Washington Liquor and Cannabis board about lessons learned from the state’s cannabis industry, and have also been provided with a primer on the legal status of psilocybin nationwide. Spokane attorney Troy Sims writes that members of the workgroup also participated in an opinion poll:

“...members expressed support for microdosing, with nine out of thirteen members strongly supporting it. Members also supported a “wellness” model over a “clinical” model to broaden access to psilocybin services. Eight out of thirteen members felt psilocybin services should be covered by both private insurance and state funding. The work group also revisited opinions on Oregon’s model, with members showing the most support for decriminalizing psilocybin and requiring only a high-school diploma for facilitators.”

Meanwhile, activist Leo Russell, founder of Washington’s Entheo Society, submitted a ballot initiative in February that also aims to establish psilocybin services in the state. Per Washington law, the initiative would need 400,000 signatures to be included in the state’s 2023 general election. 

• “Why are all these rough-and-tumble dudes suddenly tripping balls?” Cathy Reisenwitz muses on the idea of “psychedelic masculinity” in Psychedelic Spotlight. 

• Nautilus Magazine asks University of California, Riverside psychologist Sonja Lyubormisky whether social psychologists should experiment with psychedelics.

• In The Conversation, King’s College London researcher James Rucker provides some tips on how to evaluate psychedelic research studies with a discerning eye.

• The Wisconsin State Journal reports that psychedelic research non-profit Usona Institute is building a $70 million headquarters in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, and expects to launch a phase 1 study of 5-MeO-DMT in November. 

• Nature News writes about the quests to understand how psychedelics affect brain function, and to create “trip-less” psychedelics.

• DoubleBlind reports on a Brazilian lab dosing zebrafish with ayahuasca. 

You’re all caught up! Have a great weekend. We’ll be back in your inbox Monday morning with a new issue of 5 Questions.

If you know anyone who might like the latest on psychedelics in their inbox, feel free to forward this to them, or click below.

Got tips? Email us at themicrodose@berkeley.edu.