In the world of health and medicine, the news seems to get weirder by the day. A case in point is the recent development in North Carolina, where a House committee approved a bill creating a $5 million grant program to research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and MDMA. Meanwhile, a federal agency announced a whopping $1.5 million in funding to research psychedelics as a treatment for drug addiction. And in Phoenix (everywhere), the psychedelic church has won some major court victories in its quest for legal status. But perhaps the most disturbing news is that a dispensary in Los Angeles is now openly selling “magic mushrooms” as the state considers decriminalization. Everyone, please be careful. It’s getting psychedelic here.
North Carolina House Committee Pushes Bill to Support Adjuvant Psychedelic Therapy
North Carolina House Committees Approve Bill to Create a $5M Grant Program to Support Research into the Therapeutic Potential of Psilocybin and MDMA and Create a Breakthrough Therapeutics Research Advisory Board to Oversee the Project bottom.
House Bill 727
While this action does not legalize psychedelics, it will fund two competitive grants through the State Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for eligible research initiatives focused on “breakthrough therapies.” will provide
Beginning in August 2024, the department will be required to accept grant applications from in-state research and academic institutions that demonstrate their ability to conduct research, including clinical trials, on adults 21 and older. be done.
of Specificationhas now been referred to the House Appropriations Committee before consideration on the floor, stating that “recipients will be required to provide grants for conducting research in this state on the use of one of two psychedelic drugs, MDMA and MDMA. We have to prove that it is used for We are committed to conducting research on psilocybin, and research, to comply with all FDA protocols and all applicable federal laws. “
The grant is intended to fund three years of research, and recipients will submit a report of their findings and recommendations by January 15, 2028 to the Breakthrough Therapeutics Research Advisory Board. Must be submitted to the Department of Health.
The Board is responsible for selecting two grantees and notifying the Joint Legislative Committee of their selection. Each recipient will receive her $2.5 million.
Federal agency announces $1.5 million in funding for psychedelic research to treat drug addiction
NIDA has issued three Notifications of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) for research projects to better understand how drugs like psilocybin and ayahuasca can help people with substance use disorders (SUDs). issued.
The federal health agency is soliciting proposals for a series of research efforts aimed at exploring how psychedelics can be used to treat drug addiction, with $1.5 million to support related research. will provide funding for
As public interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics continues to grow, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) released three notices this week: funding opportunity (NOFO) contributes to research projects to better understand how drugs like psilocybin and ayahuasca can help people with substance use disorders (SUDs).
All three notices focus on the same overall purpose, but one focuses primarily on the actual mechanisms of psychedelics and the other notices the need to be involved in clinical trials in humans. there is.
“Although extensive theoretical frameworks for the mechanisms of psychedelic-induced neurobiological and behavioral changes have recently been proposed, advancing the field requires empirical testing and empirical testing of these comprehensive theoretical frameworks. Improvements are needed,” NIDA said in a notice about one of the clinical trials. chance.
NIDA stressed that studies of this kind need to utilize “modern neuroimaging and behavioral analysis tools” to explain “psychedelic-induced changes.”
With this kind of information, “the field will be better equipped to identify key neuroplastic adaptations that show symptomatic improvement and to design effective psychedelic therapies in the future.”
Nida offered example Here are some questions that we hope to answer with such a study:
- Are specific cognitive structures (eg, cognitive control, social/emotional processing, predictive/sensory processing, interoception) associated with SUD treatment modulated by psychedelics?
- What core changes to neurobiology might these compounds drive to explain their broad clinical potential?
- How do underlying network connections and task-induced activations scale and/or predict the magnitude and duration of observed psychedelic effects?
- What is the role of psychedelic compounds in altering the dynamics of large-scale brain networks and specific circuits? What is the relationship between these alterations and SUD-related behaviors?
- What are the temporal trajectories of psychedelic neurobiological, cognitive, and behavioral effects and the associated dose-response relationships?
- What effects do these compounds have both within the canonical 5HT2 receptor pathway and additional signaling pathways (such as dopaminergic)?
- Can the neuroplasticity effects of psychedelics observed in animal studies be replicated in humans? Are these changes responsible for the long-lasting improvement seen in clinical studies?
For non-clinical studies chanceNIDA states that the “overall goal” is to “develop the molecular, cellular, circuit, and structural underpinnings of the pharmacology of psychedelic compounds to treat substance use disorders (SUDs) and related psychiatric and neurological comorbidities. To elucidate and validate the mechanisms and pathways.” “
NIDA said it plans to distribute four awards totaling $1.5 million in fiscal 2024.
Eligible applicants include universities, non-profit organizations, commercial enterprises, state governments, local governments, and federal agencies.
Phoenix psychedelic church wins court case over legal status
Three years after law enforcement officers raided the home of Phoenix pastor Clay Villanueva, who was soaked in the psychoactive beer known as ayahuasca, his case against the DEA was greenlit for a hearing.
Although he is dead, Villanueva’s Vine of Light Church was once one of several ayahuasca churches in Arizona that is suing the government for legal status. In recent weeks, two of those churches have won court battles over their legal status.
Clay Villanueva administered ayahuasca to his disciples before he died in 2022.Pablo Robles – Image Source: Phoenix Times
On May 4, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that the lawsuit filed by the Church of Villanueva and Tucson and the Arizona Yage Assembly can proceed to trial. In March, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton denied the DEA’s request to dismiss the case by allowing the Eagle and Condor Church of Phoenix to proceed.
Villanueva’s lawsuit, which initially alleges a massive conspiracy between the DEA and local police, has now been narrowed to legal claims. Religious Freedom Restoration Act for AYA. The lawsuit argued that the DEA’s process of granting religious exemptions to the use of ayahuasca was illegal.
If the lawsuit is successful, the church will be immune from federal prosecution.
Los Angeles pharmacy openly sells ‘magic mushrooms’ as state considers decriminalization
SB-58 Controlled Substances: Decriminalization of Certain Hallucinogenic Substances (2023-2024)
As the state legislature considers invoice In an effort to decriminalize some psychedelics, including psilocybin, some companies in the Los Angeles area are openly marketing potent psychedelics. Marijuana is legal statewide, but no Southern California municipality or county has followed Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz to decriminalize magic mushrooms.
As evidence of magic mushrooms’ therapeutic benefits mounts and states such as Oregon and Colorado legalize or decriminalize magic mushrooms, some Democrats in Sacramento are trying to make similar changes in California. .
Senate Bill 58 is currently passing Congress, is intended to eliminate Criminal penalties for possessing, cultivating or sharing small amounts of some psychedelic substances, including psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT.
Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) introduced an earlier version of the bill last year. It was approved by the state Senate, but was “watered down” by the legislature’s Public Safety Committee, he said. never could to the parliamentary floor.
So Wiener and other supporters of the bill are working with law enforcement officials and others to take action against the bill, including removing some synthetics, including LSD and MDMA, from the list of decriminalized drugs. Addressed concerns.
Wiener submitted the latest version of the bill in December. It doesn’t legalize psychedelics. Penalties will still be imposed on their sale. The bill is currently on the floor of the Senate. If passed there, it would be sent to Congress, but Wiener said the new bill “isn’t guaranteed to pass, but there are ways to pass it.”
However, local pharmacy owners and employees are frequently arrested for selling mushrooms, psilocybin products, and other illegal drugs.
April 2022, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted In the past six months, the county has arrested 277 people and taken “about 4,000 pounds of marijuana, 3,300 pounds of edible marijuana, 29 pounds of mushrooms, and 1,000 pounds of marijuana” from “illegal marijuana dispensaries” in unincorporated areas of the county. of fentanyl” was seized.
Derricks Therapeutics Initiates Clinical Trials of Non-Psychiatric Psychiatric Agents Based on University of California, Davis Research
Delix Therapeutics co-founder David Olson draws chemical structures in draft.
Derricks Therapeutics
Derricks Therapeutics, a Boston, Massachusetts-based neuroscience company, has received approval for a Phase I clinical trial investigating DLX-001, a novel non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogen.
The company announced regulatory approval for the study on Tuesday and plans to enroll 100 healthy volunteers in trials at its Center for Human Drug Research in the Netherlands.
The primary objectives of this trial are to assess markers of compound safety, pharmacokinetics, psychometric function, synaptic plasticity and brain activity. The company has not disclosed when the trial will begin.
Psychoplastogens are a class of compounds that, like many hallucinogens with similar properties, may promote neuroplasticity in the brain, but without causing psychoactive effects or altered consciousness in the user. Specially designed to enhance brain function.
DLX-001 is the first approved psychoplastogen from the Delix platform and is based on the research of the company’s co-founder David E. Olson.
His work at the University of California, Davis led to the discovery of psychoplastogens with great therapeutic potential in preclinical models.
University of California, Davis EstablishIhut The Psychedelic and Neurotherapy Institute was established in February to promote safe and effective treatments for diseases such as depression, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, substance use disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.
