Meta suspends numerous psychedelics-related accounts; California psilocybin pilot program bill dies; and Preliminary results from Gilgamesh’s phase 2 clinical trial
Plus: Psychedelic luminary Amanda Feilding dies and legal risks to providers talking about psychedelics
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.
Meta suspends numerous psychedelics-related accounts
Over the last few weeks, psychedelics-related organizations, advocates and activists have reported that their accounts have been banned from Instagram and Facebook. On Wednesday the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics’s Instagram account was suspended. Some accounts have subsequently been reinstated after an appeals process, including the Instagram account for Psychedelic Science, the conference hosted by MAPS. The account was offline for a week before going back up on Tuesday.
Kat Lakey, founder of the Psychedelic Assembly, a group that aims to connect people interested in psychedelics, says her organization’s account was initially suspended May 21, then put back three days later after they filed an appeal. But a few hours later, the account was suspended again, and after another appeal, Meta replied saying the account was permanently banned. Tracey Tee, the founder of Moms on Mushrooms, a group to support mothers discussing their psilocybin experiences, told The Microdose her account had also been permanently banned — the second time this year her account had been taken down.
We reached out to Meta for comment, giving the above three accounts as examples of affected accounts. On Thursday, Meta spokesperson Erin Logan told The Microdose that those three accounts had been removed “by mistake and have been restored.” Lakey said she’s “super relieved, but also nervous about posting anything psychedelic-related right now in case it causes the account to get deleted again.”
Gina Vensel, co-founder of the Plant Media Project, a marketing agency specializing in psychedelics and wellness, says her personal account was placed in “Instagram jail” for 72 hours after she posted a story about other accounts that had been removed from Instagram. Vensel has created a Google form to collect more information about the affected accounts, and says that so far, she’s heard from 58 respondents. All received only vague explanations about their bans, saying their accounts were flagged for removal or suspension for violating community guidelines. In a LinkedIn post, Tee wrote of her frustration that educational information about psychedelics was being removed even as “truly harmful material” persists on the platforms.
Meta’s community guidelines prohibit “attempts to buy, sell, trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift or ask for high-risk drugs,” but does explicitly allow “debating or advocating for the legality or discussing scientific or medical merits of high risk drugs,” which “includes news and public service announcements.”
An earlier wave of psychedelic account removals occurred in 2021, and others have reported more isolated incidents over the last few years. Some have tried to avoid being targeted by omitting the word psychedelics altogether, or spelling it incorrectly or strategically substituting characters, like “psych*delics.” Vensel says community members want to know why their accounts have been removed, and how to avoid it in the future.
California psilocybin pilot program bill failed
California Senate Bill 751 has failed to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill proposed creating a pilot program at the University of California to provide psilocybin-assisted therapy to veterans and first responders. Last month, the Health Committee and Education Committee both voted unanimously to advance it, but in a hearing held last Friday, the committee decided to hold the bill. (The committee’s analysis of the bill concluded it would cost $5 to $8 million to implement, and that it “could result in cost pressures to the General Fund.”)
This is the fifth year in a row that state legislators have tried and failed to pass any psychedelics-related bill. Compared to previous California bills, which have proposed everything from decriminalization to a state-regulated program similar to Oregon’s, SB 751’s proposal to fund research was modest.
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Preliminary results from Gilgamesh’s phase 2 clinical trial
This week, psychedelics company Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals announced preliminary results from a Phase 2 study of GM-2505, a serotonergic psychedelic also known as bretisilocin, which is chemically related to DMT and psilocybin. Gilgamesh focuses on developing novel psychedelic drugs, and has previously billed GM-2505 as a sort of “improved” DMT, with a longer-lasting and more pleasant trip. The company’s most recent trial investigates the drug’s safety and efficacy in treating major depressive disorder (MDD).
Gilgamesh’s Chief Medical Officer Gerard Marek presented the results at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology’s annual meeting, and the company issued a press release. The study included 40 participants, who received either a 10 mg dose of GM-2505 via intravenous infusion or a 1 mg dose (effectively a placebo). The study’s primary outcome measurement was change in participants’ scores on the MADRS, a standard depression questionnaire. Two weeks after that initial dose, participants who received the larger GM-2505 dose reported lower depression scores.
At the two-week mark, all participants received a second dose of 15 mg, and two weeks after that, both groups had decreased MADRS scores relative to baseline. The effect was larger for the group that received the larger initial dose; 16 of the 17 participants’ scores had decreased enough to be considered in remission from their major depressive disorder diagnosis. This finding “suggests that a regimen of two robustly psychedelic doses, administered two weeks apart, produces greater efficacy than a single robust psychedelic dose,” the researchers wrote in the abstract they submitted to the ASCP conference. At a final follow-up roughly 6 weeks after the second dose, participants’ MADRS improved scores remained roughly the same.
The abstract also reports that there were no serious adverse events in the clinical trials, though the drug did cause “transient increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate.” While these initial results appear promising, more details about the study will be revealed when the company submits its findings to an academic journal that employs a peer review process for publication.
Psychedelics luminary Amanda Feilding dies
Amanda Feilding, founder of the non-profit psychedelic research organization the Beckley Foundation, died last Thursday at 82. Two weeks ago, Feilding announced she would stop treatment for liver cancer.
Feilding was born in 1943 and grew up in the world of British nobility; her father was the great-grandson of an earl, who married his second cousin. She has said that at 22, an acquaintance spiked her coffee with a massive dose of LSD. (According to Feilding, the dose may have been equivalent to a thousand hits.) Soon after, she began dating Dutch scientist Bart Huges, an advocate of trepanation, the process of drilling a permanent hole into a human skull. Huges thought this could help improve blood flow and enhance brain function. In 1970, Feilding drilled into her own skull, filmed the process, and made it public.
Feilding remained interested in altered or enhanced states of consciousness. In 1998, she created the Foundation of Further Consciousness to study psychedelics,eventually renamed the Beckley Foundation. Over the years, Beckley has partnered with academic researchers at institutions like Imperial College London to study ayahuasca, psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and cannabis. In 2019, Feilding and her son, Cosmo Feilding-Mellen, founded the for-profit psychedelics research company Beckley Psytech, which is developing synthetic psychedelic compounds. (In January 2024, psychedelic company atai acquired a 35% stake in the company.)
In her final post, Feilding said she felt “a tremendous sense of satisfaction” at the emerging psychedelic renaissance. “Looking forward, I am filled with hope that, more than ever and despite the seeming turmoil all around us, there are legions of people committed to take this vision forward with compassion and integrity,” she wrote. “No doubt there will be many more bumps in the road, but I have absolute faith we will get there.”
Legal risks to medical providers talking about psychedelics
In a new piece published at Law360, attorney Kim Chew lays out the legal risks for medical providers who discuss psychedelic therapies with their patients. Specifically, she explains how attorneys working with healthcare providers or hospitals should consider telling their clients to avoid “accomplice liability.” She recommends against encouraging patients to procure or use a psychedelic or to provide information about where to get them, while encouraging providers to communicate risks and make sure any discussion includes the latest scientific evidence around the use of psychedelics.
The rise of off-label use of psychoactive drugs — specifically, ketamine for depression — introduces another legal grey area for providers. “While the FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine, promoting or endorsing off-label uses in a misleading or nonscientific manner can raise legal concerns, including allegations of fraud or malpractice,” Chew writes. She suggests attorneys can tell providers to clearly disclose that off-label uses are not FDA-approved for those uses. Providers should also “refrain from receiving any improper financial incentives, kickbacks or other remuneration in connection with referrals to off-label or investigational therapies,” and ensure that “any referrals to clinics or providers (e.g., ketamine clinics) are made only to reputable entities that comply with applicable licensing, regulatory and ethical standards.”
Psychedelic Alpha reports that attorney Matt Zorn has been named Deputy General Counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services’s Immediate Office of the General Counsel — where some insiders are saying his role is to serve as the “psychedelics czar.” (Zorn was among our early 5 Questions interviewees.)
WIRED profiles Akasha Song — or Joseph Clements — who synthesized millions of DMT doses, then made millions selling them on the dark web. Even after his lab blew up, he still wouldn’t quit — until federal agents finally apprehended him in 2022.
In n+1, writer Sarah Miller chronicles her ayahuasca retreat experience in Peru. “I would drink this stuff, the shamans would chant, I would have these memories or revelations, I would vomit and sh*t, and things would be resolved,” she wrote. Things don’t go exactly as planned, and Miller finds herself reflecting on her shaman, her fellow retreat attendees, and her expectations.
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