This Week in Psychedelics: Sustainable iboga, the Mushroom Rabbi, and trip setting

Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. Some highlights from the week:

Trip setting. As researchers study psychedelic therapy and companies develop their own protocols around the practice, renewed attention has been focused on “set and setting”: the internal and external environment in which someone experiences a psychedelic trip. Elements of set and setting might include the intentions you bring to the experience, the music you’re listening to, the people present, the physical space you’re in, or even what you’re smelling and seeing.

A new review from Johns Hopkins researchers examines 43 studies for their use of setting during psychedelic experiences. Some settings, like ceremonies or “psychedelic environments” like trance clubs with pulsing music and colorful lights, might even evoke psychedelic-like experiences without consumption of a psychedelic drug. There is “apparent consensus regarding the importance of setting in psychedelic therapies,” the authors write, but “this consensus has yet to generate consistent, prospective, rigorous tests of setting and its complexities.” The scientists encourage more empirical research directly examining the role of setting in psychedelic experiences in hopes that a deeper understanding of its mechanisms can help practitioners design more effective and tailored therapies. 

Sustainable iboga? Ibogaine is a potent hallucinogen derived from the iboga plant, which is native to Central Africa. In the West, almost all ibogaine is obtained through the black market; David Nassim, co-director of iboga preservation non-profit Blessings of the Forest told Lucid News that the drug is the “blood diamond of the psychedelic world.”

But that could be changing. Lucid News reports that people from Gabonese villages where iboga is grown are partnering with Gabon’s Ministry of Forests and Nassim’s Blessings of the Forest to grow and distribute the plant sustainably, and will adhere to the standards of the Nagoya Protocol, an international treaty in which signatories agree to share access to and benefits from genetic resources, like medicines or plant genes. This collaboration is the first that would adhere to the Nagoya Protocol in the export and sale of a psychedelic substance. As a result, companies that buy the villagers’ iboga will share proceeds from iboga sessions with Gabonese growers. 

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

A peek at Oregon’s upcoming psilocybin businesses. As Oregon moves closer towards allowing legal psilocybin services, business owners are at the ready, waiting to learn what final rules and regulations they must abide by. Portland alt-weekly Willamette Week talked with four companies about how they’re preparing for the state’s 2023 roll-out and what they expect in the first few years of business. 

Their visions point to possible future trends. Myles Katz, co-founder of a psilocybin retreat company called Synthesis Institute, moved to Oregon from the Netherlands in 2020 — a move we might see more often, given that the state’s rules require business owners to be majority-owned by Oregonians who have lived in the state at least two years. Katz also predicts it will become common for people to travel to Oregon for psilocybin retreats. Willamette Week also talks with Red Light Holland, another Dutch group which recently created an Oregon arm of its business focused on psilocybin microdosing. 

The interviews also suggest that these treatments will be pricey for consumers. Katz estimates that the Synthesis Institute’s 3-day retreats in Oregon could cost around $3,000, and Canadian company Field Trip, best known for its ketamine clinics, tells Willamette Week that a seven-hour psilocybin truffle dosing session in its Amsterdam clinic runs around $2,000, with additional services like pre-trip prep sessions or post-trip integration sessions running another $1,500. That suggests treatment options in Oregon would likely start around the same price point.

The Mushroom Rabbi. In Denver, Colorado, a group called The Sacred Tribe has connected psychedelics and Judaism. The group holds psilocybin sessions, which members say offer an opportunity to connect with others and discuss healing Jewish trauma. In January, the Denver police raided a warehouse where The Sacred Tribe grew and processed mushrooms. Police also arrested an employee of the Tribe and later arrested the group’s rabbi, Ben Gorelick.

In 2019, Denver voters passed the country’s first initiative making enforcement of state laws against personal possession and personal use of psilocybin mushrooms the city police’s lowest priority. But the measure did not similarly protect the growing (manufacturing) or distribution of psilocybin mushrooms.

The Associated Press reports on the growing numbers of people exploring psychedelics through groups like The Sacred Tribe and on efforts in Colorado to decriminalize psilocybin and other drugs. Rabbi Gorelick tells the AP he “isn’t worried about legal consequences — even after being detained — saying the group’s practices are protected by an inherent religious exemption.” But, the AP notes, the DEA hasn’t actually granted the group an exemption. (For more on religious exemptions, Harris Bricken attorney Griffen Thorne wrote on the topic for the firm’s Psychedelic Law Blog this week.)

“Psychedelic heroin.” Justin Clark worked as an associate producer and researcher on Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, a VICE show about psychedelics hosted by Hamilton Morris, son of the famed documentarian Errol Morris. According to friends and family, over the years Clark worked on the show, his behavior grew increasingly erratic, and they attempted an intervention — but in June 2021, Clark was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment. The New York City medical examiner determined that his heart gave out at age 34 after taking a combination of ketamine, oxycodone, and 3-HO-PCP, which New York Magazine describes as a “bespoke hallucinogenic.” The piece explores Clark’s life and the role drugs played in his last years, especially ketamine and its analogues, which Johns Hopkins researcher Matthew Johnson calls “psychedelic heroin” because of its addictive potential.

“As [Clark’s] research helped give the lie to war-on-drugs fables, so the circumstances of his death resist easy moralizing,” the piece says — but it also raises bigger questions around psychological addiction and friends’ and families’ roles in drug interventions amidst the “psychedelic renaissance.”

• Last month, The Microdose reported on two psychedelics bills submitted in Oklahoma. This week, House Bill 3414 passed, authorizing the licensure of psilocybin mushroom producers and research into psilocybin-based therapies. The new law also  lowers the crime of  personal possession of up to an ounce and a half of psilocybin mushrooms from a felony to no more than a fine of $400.

• Video recordings from the NIH Psychedelics as Medicine conference held in January are now available to watch online.

• Seattle Met covers the “psychedelic revolution” in Seattle.

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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