This Week in Psychedelics: Detroit decriminalizes, a brain imaging helmet for ketamine therapy, orphan drug designations, and more

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. Here's what happened this week in the world of psychedelics:

Treatments for generalized anxiety disorder and Fragile X syndrome. Psilocybin therapy shows promise in treating a variety of mental health issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and alcohol dependence. This week, two new potential applications for psilocybin are moving forward. First, in Australia, Monash University researchers in collaboration with healthcare company Incannex, received approval for the world’s first clinical trial using psilocybin to treat generalized anxiety disorder, a condition characterized by persistent, severe worrying over everyday activities. 

Next, biotech company Nova Mentis received approvals from both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency that will support their development of psilocybin treatments for Fragile X syndrome. Fragile X is a genetic disorder, and around a third of people born with it also develop autism; researchers believe psilocybin may be able to treat social anxiety, a common symptom people with autism experience. (Check out this piece in Filter Mag for more on autism and psychedelics.) The approvals granted by the FDA and EMA are what’s called orphan drug designations. According to the FDA, “orphan drugs” are those that treat, prevent, or diagnose a rare disease or condition that affects less than 6 out of every 10,000 people in the US. (In the EU, that designation applies to conditions that affect less than 5 out of every 10,000 people.) These designations give Nova Mentis market exclusivity for their drug development, regulatory fee waivers, and US tax credits, which the company says will allow them to begin a phase 2 study. 

Detroit decriminalization. On Tuesday, Detroit voters approved Proposal E, which decriminalizes the use of entheogenic plants and fungi, including psilocybin, ibogaine, peyote, and ayahuasca. Functionally, this means that arresting and prosecuting anyone in possession of these substances is the lowest priority for Detroit police. Of the roughly 88,000 voters who weighed in, 61% voted in favor of the proposal — a victory for the Detroit chapter of Decriminalize Nature, which helped shape the proposal and its adoption.

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

The “QAnon shaman” who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 regularly took psychedelics. Photo by Brent Stirton via Getty

No panacea. In the world of psychedelics and in broader pop culture, people often believe in the power of psychedelics to make people more chill, cooperative and inclined to want to solve the world’s problems. Some research suggests that could be the case; after taking psilocybin, participants scored lower on scales of authoritarianism, and in studies of awe, a feeling that often accompanies psychedelic use, people are more prosocial and generous after experiencing that emotion. But, writes Vice journalist Shayla Love, “the assumption that psychedelic use will always lead to left-leaning ideals and their associated utopias is incorrect.” In fact, psychedelic use has plenty of associations with authoritarian and conservative beliefs. In a soon-to-be-published paper, researchers Brian Pace and Neşe Devenot say the history of psychedelics suggests the substances are “politically pluripotent”: they can support the expression of any kind of political ideology. As psychedelics become more mainstream, Love writes, they might encourage some to become more engaged with climate and social justice, but “for others, it could lead to a greater dedication to more rigid right-wing or capitalist ideas, and even promote doing whatever is necessary to protect the hierarchies that uphold it.”

A helmet to scan the ketamine brain. Traditional imaging techniques like fMRI scans are “expensive and clunky and require the patient to sit still,” writes Forbes reporter Will Yakowicz. That’s not ideal for participants using psychedelics, who may want to move freely or may even fall asleep in scanners. Yakowicz details a new brain imaging device developed by neurotechnology company Kernel — it looks and is worn like a helmet and measures blood flow through the brain. Now, Kernel is teaming up with Toronto-based psychedelics start-up Cybin to study brain activity during ketamine therapy. 

An image of Ge Hong, artist unknown via Look and Learn // CC BY 4.0

Chinese hallucinogens. It’s no secret that humans have used psychedelic drugs for millennia — but on a world map of hallucinogen use, “China is a conspicuous blank,” writes Fan Pen Li Chen, an associate professor of East Asian Studies at the State University of New York in Albany. In her new paper, published in the series Sino-Platonic Papers, Chen combs through  references to hallucinogenic plants in stories from ancient and early medieval China. Writings from Ge Hong, a scholar who lived in the 300s, detailed “spirit mushrooms”:

Qingyun zhi 青雲芝 (Black Cloud Spirit Mushroom): It grows among black boulders on the shaded side of famous mountains. Its caps are black, stacked in three layers, and covered by cloud-mist. Its taste is acrid and sweet. Consumed after they are dried in the shade, they will enable the body to live for a thousand years without aging, ride on clouds, communicate with heaven, and see ghosts and spirits.

Rou zhi 肉芝 (Flesh Spirit Mushroom): If you see a little person seven to eight cun 寸 tall riding in a carriage when you travel on a mountain, you have encountered a flesh spirit mushroom. Consume it raw and you will attain transcendence immediately.

Chen concludes that shamans have long used these plant medicines “in their search for personal transcendence and immortality” — and that among Chinese ethnic groups like Tibetans and the Zhuang, that practice continues. 

• Former Johns Hopkins researcher and psilocybin trial guide Katherine MacLean and psychedelics integration facilitator Leia Friedwoman just launched Psychedelic Survivors, a site dedicated to supporting survivors who have experienced abuse and assault in the context of psychedelic therapy or ceremony.  

• Canada gets its first psychedelic research center at the University of Toronto, and University College London announces the UNITy Project, a new research program that will study the neurobiology of psychedelic use.

• Indie magazine Whalebone’s “hippie issue” features a fun conversation between mycologist Paul Stamets and researcher Matthew Johnson. 

You’re all caught up! Have a great weekend, and stay tuned on Monday for 5 Questions, our weekly Q&A with a leader in the psychedelics space.

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