Federal government announces new funding for psychedelics; New Jersey advances psilocybin bill and New Mexico holds first public psilocybin meeting; Government increases 2026 psychedelics quotas
Plus: New paper argues scientists should probe psychedelics’ bond with neuroreceptors beyond serotonin, and Longevity influencer livestreams shrooms trip
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.
Federal government announces new funding for psychedelics
An agency within the U.S. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a $100 million investment in behavioral and mental health research with a specific call for proposals to fund research on “neuroplastogens” such as ketamine, ibogaine, psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. The funding is available through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H.
ARPA-H was proposed by former President Joe Biden in 2021 and funded by Congress in 2022. The program is modeled on DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The goal of ARPA-H is to usher in scientific research breakthroughs supported by substantial federal funds. The new $100 million initiative is called EVIDENT — an acronym for “Evidence-Based Validation & Innovation for Rapid Therapeutics in Behavioral Health” — which will target the development of new drugs and therapies focused on personalized mental and behavioral health treatments. The EVIDENT initiative is soliciting pitches through December 22. Applicants’ studies will need to produce results quickly: the call for pitches says projects must “deliver and demonstrate preliminary results” by the one-year mark; grants are expected to be for $4 million to fund projects for a maximum of two years.
The State of Psychedelics: New beginnings in New Mexico, New Jersey advances bill
Today, New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board will hold its first public meeting. In March, the state’s legislature passed a bill establishing a state-regulated medical psilocybin program, making it the third state in the nation to create such a program. It was the first state program in the United States that was passed via the legislature rather than a voter approved ballot measure, as well as the first establishing the medical use of psilocybin. Both Colorado and Oregon’s programs explicitly prohibit facilitators from requiring that clients receive referrals from medical professionals. Advertising psilocybin services as treatments for medical conditions is also forbidden in those states. The meeting will include introductions to key staff and board members working with the state to launch its program, as well as comments from the general public.
Last week, New Jersey legislators referred Bill A3852 to the State Assembly’s appropriations committee. The bill would give $6 million to establish a two-year pilot program overseen by the state’s health department and an 11-person advisory board. If passed, the department will have 6 months to create a system to accept applications for the pilot program. The state’s legislative session ends on January 12, 2026.
Want the latest psychedelics news? Subscribe! (It’s free!)
Federal government increases 2026 drug quotas for psychedelic research
Each year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sets quotas for the production of Schedule I drugs to be used in research. Proposed quotas for 2026 were posted to the Federal Register last Friday, with the agency noting increased production quotas for psilocybin, psilocin (the active metabolite of psilocybin), MDMA, and methylone (also known as MDMC, an analog of MDMA) to support clinical trials investigating their use in treating depression and PTSD.
For reference, in 2023, the DEA initially set annual quotas of 8000 grams of psilocybin; in 2026, it calls for five times that — 40,000 grams — as well as 48,000 grams of psilocin. The 2026 quotas for 5-MeO-DMT and DMT are also higher than last year. In 2025, the government allowed 20,000 grams of DMT and 11,000 grams of 5-MeO-DMT. But for 2026, the DEA is now calling for 30,000 grams of 5-MeO-DMT and 20,000 grams of DMT.
New paper argues scientists should probe psychedelics’ bond with neuroreceptors beyond serotonin
Classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD are often called “serotonergic” drugs based on their binding to serotonin 5-HT receptors. But “not all psychedelics are created equal,” argues a new commentary piece published in Nature Mental Health. Different psychedelic molecules have different binding affinities to a broad array of receptors in the brain. The authors, psychology and psychiatry researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and the University of Lübeck in Germany, point out that 5-HT receptors are unlikely to fully explain psychedelics’ effects — when activation of the receptor has been blocked in rodent studies, psychedelics have still induced antidepressant-like effects and neuroplasticity.
It’s still unclear how psychedelics’ receptor binding affects people’s subjective experiences, and the authors propose developing more rigorous methods to assess those subjective experiences, as well as to develop more standardization in dose equivalence between psychedelic drugs, and more robust neuroimaging maps to understand how psychedelics affect brain connectivity. “Psychedelic science is not ‘one size fits all’, and its successful implementation in neuropsychiatry will probably depend on embracing the pharmacological diversity of these compounds,” they write.
Longevity influencer livestreams shrooms trip
On Sunday, longevity influencer Bryan Johnson livestreamed his experience after taking a 5-gram dose of dried Psilocybe cubensis. This is the second time in a month Johnson has publicly documented his psychedelics use; about a month ago, Johnson livetweeted his trip, which he called “longevity therapy.”
The livestream included appearances from guests including the electronic artist Grimes, who performed a DJ set, Elon Musk biographer Ashlee Vance, YouTuber MrBeast, and psychedelic venture capitalist Genevieve Jurvetson, who with her husband Steve have donated to a broad range of psychedelic initiatives, including the Fireside Project, MAPS, and the Healing Advocacy Fund.
Over the last few years, Johnson has gained notoriety for his meticulous documentation of his health regimens and the millions of dollars he’s spent tracking biomarkers looking for evidence that he’s slowing his own aging. Those attempts have included everything from a strict diet and exercise regimen to receiving blood plasma from his then 17-year-old son. Publications including Stereogum, Business Insider, and TechCrunch covered Johnson’s psilocybin stunt, which he called “research,” but it’s worth noting that Johnson is no newcomer when it comes to psychedelics research: He is the founder of Kernel, a company that created a neuroimaging helmet Johnson wore during his trip — and which, back in 2021, announced a partnership with psilocybin company Cybin to study brain function in people taking ketamine, which we reported on in our second-ever issue of This Week in Psychedelics.
Former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is a relatively new but vocal advocate for ibogaine, but until recently, she has been close-lipped about any personal experience with the drug — but she tells Politico she tried ibogaine at a Mexico center in hopes it would help keep her brain sharp.
Natural History Museum of Utah Ph.D. student Colin Domnauer writes about the prevalence and history of Lanmaoa asiatica, a species of mushroom believed to cause what’s called lilliputian hallucinations: “the perception of numerous little people autonomously moving about and interacting in the real-world environment.”
The Fireside Project, a psychedelic peer support non-profit, announced the launch of Lucy, “the world’s first AI-powered simulation and training platform designed to prepare clinicians for psychedelic-assisted therapy.” Lucy was built on anonymized support conversations from 7,000 Fireside Project users.
Salvador Plasencia, a doctor who pled guilty to supplying the actor Matthew Perry with ketamine before his 2023 death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, reports the New York Times. Perry drowned in his hot tub, and an autopsy revealed high levels of ketamine in his body at his time of death.
National Geographic reviews the growing numbers of clinical trials studying the use of LSD in treating anxiety, depression, and more.
You’re all caught up! We’ll be back in your inbox on Monday 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.