First Participants Enrolled in MDMA-AT for Adjustment Disorder Dyad Study | Sunstone Therapies has enrolled the first patient and caregiver in the first MDMA-assisted therapy trial that treats dyads consisting of a cancer patient and a loved one. (NCT05584826.)
Colorado Governor Appoints Colorado Natural Medicine Advisory Board | The board, which consists of 15 members, will provide input throughout the rules drafting process for Colorado’s psilocybin program. Mason Marks provides a rundown of the appointees over on his Substack, Psychedelic Week.
Oregon yet to Hand out a Psilocybin Licence | Numbers obtained by Psychedelic Alpha reveal that not a single psilocybin licence has been awarded in Oregon, with zero facilitator applications received, and just 7 manufacturer, 3 service centre and 1 laboratory applications in hand.
UC Davis Launches Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics | The institute becomes the latest in a growing crop of research hubs, but interestingly is funded in part by a contribution of c.$5m from the University itself. This sets it apart from the majority of its peers, which are funded primarily via philanthropy. The institute aims to spin out companies and foster close collaboration with pharmaceutical partners via sponsored research agreements and partnering. Delix Therapeutics is the most obvious first partner for the new institute.
Israeli Center for Psychedelic Research Launches | Negev Capital’s incubator, Negev Labs, has provided $1.5m for the establishment of the centre at Hadassah.
“Bad News for Ketamine Telehealth”? | As a waiver to the Ryan Haight Act occasioned by the COVID-19 public health emergency looks set to sunset, where does this leave ketamine telehealth companies? Harris Bricken’s Griffen Thorne takes a look in his latest article.
New Federal Grant Funding for Psilocybin Pilot Study in Canada | CAMH recently announced that Dr. Bernard Le Foll has been awarded a project grant to conduct a pilot study of psilocybin-assisted therapy as a treatment for comorbid major depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder. Earlier in 2022, CAMH received “Canada’s first federal grant to study psilocybin” in a proof-of-concept study that will investigate whether psilocybin’s antidepressant effects were dependent on the drug’s subjective effects.
Numinus Gets Green Light for Psilocybin Tea Trial | Numinus has received a clinical trial application approval from Health Canada to proceed with a Phase 1 open-label trial that will see psilocybin administered to therapists training in psilocybin-assisted therapy. The trial is the first to test whole Psilocybe mushrooms in a clinical setting.
Congressional Research Service Report Discusses Increasingly Divided Federal and State Drug Policy: First Marijuana, Now Psychedelics | Congressional researchers explain that, “there is a growing gulf between federal and state law with respect to Schedule I controlled substances with potential medical benefits”, before citing a raft of local and state-wide psychedelic drug policy reforms (pp39).
Psychedelic Communication Firm Launches | CURA Communications launches as a comms firm “built for clients in the psychedelics sector.” It’s led by Chris Koddemann and has some familiar faces on the founding team like ex-atai VP Comms Camilla Dormer and ex-Numinus May Lee.
Alberta’s Regulation of Psychedelics is Not So Simple… | We took to Twitter to clarify a few things about the province’s regulation of psychedelic drugs, which might not be the success that some psychedelics-related groups have heralded it is. TL;DR: “while these changes demonstrate awareness of psychedelic therapy, and some level of expectation that PAT is coming down the pike, it’s unlikely that they represent any meaningful increase in the accessibility of psychedelic therapy for now.”
Call for Survey Respondents | Ed Prideaux, a Master’s candidate in Psychology and a representative of the HPPD nonprofit the Perception Restoration Foundation, is recruiting participants for questionnaire research.
His new study aims to understand the drivers of distress and quality of life reductions among those with HPPD and post-drug effects. The anonymous survey should take around thirty minutes to complete and is open to anyone who reports the onset of visual and dissociative effects from the use of drugs, though it is especially targeted at those who identify as having HPPD.
