Will Colorado cities pass psilocybin restrictions? DEA begins hearings on scheduling psychedelic research drugs; New study finds hallucinogen-related ER visits associated with increased risk of future
Plus: Will MDMA-assisted therapy be cost-effective? And polling psychedelic industry workers
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.
Will Colorado cities pass psilocybin restrictions?
Next year, Colorado will begin issuing licenses for its Natural Medicine program, which will allow people to receive psilocybin at what the program calls “healing centers.” Measure 122, the ballot initiative that established the program, does not allow municipalities to opt out of providing services, but some municipalities are considering issuing requirements to dictate where and when psilocybin businesses could operate. In Fountain, CO, a city of about 30,000 about 85 miles south of Denver, city council members met on Tuesday to discuss a proposal containing just such restrictions. Grace Williams, a city attorney, said that Fountain had been coordinating with other municipalities to figure out what their rights were, given that state law does not allow them to outright ban psilocybin businesses. The city is proposing that psilocybin businesses could only operate in areas zoned for industrial use no closer than 1,000 feet from residentially zoned areas. It would also limit businesses’ operations from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. “Obviously we want to regulate this a lot stronger than we can,” said Williams, but said these were the most restrictive things they could reasonably propose while still being in compliance with the new law mandating access to psilocybin healing centers in the state.
Councilmember Frederick Hinton said he wanted to go on record that he was “highly upset that we even have to make this decision.” He said he did not want psilocybin services in the city and felt like it had “been forced upon us.” Other council members and members of the public spoke passionately about their distaste over psilocybin appearing in their community. Some of their commentary and questions revealed how little some attendees know about the details of the new program. There were basic misunderstandings and queries about who could serve as a facilitator and how people receive psilocybin.
The city council of Colorado Springs, just 15 miles up I-25 from Fountain, also met on Tuesday to discuss a similar proposal. The city’s planning director Kevin Walker proposed the ordinance, noting that “zoning is designed to protect the community from negative impacts,” and that he recommends erring on the side of being conservative “until there is better data and historical references” on what he called an “experimental industry.” The Colorado Springs proposal is more restrictive than Fountain’s: healing centers must operate at least a mile from schools, childcare facilities, drug or alcohol treatment facilities, or other psilocybin healing centers.
The Colorado Springs council was less enthusiastic than Fountain’s about the proposal. Councilmember Dave Donelson said he was reluctant to enact restrictions in case it could appear as though the council was going to “override the will of the people,” who passed Prop 122. Councilmember Nancy Henjum encouraged the group to consider the opportunities that psilocybin services could provide to the public, given research showing that psilocybin can help improve mental health for some people. The city will hold a hearing in two weeks to further discuss; Fountain, too, will vote on its proposal at a later date.
DEA begins hearings on scheduling psychedelic research drugs DOI and DOC
This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration began a 10-day hearing to discuss the agency’s proposal to add DOI and DOC, two previously unscheduled drugs, to the list of Schedule I drugs. The agency first proposed the move in 2022 but quietly withdrew the proposal a few months later; this most recent proposal was filed in December 2023 and has received sharp criticism from scientists who use the drugs in research to better understand the effects of psychedelics.
Ahead of the hearing, the Students for Sensible Drug Policy held a press conference in front of DEA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. (The group has coordinated efforts to oppose the DEA’s proposal, as well as its attempts to dismiss witness testimony and evidence.) Several witnesses spoke about the two drugs’ potential for research and the impact scheduling them would have on science. “I have spent the last five years specifically using DOI in my dissertation work, in which I have been able to characterize it pharmacologically and behaviorally and use it as a tool to probe potential treatment mechanisms for opioid use disorder,” said Alaina Jaster, a postdoctoral researcher at Wayne State University. That work could help develop medications for substance use disorders as well as other conditions, like anxiety and inflammation, Jaster said. “Putting DOI and DOC in Schedule I will halt vital research that could improve the health of people suffering from various disorders.”
The hearing will be held through November 25 and is not being broadcast online. We’ll provide updates as they become available. Are you at the hearing, or have a tip to share? Send us an email at themicrodose@berkeley.edu.
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New study finds hallucinogen-related ER visits associated with increased risk of future schizophrenia symptoms
People who have sought emergency services that involved hallucinogen use might be at higher risk of developing schizophrenia, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday. Researchers analyzed data from the over 9 million residents of Ontario, Canada who were eligible for provincial health insurance between 2008 and 2021. Of those 9 million, over 5000, or 0.1% of the sample, visited the emergency department for an issue related to hallucinogen use.
Compared with those who had not had a hallucinogen-related ER visit, those 5000-plus people had a higher risk of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), a group of disorders that can include a range of symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, cognitive impairments, and asociality. Four percent of the individuals who visited the ER for a hallucinogen-related problem developed schizophrenia spectrum disorder, compared to just 0.15% of the rest of the population.
The authors note that there is no evidence for a causal relationship between hallucinogen use and schizophrenia in their study, and that outcomes for people who visit the ER for hallucinogen use “may not generalize to hallucinogen use, particularly among individuals using low (micro) doses or rarely using hallucinogens.” Still, they note that the work might reveal a group of people “who may benefit from closer follow-up and intervention or preventative efforts.”
Will MDMA-assisted therapy be cost-effective?
According to a new analysis published in PLOS One, MDMA-assisted therapy won’t be cheap — the paper’s authors estimate the cost of a round of MDMA treatment will exceed $48,000. That would include three MDMA-assisted psychotherapy sessions — estimated at $36,000 for the MDMA itself, and over $12,000 for psychotherapy — as well as preparation and integration therapy sessions, estimated at just under $2,000. The researchers compared those costs to that of a placebo with therapy, which would be around a quarter of that price at around $12,000. But despite the high price tag, the papers’ authors say that the treatment improves quality of life outcomes for PTSD patients by enough of a margin that by recommendations set by the World Health Organization, MDMA-assisted therapy could be considered a cost-effective treatment in the U.S.
The work was overseen by Lykos Therapeutics, the company whose phase 3 trials the FDA did not accept this summer as providing sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. The authors included a Lykos employee and three analysts at a private company that were paid and supervised by Lykos for their work.
Polling psychedelic industry workers
Psychedelics education and advocacy company Psychedelics Today published a report on trends among people working in the psychedelics industry. They surveyed over 700 people in October 2024 about their roles and career paths. The majority (79%) of respondents were white, and hailed from English-speaking countries, and most (70%) said they had “significant” experience taking psychedelics, though a surprising 4% reported they had no experience with the substances. The vast majority reported they’re relatively new to the field – 75% said they’d been working in the industry for less than 5 years.
Respondents also had varied views on how to regulate psychedelics. Less than half said they supported full legalization (47%) or that recreational or non-medical use should be permitted with no restrictions (46%), suggesting that a majority of people working in the psychedelics industry believe there should be some sort of regulatory guardrails in place. People working in the industry seemed fairly split between part-time work (25%), full-time work (20%), studying or training (30%) and looking for employment (25%). Twenty-one percent reported working in the underground, mostly in a “hybrid” way, where some work was done underground while also working in above-ground spaces. “The continued growth of the underground sector highlights that not all advancements will come through formal, regulated pathways,” Psychedelics Today’s team wrote in their report. “The balance between medicalization, regulation, and underground practices will likely define the next stage of the psychedelic movement, as different regions and sectors approach psychedelics with varying degrees of formality and openness.”
The New York Times reports that Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Health and Human Services Department. Kennedy has previously vowed to champion psychedelics, among other things.
For Texas Law Magazine, 2024 The Ferris-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellow Robin Berghaus surveys the “unusual suspects” now advocating psychedelics, including veterans, Texas legislators, and buttoned up lawyers.
The Guardian profiles a 36-year-old man recovering from ketamine addiction, who wants to warn others about the dangers of ketamine. Under the pseudonym Nick, he says the drug caused his bladder to shrink; he developed ulcers and needed to urinate constantly, which “felt like I was peeing glass.”
Middle-class women are “tripping balls” to improve their mental health, their marriages, and their experience of motherhood. The Free Press asks: “Is this just a hallucinogenic variation on the $2,500 anti-racist dinner party, or the $300 jade vagina egg?”
In Interview Magazine boxer Mike Tyson tells actor Rosie Perez that he has smoked the secretions of the bufo toad some 90 times. “Well, around seven years ago, I tried this spiritual medicine called the toad. You see a toad, you bust its puss, you put it on like a mirror, and it gets hard. You rub it down until it become fine sand, and then you smoke it. Then you meet god,” he says.
Radiolab interviews U.C. Berkeley researcher Gül Dölen about psychedelics’ potential to reopen critical periods.
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